Stolen luggage, Arts block

THis past weekend, I was meeting a friend in TCD for coffee before (I had planned), flying out of Dublin. She is a postgrad there, and she has a key for a locker downstairs by the arts cafe, adjacent to where the Mac lab is.

Since my luggage wouldn't fit in her locker with her stuff, I foolishly left my bag in an empty locker, and closed the door, so it looked locked. We were just meeting there to grab coffee before departing, and were having coffee right beside the locker area, although I did go outside for a smoke.

You can guess what happened. As has been repeatedly pointed out to me by everyone in security, yes, I was stupid to leave my bag unattended. I just figured that there were so many other bags there, and this one was out of sight, and we were next door anyway, nobody would take it. It only had clothes. Worse, my clothes, mostly from Gap! Who steals Gap?

40 minutes later, I get back, bag gone. Security didn't take it, it seems someone walked away with it. I can't imagine why anyone stole this bag, even the bag itself is about 10 years old and isn't some fancy luggage case.

The thing is , I am quite attached to some of those clothes. There are some things in there which are of no commercial value, but were bought for me by friends, or just have sentimental value for other reasons. I am sure they were just dumped somewhere, once the thief saw that the bag was full only of clothes, and half-empty cologne. (In fairness, it is nice cologne)

Has this happened to anyone else? Is it worth calling the Gardai? I had to cancel my flights, and have already tried walking around the faculty to see if someone dumped the bag somewhere, but nothing so far.

Tell me how

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Has this happened to anyone else? Is it worth calling the Gardai? I had to cancel my flights, and have already tried walking around the faculty to see if someone dumped the bag somewhere, but nothing so far.

Can't see any point in contacting Gardai.

• Unattended bag.
• No major items of individual high value.
• Hard to identify personal property.
• Small relative value.

Put it down to experience and carry on.

Not sure why you cancelled flights instead of spending €50-€100 in dunnes for emergency wear.

tough break though. Not a good way to start a holiday.

Tell me how

Tell me how wrote: »

Can't see any point in contacting Gardai.

• Unattended bag.
• No major items of individual high value.
• Hard to identify personal property.
• Small relative value.

Put it down to experience and carry on.

Not sure why you cancelled flights instead of spending €50-€100 in dunnes for emergency wear.

tough break though. Not a good way to start a holiday.

I found replacement flights. Accommodation is free anyway, and this way I am able to go home and repack.

Also, I thought if I hung around, I'd be able to find the bag dumped somewhere since it's of no value to anyone else.

Yeah it's probably not worth calling the Guards to look at the CCTV. Unless on the off-chance it's some local petty criminal known to them, or even a TCD student... it's not a part of the college that drug-addicts stray into. You'd kind of need to know where your going. Even the entrance to the locker area says 'staff only'.

I know the monetary value of my luggage is approximately zero, but that's my point. It's of no use to anyone, but for me to replace 30% of my casual trousers, casual shirts, tee shirts and cologne etc isn't cheap.

I don't really expect to get my stuff back at this stage, I'm mostly annoyed with the chancer who took it. Even today, there were a few bags left around there. So if anyone is even thinking 'it will be grand', like I did, don't even consider it.

CrankyHaus

I'd mention it to the Gardai in Pearse Street. Stolen bags are commonly left abandoned by the thief with the less valuable and easily fenced items in or around them. If yours pops up they'll know who to call.

Royale with Cheese

I had my dirty clothes nicked out of an unlocked locker in the UCD gym once. Not only was there absolutely nothing of value in there, they actually had to pack my clothes up into my completely empty bag and then take it with them. It's not like they took it and searched the bag later for anything of value. People will nick anything if they think they'll get away with it.

Royale with Cheese

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

I had my dirty clothes nicked out of an unlocked locker in the UCD gym once. Not only was there absolutely nothing of value in there, they actually had to pack my clothes up into my completely empty bag and then take it with them. It's not like they took it and searched the bag later for anything of value. People will nick anything if they think they'll get away with it.

Bizarre.

I'd take the hit on buying replacement clothes, it was my stupidity for leaving the bag there, but there are a few things in there of sentimental value. A "TÁ Comhionannas" tee shirt from the marriage equality campaign, my favourite book with all my annotations/ sticky-notes, etc. Even the bag has been with me around the world. Sounds silly and trivial, but these are things I value more than their worth.

I don't particularly know why I even started this thread. I'm curious as to whether this has happened others, and whether you managed to get it back.

Also, I'm convinced it's been dumped somewhere around TCD.

I find it hard to imagine a petty criminal sitting in College Park reading my notes on The Master and Margarita.

Tell me how

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Bizarre.

I'd take the hit on buying replacement clothes, it was my stupidity for leaving the bag there, but there are a few things in there of sentimental value. A "TÁ Comhionannas" tee shirt from the marriage equality campaign, my favourite book with all my annotations/ sticky-notes, etc. Even the bag has been with me around the world. Sounds silly and trivial, but these are things I value more than their worth.

I don't particularly know why I even started this thread. I'm curious as to whether this has happened others, and whether you managed to get it back.

Also, I'm convinced it's been dumped somewhere around TCD.

I find it hard to imagine a petty criminal sitting in College Park reading my notes on The Master and Margarita.

The above in bold changes things. I would tell the Gardai in this case as you have nothing to lose only time by doing so. Personal belongings can mean an awful lot to us as individuals. You might be lucky and these 'worthless' items are found in a discarded bag.

In terms of getting something back.
Several years ago, a friend had a jacket stolen out of his car when he dropped 5 or 6 lads home after a night out. He asked them individually when he met them (days before mobiles) but all denied it. Over 2 years later, he was in a nightclub when a guy put his jacket on inside out in front of my friend, there written on the label was my friends name (definitely will tell you how long ago this was when we were writing names on items of clothing). The guy who was wearing it got think when he was asked to remove the jacket, he said it wasn't his but he had borrowed it from his housemate. Pretty pointless story other than the element of chance in my friend seeing his name written on the label.

Grolschevik

No practical advice, but was it in the section behind the counter? Does no one work that desk any more?

That general area is very busy these days. Also, they used to have UV lighting in the gents there to make it hard for people shooting up, but not any more.

The Enbalmer

Tell me how wrote:

The above in bold changes things. I would tell the Gardai in this case as you have nothing to lose only time by doing so. Personal belongings can mean an awful lot to us as individuals. You might be lucky and these 'worthless' items are found in a discarded bag.

Yeah the guards will launch a major appeal to find his gay marriage t-shirt and some old book.

Oh yeah,and it was his fault for leaving his bag of crusty treasures unattended despite all the signs saying not to do so.

Tell me how

The Enbalmer wrote: »

Yeah the guards will launch a major appeal to find his gay marriage t-shirt and some old book.

Oh yeah,and it was his fault for leaving his bag of crusty treasures unattended despite all the signs saying not to do so.

Tut tut. You missed the point Columbo.

The Gardai ain't going to do anything, but, someone, might find the discarded bag with said items and hand it in being a good samaritan.
If they do, at least the Gardai will have a name of someone who lost a bag.

It's a less than 1% chance, but, it's a zero chance the other way.

CrankyHaus

Tell me how wrote: »

Tut tut. You missed the point Columbo.

The Gardai ain't going to do anything, but, someone, might find the discarded bag with said items and hand it in being a good samaritan.
If they do, at least the Gardai will have a name of someone who lost a bag.

It's a less than 1% chance, but, it's a zero chance the other way.

If they were to catch the thief or someone handling stolen property they'd also be grateful for the identity of the owner of the property so they could get a conviction.

The Enbalmer

CrankyHaus wrote: »

If they were to catch the thief or someone handling stolen property they'd also be grateful for the identity of the owner of the property so they could get a conviction.

Are you actually serious?

MarkR

Nothing of value to anyone else, so it's likely been dumped.

CrankyHaus

The Enbalmer wrote: »

Are you actually serious?

Are you actually simple?

What do you think Gardai do when they seize suspected stolen property? They attempt to reunite it with its owner both to get it back to them and to get evidence of theft if they want to charge the people they find it in the possession of. In this case it's extremely unlikely that that will be the outcome but stranger things have happened and since its worth the OP's while reporting it anyway I felt it was worth mentioning.

CelticRambler

Can't help you much, other than to give you some faint hope that the bag will turn up. I found someone's bag a couple of years ago, where it'd had been stolen and dumped. Still had (New Zealand) passports, London Oystercard and miscellaneous other things in it (no cards or cash) and I was eventually able to track down the owner. Similarly, last year my daughter found a French girl's bag in Canterbury (probably just forgotten) with a passport and medicine in it. Daughter dropped it off at the police station in Canterbury, and I told the consulate where to find it if/when it was reported missing.

Any chance the security guys could screen CCTV for you and at least give you an idea of the bag's last know movements (they might be more interested in helping if you make it clear you're not looking for the person, only the bag).

boombang

Even just for the sake of identifying the culprit for the sake of other people using the college I feel you should bring to TCD security's attention. They can be on the lookout for the criminal and help protect somebody like you from becoming a victim in the future.

The Enbalmer

CrankyHaus wrote:

What do you think Gardai do when they seize suspected stolen property? They attempt to reunite it with its owner both to get it back to them and to get evidence of theft if they want to charge the people they find it in the possession of.

The stolen property in this case being a SJW t-shirt and a defaced book.

Neither of which an opportunistic bag snatched will deem worthy of hanging on to.

Probably went straight in a bin or dumped in a laneway where the corpo would've dumped it in to one of their bins.

CelticRambler

CelticRambler wrote: »

Any chance the security guys could screen CCTV for you and at least give you an idea of the bag's last know movements (they might be more interested in helping if you make it clear you're not looking for the person, only the bag).

I don't want to disrespect the security staff -- the ones in the Arts block were lovely, very helpful. I went down to the Estates & Facilities HQ, where some kind of Chief Superintendent quizzed me on my movements, and insisted on checking his records to make sure of my identity (past student). His system was down, but I was able to recite the first four digits of my student number. He kept telling me how stupid I had been all along (I know it was foolish), and I was half-expecting him to tell me that nobody wanted my "gay marriage t-shirt and some old book".

It was one of the strangest interactions of my life.

The Enbalmer

The Enbalmer wrote: »

The stolen property in this case being a SJW t-shirt and a defaced book.

Don't forget to mention my Social Justice Warrior ID badge?!

That was in there too

For goodness' sake, how can anyone make lost luggage into something political? Who cares what the book was, or the tee-shirt; my only point is that the things in the bag were really sentimentally significant. Some of the items had been with me for a long time, or were given to me by mates, and I'd miss them, that's all.

I am sure you would be a little upset if someone nicked your personal belongings, nobody is trying to make a political point here..?