Chicago .. this takes the cake

RogerT

RogerT

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RogerT
So .. my fiance's daughter takes her 4 yr old on a trip to Chicago. They go
to some museums .. shop .. etc .. you know helping the local economy. On
a bus ride she forgets her purse on the bus. CTA finds it and calls her after
she's home. But .. they won't send it to her. Even though she said use money in the purse to send it. They said "how do we know who you are". Duh .. send it to the address on the ID in the purse. THEY CALLED HER. They told her she'd have to come in person to get it. So she had to buy a round trip plane ticket from Miami to go claim her purse. It had a camera and other
valuables in it.

Is this just their normal way of thanking tourists who come there to spend
their money? Or is it a case of some small people with a perceived power and
arrogance thumping their chest.

Who do we contact there that would care? The mayor's office? Or is this
just business as usual?

RT
 
RogerT said:
So .. my fiance's daughter takes her 4 yr old on a trip to Chicago. They go
to some museums .. shop .. etc .. you know helping the local economy. On
a bus ride she forgets her purse on the bus. CTA finds it and calls her after
she's home. But .. they won't send it to her. Even though she said use money in the purse to send it. They said "how do we know who you are". Duh .. send it to the address on the ID in the purse. THEY CALLED HER. They told her she'd have to come in person to get it. So she had to buy a round trip plane ticket from Miami to go claim her purse. It had a camera and other
valuables in it.

Is this just their normal way of thanking tourists who come there to spend
their money? Or is it a case of some small people with a perceived power and
arrogance thumping their chest.

Who do we contact there that would care? The mayor's office? Or is this
just business as usual?

RT
Click to expand...

It's not a chicago thing. Stupid things happen like this in PD's all over.
 
Offer to send them a prepaid, pre-addressed FedEx mailer for the purse along with a notarized copy of your ID. All they have to do is put the purse inside, seal it up, and leave it for the FedEx driver to pick up. No trouble or risk on their part.

EDIT: Rereading this, it appears that she already made the trip.
 
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It's one way they get more money out of her into the local economy.

I'm sure they think they're doing it "for her protection" - a lot of other stupidity goes on in the name of "protection".
 
Should have invoked the power of POA...

RogerT said:
So .. my fiance's daughter takes her 4 yr old on a trip to Chicago. They go
to some museums .. shop .. etc .. you know helping the local economy. On
a bus ride she forgets her purse on the bus. CTA finds it and calls her after
she's home. But .. they won't send it to her. Even though she said use money in the purse to send it. They said "how do we know who you are". Duh .. send it to the address on the ID in the purse. THEY CALLED HER. They told her she'd have to come in person to get it. So she had to buy a round trip plane ticket from Miami to go claim her purse. It had a camera and other
valuables in it.

Is this just their normal way of thanking tourists who come there to spend
their money? Or is it a case of some small people with a perceived power and
arrogance thumping their chest.

Who do we contact there that would care? The mayor's office? Or is this
just business as usual?

RT
Click to expand...
 
I think they could send it to the PD where she lives and she could pick it up there.

I had a friend driving to Canada and forgot he had a pistol in his car. He dropped at a PD stateside and then forgot it on the way back home (cranial/rectal syndrome). He called them and they gladly sent it down to the PD in Texas.
 
How did she get on the plane home with no ID the first time???
 
AirDC said:
How did she get on the plane home with no ID the first time???
Click to expand...

I always have two forms of ID.
Granted they are in the same wallet, so not having one, I would not have the other.
 
A few years ago, I had lost my wallet on the way to the airport in Palm Springs, CA for a flight home to Denver. I explained the situation to the gate attendant and was allowed through security and onto the plane. NO I.D. at all.
 
You guys are something. Woman leaves her purse behind (not the world's most brainiac move), and someone finds and turns it in unmolested. And you complain because they want her to come in and pick it up.

I'll bet at some point they got rooked out of someone's property, and that's where said policy comes from. Moral of the story: don't leave your **** behind.
 
steingar said:
You guys are something. Woman leaves her purse behind (not the world's most brainiac move), and someone finds and turns it in unmolested. And you complain because they want her to come in and pick it up.

I'll bet at some point they got rooked out of someone's property, and that's where said policy comes from. Moral of the story: don't leave your **** behind.
Click to expand...
You're right, but still Miami to Chicago and back isn't as cheap as postage would be.
 
Glad you're perfect and never forget anything. Most of us are'nt so lucky. Having a 4 yr old to keep track of makes things a little more challenging. No surprise that this response would come from you.
 
RogerT said:
Glad you're perfect and never forget anything. Most of us are'nt so lucky. Having a 4 yr old to keep track of makes things a little more challenging. No surprise that this response would come from you.
Click to expand...

I forget stuff, I just don't expect others to find it and consider it a big bonus when they do. If it was valuable to me I'd use it as an excuse to make a trip. I would never complain about it, to me once something is lost, it's lost. Having it come back is a big bonus.

Then again, I try very hard not to travel with anything valuable I'd miss.
 
RogerT said:
So .. my fiance's daughter takes her 4 yr old on a trip to Chicago. They go
to some museums .. shop .. etc .. you know helping the local economy. On
a bus ride she forgets her purse on the bus. CTA finds it and calls her after
she's home. But .. they won't send it to her. Even though she said use money in the purse to send it. They said "how do we know who you are". Duh .. send it to the address on the ID in the purse. THEY CALLED HER. They told her she'd have to come in person to get it. So she had to buy a round trip plane ticket from Miami to go claim her purse. It had a camera and other
valuables in it.

Is this just their normal way of thanking tourists who come there to spend
their money? Or is it a case of some small people with a perceived power and
arrogance thumping their chest.

Who do we contact there that would care? The mayor's office? Or is this
just business as usual?

RT
Click to expand...
Just for the record, it appears that it is the CTA that they are dealing with, not the police department.
 
I have purposely avoided Chicago since Meigs. Fortunately, work hasn't even required me to go there.

There are certainly ways to prove who you are without having to actually go there. Of course, bureacratic stupidity knows no bounds.

I hope it works out for you that she doesn't have to make and expensive and totally unessecary trip. I posted in another thread that I had lost my wallet at the hotel where I stayed in Palm Springs and had to board a flight with no I.D. They hotel found my wallet, called me and mailed it back to me with all the contents in it. They could verify who I was from my Colorado Drivers License, and the address indicated.

Stuff happens.
 
I think that she just has to get to the right person. I would guess that whoever talked to her is low on totem pole. The higher she gets, the more willing they will probably be to help her. People at the bottom are usually there for a reason.
 
steingar said:
Then don't leave your **** behind. Big plus that it was recovered unmolested.
Click to expand...

That's a great policy, but unfortunately it doesn't work in the real world.

We mail forgotten stuff to people pretty much once a week. Cell phone and computer charging cords are the usual, but we've mailed everything from stuffed animals to CPAP machines. If it's a large item (like a CPAP), they give us their credit card authorization. If it's little stuff, we eat the cost.

Chicago is just being Chicago. It's a giant sewer of corruption and make-work schemes, populated by people who simply don't know any better. Trust me -- I worked for the Chicago Tribune from '88 to '94, and am glad to say that I never have to return to that awful place.
 
I think what Michael is saying (and I sort of agree with) is that after you lose something, if getting it back is a hassle after it's found... isn't that STILL a better outcome than having it stay lost? And if so, then why complain about it?
 
TMetzinger said:
I think what Michael is saying (and I sort of agree with) is that after you lose something, if getting it back is a hassle after it's found... isn't that STILL a better outcome than having it stay lost? And if so, then why complain about it?
Click to expand...

Because all of us intuitively know that we deserve better treatment from the ruling class? Just a guess...
 
TMetzinger said:
I think what Michael is saying (and I sort of agree with) is that after you lose something, if getting it back is a hassle after it's found... isn't that STILL a better outcome than having it stay lost? And if so, then why complain about it?
Click to expand...
I don't disagree with personal accountability at all. Any time I travel I make sure I don't leave anything behind. My gripe is that this woman had to travel a second time to Shicago to claim her items. It's not like she left her kid there and wanted them mailed...
Someone mentioned the totem pole metaphor, and I think that is spot on. No need to confirm over the phone the correct address either, it's right there in the driver's license.
 
TMetzinger said:
I think what Michael is saying (and I sort of agree with) is that after you lose something, if getting it back is a hassle after it's found... isn't that STILL a better outcome than having it stay lost? And if so, then why complain about it?
Click to expand...

Why is it hard to understand complaining if someone makes unreasonable conditions on returning a lost item?
 
TMetzinger said:
Reasonable is a matter of opinion. I can see why the Chicago authorities would think they were being reasonable.
Click to expand...

Well the fact of the matter is that it is not all reasonable to demand people claim lost items in person.
 
Bob Noel said:
Well the fact of the matter is that it is not all reasonable in my opinion to demand people claim lost items in person.
Click to expand...
Fixed that for you.

Seriously, if you were some poor schlep who gave away a lost item to the wrong person, in spite of "reasonable" effort on your part, and you got in serious trouble over it, then you might "reasonably" insist on pickups in person from then on.
 
TMetzinger said:
Fixed that for you completely misquoted me.

Seriously, if you were some poor schlep who gave away a lost item to the wrong person, in spite of "reasonable" effort on your part, and you got in serious trouble over it, then you might "reasonably" insist on pickups in person from then on.
Click to expand...

seriously. Just because some poor schlep has a lost item in his possession doesn't mean he gets to decide the conditions under which it will be returned.

So, once again, the fact of the matter is that it is unquestionably unreasonable to demand someone claim their own item in person.
 
Bob Noel said:
seriously. Just because some poor schlep has a lost item in his possession doesn't mean he gets to decide the conditions under which it will be returned.

So, once again, the fact of the matter is that it is unquestionably unreasonable to demand someone claim their own item in person.
Click to expand...
When the poor schlep is a gov't official, it DOES mean that he (or more probably, his agency's policy makers) get to decide that.

There are all sorts of reasonable ways to solve the issue:

Ship it to the PD in the claimant's vicinity.
Ship it with signature required to the owner's address if known.
Require the claimant to pick it up in person.

But you'll never agree, because apparently you (and only you) get to define what's reasonable.

Don't get me wrong - I think one of the first two alternatives I listed above are better solutions. I just don't think that the third is unreasonable. Unreasonable to me would be to require the claimant to pick it up in person after crawling in backwards, and only on days with "u" in them.
 
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