My adventure in Barcelona - looking back I am not angry or mad at everything that has happened. 1/n
On March 20 morning I leave my hotel with my backpack having my passport, laptop, wallet with credit cards, driver´s license and my phone heading to @DataWorksSummit. Its about 9:30am and I am in front of Diagonal Mar shopping mall, a block from the conf venue 2/n
I just stop for a moment to see the morning crowd gettig off the Tram before walking into the mall to cross over to the conf venue. I suddenly feeling something falling on my back all yellowish - it felt like it was falling from above
I stop and i look up at the high rises thinking that someone dumped their crap on me from a window or it could be some bird droppings - i don´t see any birds. A guy walks from behind with a backpack telling me that - its very bad - u r back is all covered with sh&t
he takes out a bottle of water and leads me to the tram tracks - and starts cleaning my shirt with water - i remove my backpack and see that its all covered in yellow goo. A second guy who spoke good english comes by offering to help and distracts me ---
while the first guy manages to get my wallet out of pocket and my cellphone, the second guy keeps distracting me while the first guy manages to pack everything in my backpack and makes it to a waiting car - the 2nd guy suddenly pushes me away and flees into the waiting car
i then realize that my backpack with my passport, driver´s license, laptop, wallet credit cards are all gone. I see the car fleeing at high speed and couldn´t read the license plate. Now I basically have no ID to establish my identity. No credit cards and no cash.
I ask the passerbys for help but none r forthcoming, i stop a car with 2 young guys explaining them what had happened and they call the police. The police ask me to go Sant Marti Nacional Police and lodge a complaint. Being very new to the city, I had no idea of the city metro
and no money to pay for metro ticket - one of the guys comes with me to the metro lets me in with his metro card - gets on the train with me and drops me off at Sant Marti. I go to the police station and the cops barely spokeEnglish.
The cops suggest that i go back to the conference and talk to friends and get some money first - but i had no money to go the conf venue - the cop calls US Consulate in Barcelona and explains my situation. US Embassy suggests that I come to Embassy and get a emergency passport.
The embassy was like 8km away and there´s no metro, and the only means of transportation there is bus or taxi. But i have no money for either - i ask the cop to help me. The cop looks up google maps for the best route and the fares. HE writes down the consulate address on a paper
HE writes down the bus routes on another paper, gives me €3, tells me that its gonna take 1 hr by 2 buses to get there - takes me to the bus stand and tells the driver that i shuldn´t be charged for the first leg of bus trip and tells me that the €3 i had for next bus.
I make it to the US Consulate by 11:30am, and i tell the security at the entrance that all my stuff is stolen and i need a duplicate passport - they ask me for my name, ssn, passport no. After getting my details they let me in to the consular section. While waiting to be called
i tell the gentleman on my left about what had happened to me - that i am now cashless and no credit cards - i don´t notice the elderly black lady who was on my right. she hears my story and what she´s done next is something i would never ever forget -
"everything happens for a reason, don´t let this impact ur life - and let it go" - she pulls out a €50 bill and hands that to me. I am like - no i don´t want ur money, thank u. She insists that i take it. I ask her - please give me ur contact details, i´ll pay u back.
he didn´t want the money back - u r in a bad situation and its my duty to help u - instead of paying me back, pay it forward - help someone else who is in a bad situation, whatever happened to u, there´s a reason for it - stay positive.
Meanwhile she is called by the consular officer, and then i am called to fill in my passport application form and me telling the consular officer that i have no money to even pay the $145 passport fees. I look back and see that the kind woman had left and i didn´t get her name.
The consular officer then suggest that I go back to conf venue and ask friends for financial help - i am like i don´t have the money to pay for taxi. the officer suggests that i call family in USA and have them transfer money thru Western Union.
I lost my phone and my wife has no clue what´s happened to me. I give my home phone no. to the consular officer and ask them to call my home in USA - they put me on phone with my wife - i slowly explain to my wife as to what happened to not panic her.
My wife´s friend transfers $500 thru Western Union while I am still on the phone with my wife and the consular staff leaves for lunch recess. The staff is back at 2:30pm from lunch and I tell them that money has been transferred but i have no ID to collect money.
The consulate has a photo booth on premises and they charge €5 for photos - and i have no money - and i didn´t want to use the €50 I got from the kind-hearted lady. The consulate gives me a token that I could use for photo and i get my photos.
Since I don´t have an ID, the consulate general drafts a letter with my photo signed by the consulate and asks me to take the letter to the post office and collect money. its 2:50pm and I am told the consulate closes at 4pm and i shuld collect the money and come back next day
i wanted to walk out with a passport and i step out and see a taxi and ask to be taken to the post office. the €50 i got from the kind lady helped me pay for the taxi. I collect my money at the post office and can´t find a taxi to go back to consulate. Its 3:30pm.
I run uphill the 2km distance to the consulate and make it there at 3:50pm just before closing time, I pay the $145 fees and they process my passport in next 30 mins. I walk out of the consulate at 4:40pm with a temporary passport.
I reach the conf venue around 5:20pm by taxi and tell the folks @DataWorksSummit about my adventure. Eveyone´s shocked. I come back to the hotel and tell the staff what happened. the hotel staff r not surprised since its been happening more often off late in the city
..and that´s been the modus operandi - first spray mustard from behind and stalk the victim. The hotel staff r kind enuf to help me out in anyway and offer to not charge me for any services. I cancel all my credit cards reporting them as stolen.
American Express calls me at hotel room at 11:30pm asking what happened. I tell them about my adventure. Amex offers to help me get a replacement passport - i tell them i got one. They offer to tke care of the hotel bill and also wire me money for expenses.
I have my talk @DataWorksSummit on March 21 afternoon and i lost my laptop which had my code and demo. before leaving USA I pushed my slide deck to github, i then request one of the friends in Europe who has access to my git repo to update the slide deck with changes i want.
he updates the slide deck and publishes them to gitpages and sends me the link.
March 21morning, my good friend @fpj comes with me to the hotel and we go to the local police station to file a report - i get the IMEI number of my iPhone and the Serial number of my Macbook Pro from the boxes back home - for some reason i don´t throw away those boxes
we go to the police station and @fpj is my interpreter with the cops - it akes them 2 hrs to draft a report - all in Spanish and we finally leave for the conf in taxi reaching the venue at 12 noon and my talk is scheduled at 2pm.
the lovely people at the conf reception desk ask me how I was - the word has spread now about my adventure - i ask them if i can get a loaner laptop for few hrs - they give me a macbook and i get to rehearse my slides for the talk.
i finish my talk and i have a temporary passport and I am not gonna be bogged down by my crazy adventure.
It does feel weird though - without iPhone and laptop and having to use the hotel workstation (running on Windows - Grrrh) . How did our previous generation even live without either of those - and they lived longer and happier than present generation, I am sure.
I am thankful to the good samaritan who got me on the mtro right after the incident to take me to Sant Marti Nacional Policia, to the cop at Sant Marti who got me on the bus to US consulate, to the very kind lady at US consulate who handed me €50
to the hotel staff at Holiday Inn Express who r still helping me, and last but not least to @fpj for sticking with me and helping me out.
The police and hotel staff tell me that these incidents get even worse as we head into spring and summer with mre tourist influx - i strongly warn all attendees of Kubecon in May to be on your guard.
But hey Barcelona is home of Lionel Messi - look at the bright side and just be on your guard.
While filing the police report yesterday, the police were surprised that I already got a replacement passport without first filing a police report - that never happens - thanks to the cop at Sant Marti Nacional Police who called up US Consulate and explaining my situation,
its @fpjunqueira (not @fpj) 👆
there´s one detail i missed out in this whole adventure and which actually was my ´big saving grace´´.
Few hrs after landing in Barcelona, went to the conf venue with @fpjunqueira @nielsbasjes and we picked up our conf passes. I had that around my neck the following morning when I was robbed and that was the only thing I was left with following the incident -
- the pass had my name and my employer´s name. That actually helped the cop at Sant Marti Nacional Policia when he got on the phone with US Consulate - i didnçt have a hard time spelling out my name to him. Thanks @DataWorksSummit
..and that also helped me show my name to the security at US Consulate when I got there. In a way, that was my only identity left.
In this entire thread, replace the incorrect alias @fpj by the correct alias - @fpjunqueira - a great guy to know and an expèrt on Distributed Systems
