We've been robbed!

It's 9:35pm and we've just spent 5 hours in a Boeing 757 hovering over the Pacific Ocean to the "Mainland."
We are filled with the beauty of the island, boasting a slight sunburn, a bit tired, and still on "Island Time" (a 3-hour difference).
We only brought the bare essentials to Hawai'i, so no long lines in baggage claim... and we parked a free bus ride away, so we don't have to deal with traffic.

There were 3 parking lot options, patrolled daily:
Parking Lot A, which was a parking garage next door to LAX: $30/day
Parkign Lot B, a very large parking lot about 1 mile from LAX: $8/day
Parking Lot C, a very large parking lot about 3 blocks from LAX: $10/day

Needless to say, we picked the cheapest of the 3.

As the bus pulls into Parking Lot B, Richie and I try to remember the letter/number combination we parked near. We pass A1 through H8 - none looking familiar to us. Agh... I think we parked in K... this area looks familiar. We figured it would be easy to spot Sally the Subaru because our bikes were locked on top.

We spotted Sally - and the empty upright arms of the bike rack where we locked our bikes just 7 days ago.

...sigh...


Now... call it intuition or whatever... but I had the gut feeling that our journey this evening wouldn't be a simple one. I had 5 hours to prepare myself for a break-in, flat tire, or dead battery.

When the bus dropped us off, we walked to isle K7 to see a very clean theft.

You all know Richie is a very calm soul. I've known him for over 10 years, and I've never seen him so pissed-off in my life. He was angry, fuming... steam shooting from his ears!

It's great how in every scary situation we've been in... one of us gets upset and the other stays calm and collected.

It was obviously my turn to remain calm.
I wouldn't say I was collected... just shocked, slightly impressed, and thankful it wasn't worse.

These were clever, but kind thieves... yes, kind!
They used bolt cutters to cut only one cable when they could have easily cut both. In fact, after they cut one cable, they then took both cables and put them through the front left tire of our car.

Our roof bike rack was all in one piece and unharmed. And they were careful not to damage the tire straps or claw bar that held the bikes upright.

Now, I know the chance of seeing our bikes again is zero, but I grabbed the cell phone and dialed 911 anyway.
I was transferred from the 911 dispatcher to LAPD and finally to the LAX Airport Police.

I calmly explained the reason for my call...
"Hi - We have just arrived after a week's travel to find our bikes have been stolen from the roof of our car. We'd like to file a police report, please."


The LAX Airport Police dispatcher then asked me 4 questions:

Dispatcher: Where are you?
Michele: Parking Lot B at the LAX Airport, Isle K7

Dispatcher: What kind of car do you have?
Michele: It's a light blue Subaru Outback.

Dispatcher: What are you wearing?
Michele: A pink jacket and green shorts. I'm here with my husband. We are the only two standing out here.

Dispatcher: What is your nationality?
Michele: I'm a US citizen and caucasian

Richie and I later discussed the reasoning for the latter question as we bolted out of Los Angeles. It makes perfect sense to ask nationality. I could have spoken a different language. We assume it is also to protect the officers themselves. There is undeniably standing stereotypes and tension towards the LAPD.

After 10 minutes, a Harley-riding officer arrived. He wasn't assigned to our call - he was mearly doing rounds of the parking lots and heard the dispatch. He stopped by to confirm a police officer was on his way, and to apologize for the theft. He was convinced the bikes were somewhere in one of the hundreds of motorhomes parked just across the road from Isle K7. He asked for stand-out features of our bikes then drove around the motorhomes to search. No luck.

Twenty minutes later, Officer Mojica arrived.

He was a kind man - sympathetic of our situation and ready to grab details of the theft.

He asked us standard questions:

"How long have you been parked here?"
A: Since 5am on Saturday, April 25th

"Why did you pick this spot as opposed to other lots or closer to the exit?"
A: This was the cheapest lot. And we are not from here, so we didn't realize this was an unsafe place to park. Trust us, if we had known, we wouldn't have parked here.

"Please tell me how the bikes were locked up?"
A: Both bikes were on the roof of the car. We have 2 Kryptonite cables (3/8 of an inch thick) looped together that we slipped through all 4 tires and both frames of the bikes. The end of the open cable was then locked with a "D-ring" (also known as a "U-lock") to the rack of the car. They were nicely secured, so we thought.


"Describe your bikes and any personalized markings."
A: Both were mountain bikes. One was a bright yellow Specialized brand with a "Yeah, It's got a Hemi" bumper sticker on the cross bar. The other was a Marin brand gray bike. Both had racks on the back with battery operated tail lights.

Officer Mojica told us the reality of finding the bikes are slim, but sometimes they are lucky. He shared the recent success of catching numerous thieves in the area by staging a lookout from the nearby hotels.

He suggested we start our car to make sure everything would run smoothly, so we did. We thanked Officer Mojica for his patience and understanding.

We drove to the exit booth hoping we would not have to pay the $64 parking fee (Remember, we were there a week at a cost of $8/day). We told our story to the booth lady - only to hear her say "I don't care if your bikes got stolen. It's $64." It took all the patience I had not to punch her in the face - MUCH PATIENCE.


We paid our parking fee and with the yellow copy of the police report in hand, we sped out of Los Angeles as quickly as possible.

We arrived at Dana Point at 1am - exhausted.
We found the closest hotel where the clerk wanted to charge an outragious amount. Richie, thankfully, was able to talk her down $40. Afterall, it was 1am and checkout was in 10 hours.


While we are sad about our bikes, we are thankful the theives didn't touch Sally. It was my biggest fear that they pried the glass open and stripped the car of everything.

We'll spend the next few days sulking... Remembering the last time we spent riding our bikes near Venice Beach, the money we've spent to maintain them, and how sad it is that we don't have to remind each other that there are bikes on the roof. We also thought we'd share a few photos of the bikes enjoying rooftop views of the road trip.


A bit of advice...
Don't park your car at LAX in Parking Lot B.
Better yet - STAY OUT of Los Angeles all together!