Victim of theft!
Sorry I haven't blogged in a while but I need to vent. I was at the gym yesterday, the 24 Fitness in Alameda next to the Home Depot. I put my stuff in my locker, as usual, placed my combination lock on it and went to work out. After about an hour, I returned to see my lock missing from my locker. I immediately knew what had just happened. My anger rose when I saw my wallet open and my 75-some dollars missing! The rage was quickly tempered by relief when I realized he had not taken any of my credit cards, my ID, my keys (MY GOD if he stole my car I would find him and kill him!) or my Home Depot gift cards...."Oooh, thank-you criminal for doing me the favor".
The locker room was crowded and I was fuming. I quickly grabbed my stuff and notified their security. Of course, they couldn't do a thing about it except fill-out an internal incident report. Strangely though, when the staff asked me for my 24-hour Fitness ID, it was missing!? Why? They made a note on their computer that if the criminal ever decided to check-in with my card in any of their facilities, he would be held and arrested...I suppose.
You know about hindsight? and intuitiion? this is very strange but when I replayed those few minutes in my mind, I distinctly remembered 3 things:
1. Though the locker room was quite crowded, there were a number of empty lockers available. Despite that, a man sat down right next to me on the bench. He was singing some tune and began putting his stuff into the locker right next to mine. At the time, I figured that because most of the bench spaces were filled and there was a little bit of space next to me, the guy simply chose that seat and subsequent locker for conveniece sake. My radar showed only the slightest blip and I dismissed it as paranioa and him being a strange character.
2. I wore different shorts yesterday,..not my running short without pockets, but my cross-trainging shorts with a back pocket. For an instant, I remember my eyes looking at my wallet and thinking "put it in your back pocket". I dismissed that as well. I almost never work out with a big-ass wallet on my ass.
3. When I exited the locker room, there was a guy following me to the free weight area with a cell phone in his ear. It didn't appear as if he was talking though. Again, I dismissed it, given I was following someone else and the guy following me was followed my someone else. We were all simply walking to the work out area.
In the end, the lesson I've learned is to trust you instincts and intuition. As a mental health professional, I've interpreted those blips on the radar as needless paranoia, unsubstatiated assumptions, and unnecessary hyper-vigilance....all of which are unhealthy. Well, I guess I'll have to reconcile these issues. In the meantime, I'm sure I've been slightly traumatized and will see predators everywhere for a good bit of time. That bit is truly unfortunate.
The locker room was crowded and I was fuming. I quickly grabbed my stuff and notified their security. Of course, they couldn't do a thing about it except fill-out an internal incident report. Strangely though, when the staff asked me for my 24-hour Fitness ID, it was missing!? Why? They made a note on their computer that if the criminal ever decided to check-in with my card in any of their facilities, he would be held and arrested...I suppose.
You know about hindsight? and intuitiion? this is very strange but when I replayed those few minutes in my mind, I distinctly remembered 3 things:
1. Though the locker room was quite crowded, there were a number of empty lockers available. Despite that, a man sat down right next to me on the bench. He was singing some tune and began putting his stuff into the locker right next to mine. At the time, I figured that because most of the bench spaces were filled and there was a little bit of space next to me, the guy simply chose that seat and subsequent locker for conveniece sake. My radar showed only the slightest blip and I dismissed it as paranioa and him being a strange character.
2. I wore different shorts yesterday,..not my running short without pockets, but my cross-trainging shorts with a back pocket. For an instant, I remember my eyes looking at my wallet and thinking "put it in your back pocket". I dismissed that as well. I almost never work out with a big-ass wallet on my ass.
3. When I exited the locker room, there was a guy following me to the free weight area with a cell phone in his ear. It didn't appear as if he was talking though. Again, I dismissed it, given I was following someone else and the guy following me was followed my someone else. We were all simply walking to the work out area.
In the end, the lesson I've learned is to trust you instincts and intuition. As a mental health professional, I've interpreted those blips on the radar as needless paranoia, unsubstatiated assumptions, and unnecessary hyper-vigilance....all of which are unhealthy. Well, I guess I'll have to reconcile these issues. In the meantime, I'm sure I've been slightly traumatized and will see predators everywhere for a good bit of time. That bit is truly unfortunate.
posted by supergoober at
11:44 AM
1 Comments
