Lost in Las Vegas
Yesterday was a particularly trying day for my friend, Todd, and I. Well. . . more for Todd than I, but I really felt his pain. As some may know, he's off in Las Vegas for a few months for his job as a Consultant. He's trying to get this one Branch up and running for his company. He's been there for just over a month now and has been staying in a hotel all this time. They gave him a company truck to drive (2007 Chevy Tahoe). And all has been okay except that a) he's not a gambler. In fact, he's really bad at it. and b) he's a long way from home with no friends or family there, so he gets a little lonesome every now and then. Basically, he hasn't been enjoying it too much. Now after yesterday. . . he's ready to come home for good.
He got a phone call yesterday morning from the daughter of a friend of his that he's known for 25 years, Ernie. Ernie has died. He was older and had been battling cancer and the cancer finally won. We tried to stop by and see Ernie when Todd was home last month, but Ernie wasn't feeling too well even then, so we passed and said we'd come see him in February when he comes back. (He's due to fly in this Wednesday night for the weekend)
Anyway, as he's on the phone with her reeling from the news of the death of his longtime friend, he felt the urge for a cigarette. He walks out to his truck. . . and there's no truck. It was GONE! Just disappeared. "Welcome to Las Vegas!"
Now having your vehicle stolen isn't the WORST thing in the world if you really think about it. EXCEPT. . . Todd kept EVERYTHING in his truck. He always has. That's why he had to walk out to his truck to get his cigarettes. Everything is in there always. His "man purse" as I joke him that has his drivers license, ATM card, credit cards, checks, all of his personal papers since he's traveling and has no place to really call home. These crooks hit the jackpot! This and most of his clothes. He apparently didn't feel it necessary to bring all of that into the hotel room.
Me - I pay his bills for him cuz they come to his house across the street, so I at least had his account numbers and could give him phone numbers to call to cancel his cards. But one card beat him to the punch. They called him telling him that there was an unusual amount of activity on this particular card. . . at 4am. The credit card company was on the ball. Yay!
So basically, he's got $66 in his pocket and a couple of changes of clothes and his toothbrush and razor. (Well now it's $66 minus a twelve-pack of beer and whatever he bought for dinner.) He has no ID whatsoever. As it stands at this very minute, he's far away from home. He has no ID to get on the plane on Wednesday. He can't rent a car because he has no drivers license. The hotel he's in couldn't charge his room for last night because the card had been frozen. He talked to them and he has to bring in either a company credit card or a company check to pay for his room last night and the next couple of nights. He's LOST in Las Vegas. And the cops couldn't care less. They're just like "Get in line buddy."
As we were back and forth on the phone taking care of business and feeling lost and helpless, he casually mentioned something about OnStar in his truck. Me - "You have OnStar!!!??" He - "Well, I don't know. It's in the truck, but I don't know if it's activated. I've never used it." Me - "Well, let's just think about this. Your company bought you a truck and they've never even met you. Don't you think they would activate it just in case you decided to take off with it?" Duh! Anyway, I was immediately online looking up OnStar. Yes - they wanted an account number (which we didn't have), but I gave him the phone number to call and told him to tell them the VIN number. Surely that would work!
And it DID! Good grief! If he'd have told me that four hours earlier, we'd have been hot on their trail. It turns out that this new technology, OnStar, is the bomb-diggity! It is AWESOME! They immediately said they'd start tracking the signal and send one of Las Vegas' finest to get the vehicle. And two hours later, he got the call. They had found it in an apartment complex parking lot. No one was in it, so they didn't catch the bad guys. But at least he had a vehicle.
They'd trashed it of course and nothing was left in it except a few receipts where they had bought stuff with HIS money and some flowers (weird!). I guess the crook was going to take his girlfriend some flowers since he'd been out all night STEALING CARS. And they had torn out the speaker of the OnStar thing. I suppose they thought they were disabling it. But NOOOOOOO! That deal works like a champ.
He was happy to get the truck back, but still no ID. He's still got a lot to straighten out. All of his accounts have been frozen so he can't even get money for himself. (Oh - and get this - there was an extra set of keys to the truck in his little "man purse", so the crooks could come back and steal it again if they so choose.) He's got to figure out a way to get some form of ID. He's got to talk to his home office. He's ready to quit. He hates the traveling so bad. He said that the money is not worth all of it. He'd rather come home and bag groceries, he said. He's just emotional right now. He'll calm down once everything gets straightened out. But that's going to take awhile, it looks like.
Anyway, we learned some valuable lessons this weekend. Mo probably knows all of this having a cop for a husband, but for naive folks like us. . . well, we had no idea.
First off - know your VIN number on your vehicle. It's on your registration, but we keep that in the glove box of the car. He was lucky since it was a company truck, they had that information at his office. He called the main dude at that office and had him go get it and call him with that number because the police couldn't do anything without it. So - keep your VIN number some place where you know you can access it in cases of emergencies.
Second - Keep all of your account numbers and emergency phone numbers in a safe place where you can access them in case of emergencies. Luckily, this time, he had me.
Third - Don' leave everything you own in your car. For some reason, he thought it was safer there than in the hotel room where the maids could get at it. Most hotels have safes in the rooms.
Fourth - If, for God's sake, you have OnStar. . . USE IT!
And Fifth - Don't ever think "Oh that will never happen to me." Because just when you least expect it, it will.
This will probably be an ongoing story. There's still so much to more to work out. Stay tuned.
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