Two weeks ago I returned to Edinburgh for a meeting with work and to visit my girlfriend. I had a single, carry-on suitcase with me. To get from the airport to the city centre, I took the airport bus. As the bus was packed, I left my suitcase on the luggage rack downstairs, covered by CCTV cameras, with dozens of other suitcases, and then went upstairs to find a seat.
When I finally got downstairs to get off the bus in the city centre, at the last stop, there weren’t any suitcases left on the rack. Convinced somebody had stolen my case, I got the driver and a supervisor to help me search the bus. Nothing to be found. I ride the airport bus at least twice a month visiting the city and have never heard of a theft on the bus. Further, when reporting it to the bus company, they’d never heard of a theft on the airport bus neither, as it tends to be only people who have just arrived in the country who use it, or who are flying back out. All of my clothes for the week were in the bag, along with a Kindle and a brand new, unworn pair of shoes. After estimating the cost for the police report, it was > £400 worth of stuff.
Fast forward two weeks. I’ve had to go out and buy a whole new set of clothes to last me through the week (thankfully it was my birthday the day after the bus ride, so I received some clothes as a gift). I’m now back in Italy. Some guy e-mails me two days ago saying a back had been left at the reception of the French Institute in Edinburgh. I’ve never heard of the French Institute in all my life, so I’m a bit puzzled how it got there. The only thing I can surmise is that somebody mistakenly removed my bag from the bus, worked out it wasn’t theirs, and then instead of reporting it straight away to the bus company or police, decided to keep it for two weeks before dumping it back at the reception of the place they’ve been visiting whilst flying back out.
Whoever did this is a fucking cunt. For a start, who the fuck removes a bag from a bus that they didn’t get on with? It’s not as if they could have mistaken my bag for their own as they didn’t leave another bag in its place. Further, who the fuck, in the unlikely event they take somebody else’s bag, sits on the damned thing for two weeks, instead of handing it in to a police station or to the bus company straight away? Especially so when the bag’s filled with clothes? Did this fuckup not think a bag full of clothes is a pretty important item for somebody visiting a city? Prick.
(Nothing was stolen in the bag, despite there being a Kindle in the front pocket, so it’s unlikely it’s an aborted theft. My girlfriend, who lives in Edinburgh, managed to pick it up yesterday.)
