Portland (not a good day)

My plan this morning was to visit the famed Portland Japanese Garden . I went down into the hotel garage to collect my car and found it had been broken into. It strikes me as ironic that I got through the entire country with no problem and this happens in a west coast city a couple of weeks before I roll into my garage in California. This is a nice downtown hotel, with a garage that even has some security (more on that later). It is not like I left the car on a side street in a bad part of town.

Fortunately, my habit is to bring most of my important stuff in at every location. I would never leave any of my equipment or smaller luggage in the car. In the end, the thieves got clothing, most of which would fit only a small woman. They took my gym bag and the small duffel with my extra outerwear. I realized only later in the afternoon that the larger duffel with all of my summer clothing was missing. The inconvenience of that is that I needed those clothes for Hawaii, and that was the bag that I would be using as checked luggage. Truth be told, the most expensive and difficult to replace item are the duffels as both were high end pieces of luggage that are frequently out of stock.

They also dumped out my center console (and managed to break the latch in their haste), but fortunately were too stupid to take the key and extra remote. Or even the Swiss Army knife. My big 70 lb suitcase was inconvenient to take, as were my sterilite containers with shoes, food, toiletries etc. The one good thing is they really could not have exited the garage in a car without my ticket.

After filing an on-line police report, I alerted my insurance agent. She told me to find a glass replacement company to do an emergency repair of the window they broke and just send her the invoice. I called the Toyota dealer for a referral and they sent me to Discount Auto Glass, just a few miles across the river. I have to say, they took great care of me. Dominique got me a 2 PM appointment and Kenzie checked me in. They completed the repair in an hour and even managed to match the tint on the glass. And the charges were emminently reasonable. I should get most of it reimbursed from State Farm.

Ironically, Kenzie suggested that the tinted windows might have contributed to the car being targeted as it looked like I, indeed, had something to protect. Kenzie also mentioned that garage break-ins have become a thing in Portland. And when I took myself out for a drink and happy hour snack to chill out, both my bartenders said that Portland has just never recovered for COVID. As I mentioned yesterday, I actually felt unsafe walking around the city. Of all the places I have been this year, this is the city in which I felt most at risk. It is a shame, but that is the reality. I happened across a current news article that blames the downturn of what used to be a safe vibrant city on decriminalization of drug use. I’m not sure I would agree with that. Filling jails with low-level drug offenders ultimately does not solve the problem in any long term way. What I don’t know is what programs might have been implemented to assist addicts with recovery up or at least provide a safe space. I also don’t know what Portland might be doing to address the large homeless population, many of whom are almost certainly mentally ill.

However, this being Portland, Columbia sportswear was a few blocks away and having a winter sale. I was able to replace at least my rain jacket and even got 25% off. I did have a down and fleece in my hotel room, so I should be able to manage for the couple of weeks until I return home. The bigger issue turns out to be replacing at least enough warm-weather clothing to get through a week in Hawaii. I spent last night frantically trying to remember exactly what was in that duffel and where I might have purchased the technical gear. As the holiday shopping and shipping season is well underway, I wanted to get a jump on that so my orders would arrive at home in time to repack for Hawaii.

After some back and forth, I was able to get some stills from the security cameras that show a guy walking out with what is clearly one of my bags - the small gym bag. It is unclear why there is no footage of the two larger bags. It is also unclear why the person who should have been monitoring the cameras failed to notice anything amiss at the time. I have no delusions of getting anything back, but at least I can provide this to the police in case it can help them ID a serial offender. Oh, and by the way, this occurred at 6:30 AM! Pretty brazen. And apparently no one paid any attention to the car alarm, which was off by the time I went down at 9:30. That is a question for VIPER security at a later time.

Because I was having trouble updating the on-line report with the new information about the security footage and additional stolen items, I walked the few blocks over to the closest precinct to see if I could find a person to speak with. The gentlemen at the front counter did give me a phone number that would be answered by a person.

I also remembered after I returned to my room that the duffel still had an Apple tracker in it from the flight to Alaska. I was able to track it to a location that turned out to be a homeless encampment under the 405 freeway. I immediately called the new number I was provided and an actual person took the information. I was pleasantly surprised when an officer called me back. Of course by that time it was well past midnight, and communication with the tracker was sporadic, likely because far fewer phones were in the area to receive and transmit signal. Officer Roe really did try his best. He went over to the area and we thought that if I could get the tracker to play a sound he might be able to follow it. But because of the death of signal, I was unable to get it to respond. He took the update on the report and suggested that if I was able to reconnect, that I should call back dispatch.

I had thought I might try to go back to the Japanese garden tomorrow, but they are closed on Tuesdays. They were kind enough to give me a refund. I will have to see how I feel tomorrow (at this point later today) Perhaps I will take a drive up the Columbia River up to Multnomah Falls before the sleep deprivation catches up with me.

After all is said and done, this was annoying, disruptive and inconvenient, but not fatal. I lost a day and some ultimately replaceable stuff. I keep repeating my mantra that these are first world problems and I still have the most important thing, my health. I am trying hard to maintain a positive attitude and to not let this incident color the end of what has been a wonderful year of travel and discovery. Stay tuned.