Not sure what to call this thread - perhaps Missing Items

[wieslaw]

Hi,

 

I wish I knew what happened with some of the items from my wife’s large purse – were they stolen ? or lost ? or misplaced someplace ? Probably I will never know.

 

I am writing and posting this so maybe someone will learn something from our mistake and avoid similar misfortune.

 

Last Sunday ( Dec 8, 2013) early in the morning we were getting ready to leave the FOS, after a very enjoyable cruise. The bags were packed and everyplace was checked in the cabin to make sure nothing of ours was left behind. We opened the safe and took out everything what was in there during the cruise for safe keeping. I placed our passports in my shirt pocket, my wallet in another pocket and wife put her wallet with some money and some documents ( driver license, medicare, medical /dental insurance cards) in a large purse that also contained some other items ( plastic bag with all the items that TSA wants to see, some clothes items and a small cloth bag with some of the make up items).

 

We left the large purse with the other bags and went to Windjammer. On the way out of the cabin I placed the “do not disturb “ little card in the slot of the door lock.

 

We had breakfast and maybe 30 or 40 minutes later we returned to the cabin. We took our belongings, left the cabin, hugged our cabin attendant and left the ship.

 

There was a ride in the shuttle to the car rental agency , a ride in the rental car to MCO ( with a quick stop at the gas station), return of rental car and a check of the car to make sure nothing was left behind.

 

Next was the checking of luggage at the Southwest counter, security check by the TSA and a long wait at gate 128 . When we were at the gate 128, wife put her large purse in one of our carry on bags.

 

We arrived safely at our destination and went home. Next day wife started unpacking our luggage. When she unpacked her large purse, she noticed her wallet, the small cloth bag with makeup items were not there. We looked again and again at all of the items unpacked and the missing items were not found.

 

I called RCI lost and found, called MCO lost and found and called and filled report with Southwest lost and found. Called rental company. Nothing was found.

 

So what happened ? Where did the missing items go ? Did we loose them some place ? I do not know.

 

Perhaps we made a mistake by emptying the safe too early and leaving the purse in the cabin. I do not know if anyone entered the cabin when we were gone to breakfast. ….. but if someone did the purse would have been an easy target. Can not even think that the cabin attendant was evolved – she gave us a big hug on the way out. But I cannot figure out how the items become missing in any other ways except someone remove them from the purse. The purse was with us and never left unateded from the time we left the cabin, ( except during the xray by TSA ) .

 

Next time we will be more careful and keep the safe locked until the last moment .

 

Perhaps this could be an advice for everyone else – do not leave any valuables unattended or unlocked. Keep what you value in the safe or take it with you.

 

The money ( about 250 dol) I can understand that someone would want that .... but the documents and the bag with make up items ? who would want that. It just does not make sense - I do not see how we could loose just portion of the contents of the bag ...... but I also can not understand why someone would want items with no value to them.

 

We are in a process of getting the lost / missing documents.

[Scrapnana]

Sometimes the doors are left open when the stewards are working in an area. A light fingered guest could have wandered by and helped himself/herself. Last cruise we were told to take everything with us when we went to breakfast because they would start on our cabins as soon as we left.

 

Sorry you had this happen.

[Sweet on the sea]

On the last morning I always take everything with me and don't go back to the room. I figure that they are so busy that morning and want to get everything done as early as possible.

Thanks for letting us know, it may save someone else from losing things.

[wieslaw]

But the cabin was still locked when we got back from Windjammer and no one was cleaning it yet. But yes , now looking back I do see that we made a mistake by leaving the purse in the cabin.

Edited December 12, 2013 by wieslaw

[Sweet on the sea]

Actually it could even be the person who checks the mini bar?

[susie8862]

Actually it could even be the person who checks the mini bar?

I believe the mini bars are locked by your room attendant the "night before".....they have to tally up your bill.

 

OP....wow. Very disturbing and sorry this happened to you.

[Clarea]

I believe the mini bars are locked by your room attendant the "night before".....they have to tally up your bill.

 

OP....wow. Very disturbing and sorry this happened to you.

That's not been my experience. Our mini bar has never been locked, and we get charges all the time after we leave the ship. I believe it's bar staff that monitor and re-stock the mni bar.

Edited December 12, 2013 by clarea

[micmacmissy]

I think more likely it happened at the airport. So many opportunities for thieves/pickpockets to reach into a purse and easily pull something out.

 

Sorry that happened to you.

[sleepless]

I believe the mini bars are locked by your room attendant the "night before".....they have to tally up your bill.

 

OP....wow. Very disturbing and sorry this happened to you.

 

This has not been my experience. Several times we have had room service the last night of the cruise. When we do, we always purchase a coke from the mini bar. It does show up on our final charge when we receive our charge account. Perhaps, it is locked if you have a "cash account" with RCI.

[pe4all]

Just reading this gave me a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Once I clean out our room safe, my (small) pocketbook never leaves my shoulder. Terrible way to end your cruise. Hopefully you will receive the wallet back in the mail, or a phone call saying someone found it. It is the holiday season - perhaps there is a good Samaritan somewhere who will return it. And if not, hoping Santa leaves some coal in the stocking of whoever may have taken the wallet and makeup bag. (perhaps someone thought there was jewelry in the bag) Good luck!

[north29]

Here is our story, wife packed several pieces of not tooooo expensive jewelry in the outside pocket of a suit case. When it came to our room/cabin it was not there. Fast forward 4 years to now, I was getting our christmas stuff from the attic, saw a small jewelry case on the floor of the attic. opened it an yes it was her jewelry. We have now idea how it got to the attic, we keep suit cases in a home closet.

 

Sorry, about your loss, it is always a lousy/violated, feeling to lose something in such a manner especially after a great getaway.

[jmf123]

I think more likely it happened at the airport. So many opportunities for thieves/pickpockets to reach into a purse and easily pull something out.

 

Sorry that happened to you.

 

Regarding the airport and TSA, I would recommend always checking your bag (purse, carry-on) for important items both before and after it has been screened. Just a quick glance to see your wallet or a jewelry bag, etc. I am very sorry that this happened to you, wieslaw. You appear to be a very careful and meticulous individual.

 

north 29, that is a spooky story- but glad that the jewelry was found!

[CVU]

That's not been my experience. Our mini bar has never been locked, and we get charges all the time after we leave the ship. I believe it's bar staff that monitor and re-stock the mni bar.

 

That is why we empty it or have it emptied every cruise. Had charges after we got home..... Also so we have room then for anything we want to put in there.:)

[wieslaw]

Actually it could even be the person who checks the mini bar?

 

Hi, thank you for the suggestion.

in some cases that might be true ....... but not in ours.

The person that checks the mini bar showed up before we went to Windjammer.

At that time the wallet was still in the locked safe.

The person had a clipboard in his hand and after checking the minibar, he left with that clipboard and nothing of ours - I was there watching.

[tlatrice]

Wow. I'm so sorry to hear this. But it was probably some one at the airport. You siad she put the purse in the carryon at the gate, after you'd gone through security.

 

My job has a lot of international travellers and we just had a safety reminder about airport safety. An employee had his laptop stolen at a TSA checkpoint. He put his laptop on the conveyor belt, but it went through the scanner before he got through the metal detector. When he came through it wasn't there.

 

The TSA agents are not keeping track of who put what on the belt. They are assuming that people will be honest and pick up THEIR stuff only.

 

Again, sorry to hear such a sad end to a vacation.

[wieslaw]

Here is our story, wife packed several pieces of not tooooo expensive jewelry in the outside pocket of a suit case. When it came to our room/cabin it was not there. Fast forward 4 years to now, I was getting our christmas stuff from the attic, saw a small jewelry case on the floor of the attic. opened it an yes it was her jewelry. We have now idea how it got to the attic, we keep suit cases in a home closet.

 

Sorry, about your loss, it is always a lousy/violated, feeling to lose something in such a manner especially after a great getaway.

 

Hi north29,

strange and a little funny story ....... and I can understand that it happens.

Wife and I are over the hill youngsters, and sometimes the brain does not send the proper signals to the mind.

Sometimes I look for the eye glasses, that I just left them someplace few moments ago. Once I found something in the freezer that for sure did not belong there - not sure who was the one that put it there.

So maybe the missing staff will magically be discovered somewhere in the house ........ I hope ...... but very unlikely.

 

During the meantime we went to get a duplicate driver licence, called to get new insurance cards, just got back from social security office ( what a strange crowd was there ) to get the Medicare card.

 

Now what worries me the most is the possibility of identity theft: the DL has the name and birth day, the Medicare card has the SS number - that is all that is needed to open all sorts of accounts.

I will be calling : equifax , experian and transunion to let them know what happened.

 

BTW - how was your cruise , probably we have seen each other there someplace.

[ksuds]

My feeling is that it went missing at the airport. To the staff on the ship, this is their life, and I don't think they would risk losing their job over a couple hundred dollars. At least I'd like to believe that wouldn't happen.

 

We typically leave things of value out the entire cruise and have never (knock on wood) had anything disappear.

[MermaidWatcher]

The cruise line should easily be able to verify if anyone entered your cabin, since the hallways are monitored by security cameras. This is more an issue of willingness to cooperate or not, than a we have no way of knowing issue. Sorry to hear of this. Pure speculation on my part, but I doubt it was a ship employee as I think these jobs that allow them to make a much higher salary than they would working at home are too highly prized for them to willingly get fired. They are well aware of the fact that all the public areas of the ship are under surveillance.

We have left cameras and laptops out and charging, a few pieces of inexpensive jewelry, and even some small quantities of money around, and never had any problems.

Edited December 12, 2013 by MermaidWatcher

[WetToes]

We too leave somewhat valuable items out in the cabin, no problems. Anything of great value is not left out on display, ... because of the doors being left open while cleaning.

Twice we've 'missed' items.

Nothing of any value. One was ear medication. Found it 6/7 months later, mixed in with the sunscreen.

The other was DH's glasses. Found them 5 months later, mixed in with my sunglass 'collection'.

Hope you have the same luck. :)

[Tucker in Texas]

 

My job has a lot of international travellers and we just had a safety reminder about airport safety. An employee had his laptop stolen at a TSA checkpoint. He put his laptop on the conveyor belt, but it went through the scanner before he got through the metal detector. When he came through it wasn't there.

 

The TSA agents are not keeping track of who put what on the belt. They are assuming that people will be honest and pick up THEIR stuff only.

 

 

While this won't be useful to a single traveler, when we travel as a couple, I go through first and DH, graciously, lets the person behind me go ahead of him and then puts the stuff on the belt. I am on the other side and can retrieve it.

 

Tucker in Texas

[wieslaw]

Wow. I'm so sorry to hear this. But it was probably some one at the airport. You siad she put the purse in the carryon at the gate, after you'd gone through security.

 

My job has a lot of international travellers and we just had a safety reminder about airport safety. An employee had his laptop stolen at a TSA checkpoint. He put his laptop on the conveyor belt, but it went through the scanner before he got through the metal detector. When he came through it wasn't there.

 

The TSA agents are not keeping track of who put what on the belt. They are assuming that people will be honest and pick up THEIR stuff only.

 

Again, sorry to hear such a sad end to a vacation.

 

Hi,

thank you for helpful suggestions that might help to figure out what really happened.

 

Yes, I do agree with you that the possibility that you described is real ...... but it did not happen in our case ...... I will explain why not.

 

After check in of the bigger luggage we went to the very long lines for the TSA security check.

All the lines were long with probably hundreds of people standing in them.

When we got to the TSA agent that checks the boarding pass and picture ID, he informed us that our boarding passes from Southwest were "TSA PRE ", I did not know what that meant. so he explained that we can / may go to the very first line on his right ( with nobody in that line even standing) ...... so we did. Nobody in front of us , no one behind us. Just the TSA agents.

Wife took out the plastic bag with some of the liquids from her large purse, and put the purse and the plastic bag in one of the plastic trays and it went through the xray machine, followed by our two carry on bags. They even told us to leave the shoes on, ..... and even my pants belt on ( which made me happy - not much fun when you loose your pants walking through the metal checking gate or the low dosoge body xray ...... hands go up - pants go down ).

So with no one in front and no one behind us the passibility of someone else getting or taken the purse were eliminated.

 

Wife put the purse in the carry on bag ( actually I helped with that) while we were waiting at gate 128. I / we did not see anything that came out of the bag. She also did not check the bag what was or was not in it

We were early and there was some time to wait. There was no need for the large purse anymore - it was used mostly for convinience during the TSA check ....... easy to get the liquid bag out.

At no time the bags were left by themself - either wife or I were watching them.

Edited December 12, 2013 by wieslaw

[wieslaw]

Just reading this gave me a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Once I clean out our room safe, my (small) pocketbook never leaves my shoulder. Terrible way to end your cruise. Hopefully you will receive the wallet back in the mail, or a phone call saying someone found it. It is the holiday season - perhaps there is a good Samaritan somewhere who will return it. And if not, hoping Santa leaves some coal in the stocking of whoever may have taken the wallet and makeup bag. (perhaps someone thought there was jewelry in the bag) Good luck!

 

Hi,

 

Thank you every body for reading my thread and for the suggestions and good wishes.

 

I do have a happy update:

 

I just received a phone call from Alamo car rental company from Tampa airport, I was told that they have my wife's missing items in their lost and found department. Everything ( except the money ) that was missing they have. They will send us a package to our home address.

 

I do not know who and where found our staff. I returned the car at the Orlando airport on Sunday ( Dec 8th). I and wife both checked the car and evidently we did not see our items. It was a little dark in the garage in the return area ....... but that is no excuse, we goofed.

 

I called the Alamo in Orlando airport on Monday and inquired about the missing items - they did not have them.

 

Tonight, 4 days later someone found our staff and turned in to the Alamo lost and found in Tampa airport.

Wife did put our names, phone number and address on a piece of paper that was included in the small bag - probably that was a big help in locating us.

 

So now I know when and where we goofed.

 

Thank you all and I wish a happy holiday season to all.

 

I guess I am not too old to learn something new : check the rental car more throughly and do not leave anything valuable in a cabin on the last morning, that is not secured in some way.

Edited December 13, 2013 by wieslaw

[Familygoboston]

Don't be so hard on yourselves- since the money is missing you could have been victimized by a pick pocket- they can be very insidious! Then days later the same crew either dumped your stuff, or it was dumped immediately but not discovered right away.

Another thought is a second renter found your stuff, took the cash, but played nice guy returning the items. Or the staff recovered them while cleaning, took the " tip" you left and turned the remainder over to the lost and found.

It was very kind of the rental car people to call you so late in the day.

[WetToes]

Yay! OP - Love a happy ending. :)

[drarill]

Hi,

 

Thank you every body for reading my thread and for the suggestions and good wishes.

 

I do have a happy update:

 

I just received a phone call from Alamo car rental company from Tampa airport, I was told that they have my wife's missing items in their lost and found department. Everything ( except the money ) that was missing they have. They will send us a package to our home address.

 

I do not know who and where found our staff. I returned the car at the Orlando airport on Sunday ( Dec 8th). I and wife both checked the car and evidently we did not see our items. It was a little dark in the garage in the return area ....... but that is no excuse, we goofed.

 

I called the Alamo in Orlando airport on Monday and inquired about the missing items - they did not have them.

 

Tonight, 4 days later someone found our staff and turned in to the Alamo lost and found in Tampa airport.

Wife did put our names, phone number and address on a piece of paper that was included in the small bag - probably that was a big help in locating us.

 

So now I know when and where we goofed.

 

Thank you all and I wish a happy holiday season to all.

 

I guess I am not too old to learn something new : check the rental car more throughly and do not leave anything valuable in a cabin on the last morning, that is not secured in some way.

 

I also love a happy ending!! Thanks for the update, good to know that it wasn't stolen on the ship!:)