puddlejumper
Unemployed /Contract User
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2001
- Posts
- 305
Hey everybody. I just wanted to share my experience with you all. I was at a decent Hilton Garden Inn in Seacaucus, NJ (near TEB) and had my laptop stolen. I wanted to remind everyone to be careful and not take anything for granted. It has always been fairly typical for me to bring my bags down to the breakfast area after checking out of a hotel. Most Hiltons have someone serving coffee, but this one didn't. The waitress took the food order, but I had to go up to the buffet area for the java. I normally wouldn't think anything of leaving my stuff at the table for a minute, but this past Saturday morning, that was a bad idea.
These guys came in and sat down at a table near me. The table wasn't cleaned up yet, so that was a little weird. One dude put his jacket over the back of a chair nearest my table. There were lots of other patrons nearby. When I came back from getting a refill, my laptop bag was gone and so were the three guys. Apparently, they stuck my bag under the jacket and took off, nearly knocking over another patron. The Jet Aviation van driver was outside and saw the guy running off with a jacket concealing something but had no idea what was going on. By the time I got back and saw my bag was gone, the had a good 2 minute headstart.
Anyway, I asked around, called the police and the hotel manager, the driver and a couple others had a decent description of the guy for the officer. There's no way I'll be seeing that laptop ever again. I changed all of my passwords of accounts they could have accessed on my computer and filed a homeowner's insurance claim.
My logbook was on there (Logbook Pro) and my backup thumbdrive was in the bag too! I just recently bought a new battery, hard drive and ram upgrade, dumping like $400 into this 2 1/2 year old laptop. Ugh!
Moral of the story... Be careful with your valuables. I know I will be more cognizant of my surroundings and never leave my stuff somewhere that it could be stolen. Jet actually told me that this has happened in the past. Most likely it will happen again. Be careful out there!
-PJ
These guys came in and sat down at a table near me. The table wasn't cleaned up yet, so that was a little weird. One dude put his jacket over the back of a chair nearest my table. There were lots of other patrons nearby. When I came back from getting a refill, my laptop bag was gone and so were the three guys. Apparently, they stuck my bag under the jacket and took off, nearly knocking over another patron. The Jet Aviation van driver was outside and saw the guy running off with a jacket concealing something but had no idea what was going on. By the time I got back and saw my bag was gone, the had a good 2 minute headstart.
Anyway, I asked around, called the police and the hotel manager, the driver and a couple others had a decent description of the guy for the officer. There's no way I'll be seeing that laptop ever again. I changed all of my passwords of accounts they could have accessed on my computer and filed a homeowner's insurance claim.
My logbook was on there (Logbook Pro) and my backup thumbdrive was in the bag too! I just recently bought a new battery, hard drive and ram upgrade, dumping like $400 into this 2 1/2 year old laptop. Ugh!
Moral of the story... Be careful with your valuables. I know I will be more cognizant of my surroundings and never leave my stuff somewhere that it could be stolen. Jet actually told me that this has happened in the past. Most likely it will happen again. Be careful out there!
-PJ
