Picture this: You are from Canada and are on the last night of a cross-country road trip where you just spent several weeks attending LEGO Conventions and sightseeing across the United States. You are alone, your car is jam-packed full of your custom LEGO models, your best clothes, travel stuff, and the results of multiple shopping trips. You stop at a hotel for the night, exhausted after a long day of driving. You know there is no way you can unload the car alone into the hotel. Some MOCs are just too heavy…

You think to yourself, “Well, it’s 10:30 pm and I’ll be up early to get on the road again. I will park as close to the hotel as possible, under the hotel security camera, by the front door… that’s the second safest thing you could do. Plus, the hotel will monitor the parking lot, right?” Wrong. This is a story of loss and what I found through the process.

Packing Up For The Night

On the morning of June 30th, my spouse, AFOL builder Paul Hetherington, was alone on the last night of a very long road trip. He stopped in Spokane, Washington at a Ramada hotel to get some sleep. Paul and I had started the long trip together, but I had to be back to work a few days before the trip ended. So that left Paul to drive home alone for the last four days. Paul had four custom models he was transporting, and I had five MOCs (all built using Paul’s LEGO). Paul’s models were his older ones; some were well-known, award-winning models, but all of them were sentimental. And as some MOC boxes are, a few were heavy and awkward to lift.

Knowing that my 2008 Hyundai Santa Fe had an anti-theft immobilizer, Paul and I had no idea the surprise Paul would wake up to the following day was even possible… It did, however, cross our minds that a window could get smashed and some things stolen. The unavoidable risk seemed minor, though, especially when parked in the safest possible spot at the hotel under surveillance.

When on a trip if we were staying more than one night at a hotel as a couple, Paul and I would go through the tedious task of unloading the entire car. But if it was just one night, we often took the risk. On this fateful night, Paul was exhausted from the long drive alone, and the risk turned into a series of misfortunate events that I hope no other AFOL, vendor, LEGO fan, or convention-goer ever has to experience.

Something Is Missing

The next morning, Paul walked outside the hotel refreshed and excited to be heading home with our custom LEGO models and all our awesome new treasures. At first, when Paul walked outside the hotel and looked at the empty spot he remembered parking in, he thought, “Hmm, that’s weird. I must have parked somewhere else.”

Example of a missing car via WhatHappensNow

Walking around the entire hotel parking lot, Paul quickly came to realize that my Hyundai had vanished. He went back into the hotel and his suspicion that the car may have been stolen was confirmed by the front desk’s video footage. Although the front desk refused to show Paul the footage, they took a still picture of their surveillance video to show him to ensure that our car was indeed stolen. What a lovely souvenir.

Paul immediately jumped into gear and called the police. A police report was filed, and the next expected step was that the police would not only look for the car (complete with British Columbia plates) but they would also come to look at the video footage at the hotel so they start the hunt for the perpetrators. Sadly at first, the only steps that were taken by law enforcement was that information was taken down for the police report… and the hotel refunded Paul for his stay. What a lovely gesture.

Now, I bet you are thinking, “Oh wow, what a story!” Well, the adventure did not end there.

Knights In Shining Armor

Paul called me at work and gave me the shocking news. I was on my very last day of work before a two-month break. I was in a staff-wide staff meeting when Paul let me know our fate. Without hesitation, I jumped in Paul’s 1993 Toyota Corolla and beelined to the US to rescue him like a knight in shining armor.

But four hours out of Spokane and within minutes of being out of cell service, Paul’s car started having issues and stopped. It had taken its last joyride. It died on me just outside of North Bend, Washington. Luckily, I was able to pull off to the side of the road before the car completely tanked. Now, there’s nothing worse than thinking your cell phone had been charging for the past few hours, only to realize it only has 26% battery. I had a very choppy call with a tow truck company but was able to get them my location information.

My next call was to Paul to tell him about our newest situation, that I needed our roles to reverse, and it was time for him to be my knight in shining armor instead. As fate would have it, Paul was able to get a rental car 15 minutes before the car rental company closed. He was then on his way to save me.

Once Paul’s dead Corolla was towed, I sat at a restaurant for four hours and waited for Paul. He arrived within minutes of the place closing for the night. I had been beginning to picture myself sitting quietly on the curb after the restaurant closed to wait for him, so I was very glad to see him just in the nick of time! We rented a hotel room for the night, and the next day, we found out his car was going to a new home in a junkyard in North Bend. RIP Corolla. (We quickly learned that donating a Canadian Car to a wrecker in the United States is harder than one would expect. Lucky for us, after a few hours of phone calls and a lot of determination, we succeeded!)

Now that the dead car was taken care of, the next step was to return the rental car before returning to Canada. Returning the rental to downtown Seattle, instead of dealing with flights, we thought, “Let’s end this wild ride on a fun note. Let’s wait a few hours and take the Amtrak train home!” It was something we had both always wanted to do, and it sounded fun, right? Wrong.

All Aboard!

Our scenic three-hour train ride home lasted quite a bit longer, and we ended up arriving back home in Canada many, many hours later at 1:30 am. We didn’t get the opportunity to sit on the more scenic side of the train, and Amtrak didn’t fill the water on the train before leaving Seattle, so going to the bathroom or washing our hands was not an option. Gross!

We had also forgotten that it was Canada Day (July 1st) and that our city liked to celebrate with fireworks. Because the train passed through White Rock where thousands of people had gathered to watch the fireworks, the train had to wait at the border until all the people gathered had safely cleared the train tracks. Stuck on the side of the train facing away from the excitement, we did not even get to enjoy the show. Between that and the loud, stinky train car, this was not the ending to the trip we were looking for.

Finally after a long haul, we arrived. It never felt so good to be home! But, going from a two-car household to a zero-car one in a nine-hour timespan… and having a huge amount of our stuff stolen… had finally hit home. There were a lot of emotions to process. Some of what I personally felt was loss, anger, a lot of crying, hope, grief, frustration, and the feeling of helplessness. The roller coaster of ups and downs these past few months has been a lot to handle. Accompanied with these emotions have been a lot of sleepless nights, anxiety, depression, and health problems triggered by stress.

But that must surely be the end, right? Wrong…

Lost and Found

One thing you should know to understand me better is that I am not one to just accept my fate and move on. My way of dealing with traumatic situations is to be proactive and do what I can to make the situation better if possible. In this case, I was proactive and wanted our stolen car and belongings found… and as quickly as possible. We spread the word online and contacted as many people as possible so everyone could be on the lookout for our missing stuff. The media in Vancouver and North Vancouver contacted us to do a story after seeing our posts on social media, which we were very grateful for. The Spokane news covered it too.

We were calling the Spokane police daily, sometimes a few times per day, to plead with them to look at the video footage from the hotel and to hopefully look for our car, but we were having no success. Having done my own research, I joined some stolen car Facebook groups in Spokane and quickly learned that Spokane is not a place you want to stop for the night as a tourist… especially if your car has a trailer hitch and towing capabilities.

I also learned that there is a specific location where thieves drop off stolen cars in Spokane after they are done with them… which is exactly where my car was found one week after it was stolen. The police had been doing a drive-by of the location when they found my abandoned car. An officer called me at 7:30 am to tell me the news. (I have never been happier to be woken up so early!) He said, and I quote, “Come pick up your car. It just has a bit of garbage in it, but it is fine to drive home!” We were elated!

We headed back down to Spokane in a used car Paul had bought in the meantime to pick up my lost and found car. An hour after the exciting morning phone call, we were on the road again! For some reason, the more we drove, the more I felt heavy dread and anxiety growing in my chest. It lasted the whole eight-hour drive. It felt wrong. Shouldn’t I be excited to be reunited with my car again!? Now I realize I was actually feeling violated because I knew someone else had been doing who knows what with my car for the past week. Where was my stuff? Where were our LEGO creations? We were hesitant to stay in Spokane again, so we stayed overnight in Ellensburg, a few hours out of Spokane. The plan was to drive the rest of the way the next morning.

I had another sleepless night, which turned out to be very productive. I contacted four news stations in Spokane to see if they wanted to cover our story. Because of the dollar value of our missing LEGO and the unique nature of the custom models, I thought it was worth a try. All four news stations called us back that day for a story. We triumphantly headed to the impound lot to get our car.

Seeing my car made me both happy and sad. It had been emptied of our LEGO and stuff, the license plates had been removed, and it was inexplicably filled with a person’s clothing, food, drug paraphernalia and more. What was all this garbage that was left in my car? And why would they take my clothes and leave theirs? And why would they remove the battery?

We filmed a few news interviews and then drove home in disbelief. We had been told by law enforcement we could drive away our car… a car that literally had its battery sitting in the back seat leaking battery acid on some unknown drug paraphernalia. On the way home, we had more good news. Paul’s new-to-him car had a leak in one of the tires, so our series of unwanted adventures continued! We had to stop every hour or so to fill the tires with air. Doh!

We got home that night and watched the news. Seeing my story unfold in front of my eyes was surreal. Maybe someone would find our MOCs. I secretly hoped that the thieves might see our story, panic knowing they wouldn’t be able to sell our belongings under the radar because the contents were publicly known, and hopefully contact us to make amends. My prayers were answered… sort of...

Full Circle

The next day, lo and behold, two individuals contacted us separately on Facebook, each claiming to have two boxes of our LEGO models… but they each sent us pictures of the same models as proof. The pictures showed some of Paul’s models in shambles, but we were ecstatic! Despite having different stories on how they obtained the two boxes, the two people (who turned out to be a couple) claimed they wanted to return the LEGO to us and be good Samaritans.

They said they did not want any money as a reward but claimed they had no gas money to return the goods. Then one said he needed to fix his dead motorbike before he could return the boxes. He then claimed he had paid $100 for the LEGO from an unknown source… which he had picked up on his dead motorbike. Knowing the awkwardly large size of the boxes, his story seemed highly unlikely. I informed the police and they agreed to retrieve our two boxes from the given address for us. Finally, some of our LEGO MOCs wold find their way home.

After we got the two boxes, we carefully inspected what was in them. Most were in shambles but a few chunks of certain MOCs had survived. Though we only had two of many of our boxes back, it felt like a huge victory to see those few MOCs again. If only the plastic bricks could talk and tell us about their adventure…

I am not sure if this story will ever be completely over. But I can say that I think the trauma this has caused will sadly live with me forever. Thankfully, in the midst of chaos, something has outshined all those bad memories and was a ray of hope: the LEGO community,

I can’t express how supportive, helpful, empathetic, and downright awesome the LEGO community (and beyond) has been through this entire situation… and continues to be! I want to thank everyone who was there for us during this time, whether by looking for our stolen goods online or in second-hand stores, messaging us, checking in, or just sharing our story. We knew the LEGO community was amazing, but this was a huge reminder of how strong we are together. (Kind of like LEGO!)

The strong bond of the LEGO community cannot ever be taken away from us, no matter what happens or how many cars get broken into (or hit by a deer). So, if you are having a bad day, don’t forget that you have a whole community of AFOLs who support you.

So we have finally arrived a the end of the story. Or is it? Maybe there will be an update in the future with more good news and found MOCs. But for now, I am off to buy a new car without a tow hitch.

A Few Takeaways

As an addendum to this article, I thought it might be helpful to list some things I’ve learned throughout this ordeal. Not all of these takeaways will apply to everyone, so take them with a grain of salt.

Purchase a few Apple Air Tags and hide them in your car/belongings. If someone decides they want your car, the tags will notify you of the approximate location of your vehicle. Beware, it will also notify anyone in your car that there are Air Tags in the car if they have an iPhone. So, hide the tags well! They will at least slow them down and may deter robbers!
Buy a steering wheel lock. It is well worth the money because the device slows the thieves down big time since. Seeing that they will have to cut through the metal bars to drive your car, the thieves will most likely move on to their next target.
Park under any security cameras and as close to the front door of your hotel as possible. Or perhaps stay in an AirBnB instead. Thieves purposely go to hotels looking for tourists’ cars… and any deterrent is better than none.
If possible and if time allows, research the hotel and city you plan to spend the night in before stopping for the night. Getting to know the city is half the battle.
If something unfortunate does happen, call the media and spread the word immediately. Go online and search Facebook groups, spread the word, and tell everyone! The more eyes looking out for your stuff, the better chance you have of a successful return. Remember that insurance will take a long time to settle, and they will not offer you anything near the value of what is lost. Believe me…
Stay safe! If your stuff turns up, ask the police to pick up your stuff for you. Don’t put yourself in danger.

Hopefully we can learn from each other’s experiences so we can all celebrate together at the next con.

Best of BrickNerd - Article originally published September 13, 2023

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