Dear Reader,
Welcome back!
This incident happened to me about a couple years back. I was travelling to Atlanta from India. It was a long flight and I had a change over at Frankfurt. It took me almost 22 hours to reach Atlanta from Bangalore. It was Friday evening around 3 pm when I reached Atlanta.
After completing the Visa formalities, I took a cab from the Taxi stand. I was helped in by the driver. He was a middle aged man with a round face and a nice smile. He had a heavy English accent and seemed from the middle east. He helped me keep all my luggage in and started the cab.
My destination was the Hyatt Hotel in Cobb county which was a good 30 miles away. It was the month of October and it was quite cool and a nice breeze was blowing outside. Atlanta is a very beautiful city. It has a very good green cover. The roads are surrounded by big trees on both sides. Atlanta is just 4 hours drive away from Florida and it gets heavy rains throughout the year.
As we were headed to the hotel, I picked up conversation with the driver. I checked which place he was from. He answered that he was from Lebanon. He said he was staying in Atlanta since last 5 years with his wife and two kids. I asked where he was headed and he said he would be going home to Stone Mountain after he dropped me.
We chatted for a while and after sometime he noticed that there were two or three hotel Hyatts in the same area and he was not sure which one was the right one. Luckily, I had taken down the address of the hotel before leaving Bangalore. I gave him the address. Unfortunately, the address of the hotel was not showing up in his GPS. So, I gave him the hotel number so he could check with them,since I had just landed I did not have US Sim card.
He called up the hotel and they guided him. Apparently, the hotel website was outdated and the Pin code mentioned there was incorrect. After about 1 hour of our journey from the airport, we spotted a Hyatt hotel from a little distance. The driver was still not very sure and he said he will drive down to the hotel.
On reaching the drive way, I asked the driver to wait in the car and I would go and check at the reception. The receptionist, greeted me and confirmed the hotel booking. I came out to the drive. By then, the driver had pulled over to the side and taken out my luggage. He got his card machine and asked me to enter the amount. The bill was around 75$ and I paid him. Just as I paid my payment, the driver looked like he was in a bit of hurry and without any further notice jumped in his car and started off. I needed the car's number for my company's bill expense reimbursement. So, I noted the number on the back of his car in my phone.
It took me about 5 seconds to realize that although he had taken out my two suitcases, my laptop bag was still inside the car. By the time I realized this. the driver had sped off. I looked on in utter shock.
I headed straight to the reception and explained them what had happened. They asked what were the contents of the bag. I told them it had my company ID card, my passport, an I-Pad, a Laptop and other company documents. It pretty much had everything that was extremely important to me. This was the one bag which I simple could not lose.
After all the long travel, I was expecting to freshen up in the hotel room, have dinner and just sleep. And, here I was dealing with a utterly harrowing experience. I told myself that I had to remain calm and gathered my wits back.
I started recalling the chain of events which had led to this situation. I remembered that the cab driver had called the hotel. So, I requested them to check their call logs so that we could get his number and call him back. I requested them to check all the call that were made to them in the last half an hour. The receptionist checked the call logs and told me that none of the numbers on the logs were from the cab driver. I asked them to double check. That is when they realized that there were two landline phones. One of them did not have the caller log. So, this option was out of the window.
I went outside to the drive way and saw that there was a camera outside. Immediately, I went to the hotel manager and asked him to check the video tape. We went inside the video control room and checked the video footage. It showed a yellow cab. But, when we tried to zoom on the car's registration on the side of the car near the doors it got blurred. It seemed that the video camera's zoom was of a very low resolution and was not very useful in this case.
Although, we could not locate the taxi's registration number, I was happy that we could spot the taxi's company. It was a Yellow cab. I remembered the number which I had noted and gave it to the hotel manager.The hotel Manager immediately called the Yellow cab service and alerted them. The Taxi company issued a wireless message to all it's drivers informing them of a laptop bag and to return it to the Hyatt hotel in Cobb County. But, they told me that they could not locate a car with the number I had given them in their system.
The Manager said it would take some time and was very kind to me. He gave me the hotel room keys and asked me to freshen up. He said he will inform me in case he gets back some information. I thanked him and went to my room. I was still very tense. I washed my face, placed my luggage and using the hotel internet informed my family that I had reached Atlanta safely. I dared not to tell them of what had happened. My parents both are heart patients and I did not want to scare them.
After waiting for about half an hour, I felt something was wrong and decided to go and check with the reception again. The hotel manager said he had not yet heard back from the Taxi service and he called them up again. The Taxi service just issues another notice to it's drivers. This time I remembered that the cab driver was heading to Stone Mountain. So, they issued this message to all drivers who were heading to Stone Mountain. Stone Mountain is a good hour and half's drive away from the hotel. So, the cab driver must still be on his way there.
By this time it was almost 6.30 pm in the evening. Some of my other colleagues who were also staying in the hotel were just returning. I told them about what had happened. They told me that Monday was Columbus day and most of them were going on vacation during the long weekend. One of them gave me their phone so I could make any calls.
This is when I became really nervous. Since, if I was not able to get my bag back by today there would be a long weekend in between and it may become very difficult to get back the bag after that. Since, it was possible that someone might just sneak it in from the cab.
Suddenly, I remembered that I had paid the driver using my card. So, I would have got an email alert. Sure enough when I checked my mail it had a receipt from the driver asking for feedback :-)
I noted the name on the receipt and called the Taxi service. Unfortunately they told me that they track the driver's by their names. I was very disappointed and started becoming very tense.
I called up my senior manager in Atlanta and explained him everything. He asked me to call the Police without further delays. So, I called 911 immediately. By this time it was almost 8 pm. I had not ate or slept very well in the flight and now I was starting to feel faint.
I waited for the cops to come in the hotel lobby. After about thirty minutes, a police car pulled over and two cops came out. I went straight ahead and greeted them. I explained them why I had called them and gave them all the relevant information. They went back to their car and after some discussion came back. They told me that they had found the driver and called him. They asked me to speak with the driver. I talked to the driver and he was looking very nervous. He said he did not know if any laptop bag. When I talked to him little sternly, he accepted that he had the bag in his car. After a little more discussion, he agreed to come and return it on the same night.
The cops informed me that in Atlanta, the taxis have different numbers on the number plate than the numbers on their doors. The taxi services could not locate this car because they only track the four digit number on the doors. Also, the name which I had got in my mail was not the correct spelling of the cab driver. Few of the alphabets were mangled.
I thanked the cops with all my heart. They gave me their phone number just in case the cab driver did not turn up. The driver came down after another two hours. By this time it was almost 11 pm in the night. I thanked him and paid him a good tip and got all my stuff back.
Even today, this incident reminds me to be extra careful with my luggage especially when it contains something as precious as my Passport. I thank God and all the people who came to my help.
With Love,
Gunjan.
Welcome back!
This incident happened to me about a couple years back. I was travelling to Atlanta from India. It was a long flight and I had a change over at Frankfurt. It took me almost 22 hours to reach Atlanta from Bangalore. It was Friday evening around 3 pm when I reached Atlanta.
After completing the Visa formalities, I took a cab from the Taxi stand. I was helped in by the driver. He was a middle aged man with a round face and a nice smile. He had a heavy English accent and seemed from the middle east. He helped me keep all my luggage in and started the cab.
My destination was the Hyatt Hotel in Cobb county which was a good 30 miles away. It was the month of October and it was quite cool and a nice breeze was blowing outside. Atlanta is a very beautiful city. It has a very good green cover. The roads are surrounded by big trees on both sides. Atlanta is just 4 hours drive away from Florida and it gets heavy rains throughout the year.
As we were headed to the hotel, I picked up conversation with the driver. I checked which place he was from. He answered that he was from Lebanon. He said he was staying in Atlanta since last 5 years with his wife and two kids. I asked where he was headed and he said he would be going home to Stone Mountain after he dropped me.
We chatted for a while and after sometime he noticed that there were two or three hotel Hyatts in the same area and he was not sure which one was the right one. Luckily, I had taken down the address of the hotel before leaving Bangalore. I gave him the address. Unfortunately, the address of the hotel was not showing up in his GPS. So, I gave him the hotel number so he could check with them,since I had just landed I did not have US Sim card.
He called up the hotel and they guided him. Apparently, the hotel website was outdated and the Pin code mentioned there was incorrect. After about 1 hour of our journey from the airport, we spotted a Hyatt hotel from a little distance. The driver was still not very sure and he said he will drive down to the hotel.
On reaching the drive way, I asked the driver to wait in the car and I would go and check at the reception. The receptionist, greeted me and confirmed the hotel booking. I came out to the drive. By then, the driver had pulled over to the side and taken out my luggage. He got his card machine and asked me to enter the amount. The bill was around 75$ and I paid him. Just as I paid my payment, the driver looked like he was in a bit of hurry and without any further notice jumped in his car and started off. I needed the car's number for my company's bill expense reimbursement. So, I noted the number on the back of his car in my phone.
It took me about 5 seconds to realize that although he had taken out my two suitcases, my laptop bag was still inside the car. By the time I realized this. the driver had sped off. I looked on in utter shock.
I headed straight to the reception and explained them what had happened. They asked what were the contents of the bag. I told them it had my company ID card, my passport, an I-Pad, a Laptop and other company documents. It pretty much had everything that was extremely important to me. This was the one bag which I simple could not lose.
After all the long travel, I was expecting to freshen up in the hotel room, have dinner and just sleep. And, here I was dealing with a utterly harrowing experience. I told myself that I had to remain calm and gathered my wits back.
I started recalling the chain of events which had led to this situation. I remembered that the cab driver had called the hotel. So, I requested them to check their call logs so that we could get his number and call him back. I requested them to check all the call that were made to them in the last half an hour. The receptionist checked the call logs and told me that none of the numbers on the logs were from the cab driver. I asked them to double check. That is when they realized that there were two landline phones. One of them did not have the caller log. So, this option was out of the window.
I went outside to the drive way and saw that there was a camera outside. Immediately, I went to the hotel manager and asked him to check the video tape. We went inside the video control room and checked the video footage. It showed a yellow cab. But, when we tried to zoom on the car's registration on the side of the car near the doors it got blurred. It seemed that the video camera's zoom was of a very low resolution and was not very useful in this case.
Although, we could not locate the taxi's registration number, I was happy that we could spot the taxi's company. It was a Yellow cab. I remembered the number which I had noted and gave it to the hotel manager.The hotel Manager immediately called the Yellow cab service and alerted them. The Taxi company issued a wireless message to all it's drivers informing them of a laptop bag and to return it to the Hyatt hotel in Cobb County. But, they told me that they could not locate a car with the number I had given them in their system.
The Manager said it would take some time and was very kind to me. He gave me the hotel room keys and asked me to freshen up. He said he will inform me in case he gets back some information. I thanked him and went to my room. I was still very tense. I washed my face, placed my luggage and using the hotel internet informed my family that I had reached Atlanta safely. I dared not to tell them of what had happened. My parents both are heart patients and I did not want to scare them.
After waiting for about half an hour, I felt something was wrong and decided to go and check with the reception again. The hotel manager said he had not yet heard back from the Taxi service and he called them up again. The Taxi service just issues another notice to it's drivers. This time I remembered that the cab driver was heading to Stone Mountain. So, they issued this message to all drivers who were heading to Stone Mountain. Stone Mountain is a good hour and half's drive away from the hotel. So, the cab driver must still be on his way there.
By this time it was almost 6.30 pm in the evening. Some of my other colleagues who were also staying in the hotel were just returning. I told them about what had happened. They told me that Monday was Columbus day and most of them were going on vacation during the long weekend. One of them gave me their phone so I could make any calls.
This is when I became really nervous. Since, if I was not able to get my bag back by today there would be a long weekend in between and it may become very difficult to get back the bag after that. Since, it was possible that someone might just sneak it in from the cab.
Suddenly, I remembered that I had paid the driver using my card. So, I would have got an email alert. Sure enough when I checked my mail it had a receipt from the driver asking for feedback :-)
I noted the name on the receipt and called the Taxi service. Unfortunately they told me that they track the driver's by their names. I was very disappointed and started becoming very tense.
I called up my senior manager in Atlanta and explained him everything. He asked me to call the Police without further delays. So, I called 911 immediately. By this time it was almost 8 pm. I had not ate or slept very well in the flight and now I was starting to feel faint.
I waited for the cops to come in the hotel lobby. After about thirty minutes, a police car pulled over and two cops came out. I went straight ahead and greeted them. I explained them why I had called them and gave them all the relevant information. They went back to their car and after some discussion came back. They told me that they had found the driver and called him. They asked me to speak with the driver. I talked to the driver and he was looking very nervous. He said he did not know if any laptop bag. When I talked to him little sternly, he accepted that he had the bag in his car. After a little more discussion, he agreed to come and return it on the same night.
The cops informed me that in Atlanta, the taxis have different numbers on the number plate than the numbers on their doors. The taxi services could not locate this car because they only track the four digit number on the doors. Also, the name which I had got in my mail was not the correct spelling of the cab driver. Few of the alphabets were mangled.
I thanked the cops with all my heart. They gave me their phone number just in case the cab driver did not turn up. The driver came down after another two hours. By this time it was almost 11 pm in the night. I thanked him and paid him a good tip and got all my stuff back.
Even today, this incident reminds me to be extra careful with my luggage especially when it contains something as precious as my Passport. I thank God and all the people who came to my help.
With Love,
Gunjan.
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