"accidentally" stolen dive gear from airport shuttle

[Christi]

did the driver make another airport trip after the one your customer was on? If so, maybe there are more hotels to check.

We made it to the airport before he took the next load and searched the van - it was gone.

 

[Keith.M]

So if it was gone at that time, why would you suspect the driver?

 

[nodakdive]

So if it was gone at that time, why would you suspect the driver?

Based on the stops the van made, after the Scuba Club stop the front door of that van would not have been opened again. It's the second stop. The driver didn't say anyone else got in the front seat after Scuba Club. So, it's highly presumable that either the Scuba Club patron took the bag, or the driver did. Of course there are bad apples everywhere, but for the most part divers are a pretty good lot and would have found out whose bag it was as soon as they realized it wasn't theirs.

One thought I had was that the guy that got in the front after Casa Mexicana could have been traveling with a group or family? "Dad" grabs the bag thinking it's owned by someone in the group, hands it off to "kids" that don't pay attention or don't care that the bag is not theirs?

Another thought I had, and you probably already did this, was to contact the Taxi company and report the loss? Behind the curtain, someone could "un take" the bag without the company or the driver having to admit it was taken on purpose, if it was.

Oh, and it would be really easy for the van to stop somewhere and drop the bag on the way back to the airport for the next load of visitors.

 

[Christi]

Based on the stops the van made, after the Scuba Club stop the front door of that van would not have been opened again. It's the second stop. The driver didn't say anyone else got in the front seat after Scuba Club. So, it's highly presumable that either the Scuba Club patron took the bag, or the driver did. Of course there are bad apples everywhere, but for the most part divers are a pretty good lot and would have found out whose bag it was as soon as they realized it wasn't theirs.

One thought I had was that the guy that got in the front after Casa Mexicana could have been traveling with a group or family? "Dad" grabs the bag thinking it's owned by someone in the group, hands it off to "kids" that don't pay attention or don't care that the bag is not theirs?

Another thought I had, and you probably already did this, was to contact the Taxi company and report the loss? Behind the curtain, someone could "un take" the bag without the company or the driver having to admit it was taken on purpose, if it was.

Oh, and it would be really easy for the van to stop somewhere and drop the bag on the way back to the airport for the next load of visitors.

Yes, we contacted the shuttle company - guy that moved to front seat was not traveling with family - we went back to the airport and spoke personally to the supervisor and the actual van driver and all of his amigos that decided to join in the conversation - we covered all bases and I have checked with each hotel another time today to see if anything was turned in a well as the shuttle company

And because it is a very likely scenario - at this point it is gone, only the person that took it knows unless he/she has shared the news with friends - so we either have a bad apple shuttle driver or a bad apple tourist or a bad apple hotel porter

 

[Jax]

Times like this reminds you to have ALL luggage tagged with both your destination address AND your home address.

 

[nodakdive]

Yes, we contacted the shuttle company - guy that moved to front seat was not traveling with family - we went back to the airport and spoke personally to the supervisor and the actual van driver and all of his amigos that decided to join in the conversation - we covered all bases and I have checked with each hotel another time today to see if anything was turned in a well as the shuttle company

And because it is a very likely scenario - at this point it is gone, only the person that took it knows unless he/she has shared the news with friends - so we either have a bad apple shuttle driver or a bad apple tourist or a bad apple hotel porter

Very good of you to go to such lengths. Very sad thing to happen.

 

[Brules]

What a sucky story. Hope it doesn't ruin the divers trip/sour him on Coz.

My first suspect would be the driver.......Van Mafia and all.......

 

[ggunn]

Hola divers!

Today my customers bag was stolen out of the airport shuttle. My client was sitting in the front seat and left his drawstring Nike bag at his feet - he realized it was gone after unloading his luggage and the van had left. This is the type of bag that you know if it belongs to you or not.

We have been to the airport and talked to the same shuttle driver. He told us which hotels he went to after dropping off at Casa Mexicana and we have gone personally to check with each hotel to see if it was turned in by a guest. No luck. The shuttle driver also told us that a man staying at scuba club moved to the front seat after my client was dropped off.

I did the same stupid thing a few years ago - left my carry on bag on the shuttle. Of course, the carry on had all the stuff in it that was most important to me that I didn't want to be in checked luggage - cash for the hotel, passports, prescription dive masks, keys to my house, etc.

My case had a happy ending. I beat it back to the airport, and the driver was there, saw me running around frantically, and started calling to me, "Senor, senor, are you looking for this?" opening the van door and pointing at my bag.

I got the bag back and the driver took me back to the hotel. He didn't make me buy another transport ticket or try to charge me for the ride, but I tipped him very well.

 

[ReefHound]

There are luggage tracking devices that you can get for under $100 and then under $50/yr service. Some use GPS and some use GSM/cell, with various ranges of accuracy. Each method has various limitations. Not quite reliable enough or economical enough for me yet but it's getting close. The ones I find most interesting use bluetooth and will show on your phone when you are within range (~30-50') which means you could walk the halls of the hotels you stopped at and see if it is detected.

 

[kelemvor]

Sometimes there's just a bad apple. For what it's worth, not all of Cozumel is like that. Someone in our group left a nice high end regulator sitting out all day and night after a dive. It was still there the next morning.