Worst Day Ever
Thursday January 27th started out like any other day. I woke up at 7:30 am, hit snooze and actually woke up at 7:45 am, enjoyed a cup of coffee, scrolled through Instagram, then got dressed and drove to practice listening to “Rabbit” by Medium Build. At 9:00 am I pulled into the Hilltop Parking lot and my teammates and I set off on a classic distance ski. About half way through the ski, I did not feel well so I decided to go back to the trailhead and call it a day. I got back to my car at 10:00 am and things really turned sour. My passenger side window was smashed in and my backpack and wallet were stolen.
I tried calling the Anchorage Police Department non-emergency line and it was useless. The automated voice would tell me to press 2 to connect with a real person, so I’d press 2 and it would repeat the same automated message! After running in circles on the phone for 5 minutes, I was about to give up when a police officer pulled up. I gave a beckoning wave, and they waved back then drove right past me! I genuinely said, out loud, “Wait, what the f***??” In the three years I have parked at this trailhead, I have never seen a cop drive through, so I thought they were here in response to my car. My fault for assuming.
So, I flagged this cop down and they finally came back. I showed them the situation and they helped me get a case report filed for legal and insurance purposes and gave me the advice to cancel all my credit cards. At 10:15am, I pulled out my phone to do just that and I receive several notifications from my banks about charges to my accounts being denied. For the next 15 or so minutes, the rats that stole my stuff tried to use every card I have. Unfortunately for them, they stole the wallet of a broke college student so the charges were not going through. In total, whoever had my wallet was trying to charge thousands of dollars to my cards at the Fred Meyer’s grocery store right down the road.
I know I shouldn’t be attached to material things, but I feel heart broken over all the stuff that got stolen. Notably, I lost very specific things that I’m really going to miss: my favorite Swix white backpack that I had to sew the straps back on because I used it every day since the day I got it; my Oakley sunglasses ahh! (picture above); a bright red L.L. Bean puffy jacket I picked up at a thrift store; pink Hestra racing mittens I got from the APU team sponsorship (pictured above); Fischer boot covers I got for my birthday from my sister; a baggie of kick waxes and a cork my coach lent me 8 years ago that I never returned; my all-time favorite light blue Intermountain Ski Team headband from junior nationals a few years back (pictured above); and so much more. I know they are just things, but I had memories attached to those things. Sadly, most of it won’t be exactly replaceable.
I am looking at a pretty penny to replace the window and stolen items because this is America where you pay for insurance that doesn’t actually work when you need it to! I never realized how much I have spent over the years on ski stuff until I was looking at replacing it all at once. Thankfully, Fischer helped me replace a pair of stolen skis and I was able to convince my parents to get me a backpack as an early birthday present :)
In the end, the thieves got caught because I was able to track them charging my cards. It ultimately came down to them using my Starbucks gift card, which was connected to my phone, giving an exact time and location of where they were. I’m extra bummed about that because I have a coffee addiction! As of writing this, the police did not recover my stuff, so it is probably in a dumpster somewhere. As amazing as Alaska can be, the reality is there is a lot of crime here too. A local once told me getting broken into “is not a matter of if, but when,” and their words rang true. So yeah, that was the worst day ever.
