Robbed!

10 views
February 21, 2007· Filed Under Milan - My Zone  Tags: , , , , , ,

Damnation!  Last night while I was waiting for a bus I put my briefcase on the ground for a moment, got my Pocket PC out to check a phone number and then put the Pocket PC back into the back and got a mobile out to look up a number.  Then I  noticed that the bus was arriving, so I turned round to pick up my briefcase.  Only it was not there.  It had disappeared into thin air.  I neither heard no saw anything, and neither, apparently, did the other people waiting for the bus.  I could not believe it.  I rang the police, but since I had not seen anyone, they would not send anyone to me.  Not a great surprise, I suppose.

In the bag was my highly useful Axim x30h pocket PC, a useful dictionary, all my teaching cards and a text book, plus a register for a course I am holding at the moment.  Boy am I miffed.  But what really gets me is that a did not notice a thing.  I was distracted for no more than five minutes.  Heaven knows who took the thing.

Afterwards I went to a local police station to make a statement, but I doubt I will see the bag ever again, and as for the Pocket PC, well, that may as well have been eaten by an elephant.  I will not see it again.

Unbelievable.  Whoever it was must have been close by and must have noticed the Pocket PC, as I doubt whether and Italian/English financial dictionary will fetch that much on the black market.  I did notice a guy at the bus stop who was on his mobile, but I don’t think there was any connection between his call and my loss, but you never know.

Moral of the story: Don’t flash hi-tech gadgetry around and keep tight hold of your possessions while you are in Milan.  You live and you learn.

Share:
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Digg
  • Facebook
  • Segnalo
  • E-mail this story to a friend!

More Posts From The Same Category:

Comments

9 Responses to “Robbed!”

  1. Di Aceto Cattani said on February 22nd, 2007 3:29 am

    I am an Italian, I studied in your country many years ago, and I have lived on several continents.

    If I may give you a word of advice.

    When you arrive in a new place do not bring your clothing from the last place. Sit down in cafe’s and watch the people.

    The first thing you must learn to do is to not look like a foreigner. Then go out and purchase the clothing the locals wear. Style your hair as they do. If you look foreign and lost you make yourself a target.

    Try to learn some “street smarts”. In Italy they are gentlemen, they only robbed you. In New York you could have been killed.

    Have a glass of wine and laugh, find an Italian girlfriend who can teach you the way things work before you get hurt.

    If you go to Florence, there is a square that bears my name.

    It is named after an ancestor of mine who lost his head because he was naive.

    The English have always made me laugh. I love you.

    Buona Fortuna

  2. Di said on February 22nd, 2007 8:23 pm

    While living in Istanbul, I was in a shoe shop with an American friend … she put her handbag down on the seat and I looked round in time to stop an Asian guy, dressed like a yuppy, from walking out with her bag.

    We would never have picked him as the thief in a line-up, he looked like a tourist, and maybe he was.

    I hope that all is replacable …

  3. Di Aceto Cattani said on February 23rd, 2007 3:05 am

    Please forgive me. I chanced upon your blog and what I saw first was a photograph of an English river. I assumed that you were English, and so I imagined you in Italy and I wrote what I did. It was my mistake.

    I had no idea that you were from Tenessee, and that most probably you are an American.

    I am not certain where exactly Tenessee is, and I must admit that I have no great wish to know. I will never go there.

    I hope that I do offend you if I withdraw my wish of welcome. I thought that I was speaking to an Englishman. As you are in Italy at this time, and I assume that you can read Italian, you will know that we have no great fondness for you.

    This is not personal, it is a matter of conscience. You are now in what you call the “Great Museum”. If you look around you, you live in a place where history has been recorded for twenty four hundred years. My own family history is a thousand years old. We have seen empires rise and fall.

    Our streets bear the marks of chariot wheels Sir. When you look at these marks on the Via Appia, think that the history of America is but a heartbeat relative to ours. Smell the trees, feel the ghosts in the stones around you.

    We, like your ancestors, are eternal.

    If you wish, I will meet you in Florence. I will show you Italy. I will take you to the masqued balls in Venice, teach you to fence with princes.

    If you in turn will be my guide to China.

    I may even teach you the virtues of the English.

    Ego, Cattani Di Aceto Subscripsi

  4. Alex said on February 23rd, 2007 1:45 pm

    Cattani,
    I am, in actual fact, English. I not quite sure how you have managed to get the impression that I’m from Tenessee.

    I’ve been in Italy for many years and can speak and read Italian. I have an Italian other half and I think that I dress in a non-English kind of way. In fact I am often stopped by Italians who ask me how to get to various places here in Milan. Così si potrebbe dire che, anche se sono straniero, non do l’impressione di essere dall’estero, almeno credo. Indeed, up to this week’s incident I had never had anything stolen directly from me.

    Oh and the river was ‘dirty’ because it was in full spate and thus full of muddy water. Generally the water is very clear.

    If you would like to know a little more about me, then I suggest you click on the category ‘Me’. I would also like to say that I think Italy is one of the most beautiful countries on earth and I love it. I refer to it it is the ‘living museum’ because it is, in my opinion, a curious mix of very old and new, traditional and modern. It changes and resists change in equal measure. Like a beautiful woman it can be both enchanting and frustrating. Although I have to say that I prefer Italy in many ways to the UK and I count myself lucky to be living here. I have been to Florence, Venice, Rome, Naples and many other Italian towns and cities, so I think I know the country quite well.

    Thanks for visiting my blog and for commenting. Do you have a blog or a website? You say you have lived in many countries, but I am under the impression that you are back in Italy now. Alas, I do not think I would be able to act as your guide to China, for I know very little about the country.

    All the best.

  5. Di Aceto Cattani said on February 27th, 2007 3:50 am

    Please accept my most sincere apology sir.

    I must thank you for being so gracious and tactful in your rebuke, as to give me room for a public apology.

    I deeply regret my error in having identified you as an American.

    I am most pleased that you dress as we do, that you are fluent in our tongue and that you love an Italian.

    I was an oaf, may you permit me to kiss the hand of the woman who accompanies you, and offer her my apology as well.

    May I welcome you to this place.

    Your living Museum. Where the births and deaths and tombs of my fathers have recorded my name for millenium.

    Few of us have survived this long, but we are still here.

    I offer you my hospitality and my most sincere apology.

    My coat of arms is a Lion Rampant on a field of black and gold counterchanged.

    I have a rapier for you which you must purchase from me for one English Pound. As you will know that in Italy, gifts that bear a cutting edge bring bad fortune.

    I place myself at your service, and in your debt for having offended you without cause.

    Ego Cattani Di Aceto Subscripsi

  6. Di Aceto Cattani said on February 27th, 2007 5:01 am

    I do not have a website. I am widely dispersed across the net as it is. I am very easy to find.

    I am sorry about China. I have a woman on my mind whom I must forget.

    Business holds me here till early summer, if I have not forgotten her by then I will go to Istanbul.

    I have a strong Italian face, with some sun I could pass a Turk.

  7. Alex said on February 27th, 2007 8:19 pm

    Cattani,

    Many thanks for your apology, which was not at all necessary. You are no oaf - for an oaf would not have bothered to apologise.

    In did not feel offended - so I feel that I cannot take you up on your kind offer of a rapier for one English pound. Although, I have to admit, I’d quite like a rapier!

    Women, I know, can be difficult people to forget. We all remember our first loves, and many others. I do hope you manage to get over her and move on to pastures new.

    May I be nosey one more time and ask what your business is? You have piqued my curiosity.

    I shall hunt down your coat of arms.

    Regards

  8. Alex said on February 27th, 2007 8:23 pm

    Di,

    Thanks for your sympathy. Most of what I lost can be replaced, but the incident was a major pain in the butt, I can tell you.

    Many who have heard my tale of woe have been expounding me with similar tales. When in Rome (or Milan), bolt things down!! :)

  9. alsoit said on March 3rd, 2007 10:14 pm

    unbelievable! I’m so sorry!

Have your say




supernal-hilarious