A brief summary of the last couple of days amazing events (times are all approximate):
Wednesday 17 March, 2010, 3pm: Someone some how gains access to my apartment where my friends Sandra & Jef from Belgium are quietly planning the next stages of their adventure. They manage to steal a backpack & handbag from my friends (which contain, among other things, DVDs with photos, souvenirs and a recipe book from their 11 months of travel), along with a tin containing approximately $200 in coins from my flatmates room. 5 minutes later my friends realise what has happened and get in touch with me at work. I race home.
3.30pm: I get home, take stock of the situation, and file a report with the police. In the mean time my flatmate Matt gets home, and the 4 of us take a walk around the local area to see if we can see if the thief has dumped the non-cash items nearby. No luck.
4pm: Returning home and feeling quite resigned to the fact the stuff is gone forever I start to think about what else I can do to get this stuff back and go some way to restoring New Zealand’s reputation.
5pm: After putting up a note in my building I decide the next thing to do is to see if the online community can help out, spreading the word to as many of those who live in the Mt Eden area as possible. I quickly whip up this post, and share it with as many people as I can through my networks, asking others to do the same. I thought it was a long shot, but worth a try. (I also was mildly concerned people might think it was some kind of stupid viral marketing stunt). The post got shared more than I could have possibly hoped for, and got thousands of views.
Thursday March 18, 8.34am: David (who happens to live in my building) leaves a comment on the post saying that he had found a bag matching the description, and left me a phone number. Putting things together now, what I think happened was someone saw someone else’s retweet of my plea for help, then emailed the post on to David because they knew he lived in our street. I am still trying to verify this is the case.
8.52am: I call David’s flatmate who is home, and say I’ll be around straight after work.
6pm: Success! The bag is the right one, and better still has the photos, recipe book, camera and some other stuff in it. Of course the cash and handbag are gone, but at least the irreplaceable stuff is back.
The other great news is that we have since heard back from the police, who think they know who was responsible. I only hope they are dealt with in the appropriate manner.
Needless to say Sandra & Jef are totally stoked, having resigned themselves to the fact that they were gone forever, having left for Sydney on Thursday morning.
So I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who helped out by spreading the word any way that they could. I was overwhelmed with the response I got from people sharing our story on twitter and facebook. Thanks everyone. The Internet really is awesome.
