the rest of the story

Ok, so some kids stole my backpack because I was relaxed and stupid. Actually, that's pretty significant because I am generally not very relaxed. I tend to be stressed out a lot and not always for great reason. Even on vacations I make the family run around and see as much possible before leaving for home. We've taken a couple of beach vacations and the one to Cozumel Azure absolutely hated because all we did was snorkel which she found too boring (I'm rubbing off on her). The point is that I need to relax more and I'm hoping our move to Costa Rica will resolve my problem since I have found it possible to relax there.

On to the rest of the story. After the guys stole my backpack, I found some policemen and reported the crime. They interviewed some of the people in the vicinity to no avail. One of the policemen spoke English which helped tremendously when it came to taking our statements but they never once asked me to describe my backpack which made it clear they had no intention of trying to find it. Patrick even drove down to the station to fill out an official report but not until after he personally made a sweep of the area checking to see if possibly my backpack and a pile of the stuff inside were dumped somewhere (we were the only ones looking around the perimeter).

The entire time he was gone, I sat at the bus station worried we would miss our bus to San Jose. Since we had an ARCR seminar to attend at 8am the next day and the 3pm bus out of Jaco was our only opportunity to be in San Jose on time it was important we catch the bus.

Upon arriving back from the police station, the English speaking cop told me they had the roads leading out of town blocked and they would definitely catch the culprits. HA! I knew already that I would never see my backpack or its contents again and since no one could give a good description of the two guys that stole it, they would never catch them either.

We did catch the bus to San Jose and then I immediately called the credit card company to report my card stolen. By the way, this is harder to do from Costa Rica than I imagined especially since the hotel room was paid for with the card that was stolen so I had to make the calls from the front desk.

Here's where the problem lies. It seems that I gave the thieves too much time before reporting my card stolen. They used my card to make a purchase at Penny Lane- $149.56 worth plus international transaction fees. Personally, I'm not sure why the card was ever accepted since it clearly was a gringo card AND I never signed it on purpose! I'm guessing a friend of theirs ran it through? Anyway, I have been fighting with Bank Of America ever since. I finally thought I had it resolved in March and then on June 13th they debited my account for $449.19 saying it is for duplicate adjustments previously made to my account. I have been furiously trying to get this resolved ever since I noticed it on my online statement but with all the time spent visiting lately this is proving more difficult than I imagined. Yesterday I expected a call from a manager and when no one called by 4:30pm I called them AGAIN. This time the call reps wouldn't even listen to me and basically hung up on me even though I was being very civil. I have worked in call centers before and I know it doesn't pay to be irate. They claim they have sent me a new statement and won't discuss this matter with me until I receive it and call back then. WHAT? I explained I am moving and need to get this handled now and they didn't care. I plan to call back every day until I get some consideration since several call reps have already agreed with me that this charge should be reversed but no one will do it...

enough ranting for today- I must relax ;-)