Day 12: Search Warrant

Monday, July 4th.

So the cops are all set to execute the search warrant on the room next to mine. You know, the room with all of my stolen goods in it. They said they would do it at 10am. I arrive at 10am, with a rented truck, to hopefully get all the shit I own on earth back.

'We are waiting for the owner of the room to come with the key,' says the cop. What?!? The dude who possibly jacked my stuff is coming down? I don't know if that is good or bad. Anyways, he shows up 90 minutes late.

Of course, his key doesn't work.

So the cops call down a locksmith. But they also need a 3rd party witness, so we wait around for a fireman or something to show up.

It's all just more wasted time. Meanwhile the cops and owners of the room are crackin jokes like a couple of school chums, and the translator is giving me almost nothing.

Don't worry, it gets more uneventful as the day goes on.

Finally the locksmith starts drilling. I remember the other locksmith from before, dude took 2 hours. This guy took about 2 minutes. And his drill was almost silent. It just melted through the metal.

Once in, I saw all my stuff there. Relief flooded over me. There is my hard drive with 10 years of photos on it. And there are my underwears. I guess that's all I really care about. I already spent $135 for the new passport, $20 for the new bank book, and $150 for a new motorcycle key. What more do I really need?

I don't want to get started on the amount of cash I've wasted on bullshit in the past week. It's been a lot. Irrelevant.

Police dust for prints, then take mine and the owner's. By the way, he's not like the 'owner' owner, more like a manager. The room has been empty for a few months as far as I can tell.

After that, the cops let me take it away. I start ferrying it to my friend's place, which is about an hour for each load if you count loading and unloading times. So after 3 hours, it's all done.

I say goodbye, and that's it. Seriously, it was an uneventful day, aside from getting my stuff back. It seems like everything is there, though a few things got ruined because they tossed a bottle of maple syrup with a loose cap in.

I'm sure you've pieced a few things together, and realized that this was no ordinary smash-and-grab type robbery. At this time, I'm going to refrain from writing about the parties involved, or my theories, or past indicators that something like this was a possibility. There is an open investigation, and I'm going to shut up now. Sorry.

Next step? Well, my friend's place is a damn mess with all my stuff, and he comes back to Japan in a couple days. So I've got 3 different real estate connections scouring for a new place for me. I thought I'd try and just crash on people's couches for the summer, but realized that is kind of retarded and I would end up kind of being a dick to some of my closest friends.

My next post will probably be a rant about how jacked the rental system is out here, and as soon as you make terms with it, they jack you again because your skin is white. Or a rant about how old ladies watch the garbage depositories like hawks, lest you put a plastic bottle in the incorrect bin, even though it all gets incinerated anyways. Or a rant about how rad maple syrup is and that I am all out because that stuff was dumped all over my books and stereo equipment.

Here's a video of all my crap at by buddy's place. Sorry dude!

Read more of this saga at Day 1, Day 2, Day 5, Day 6, Day 12, and Day 16.