Yesterday I flew in from Hawaii to Portland. I have been shooting a documentary down there on an amazing surf photographer who passed away 5 years ago. With that, I have invested in a great deal of video and audio equipment to film the entire movie.
I was just going home for Christmas... So I filled up my biggest suitcase with all of my equipment, all my sound equipment, camera equipment, including every lens that I own, and I had it all padded down. It was to much stuff to bring as a carry on.. And I had the option of bringing my hard drives I have been shooting everything on as a carry on, or my camera, and right now my footage is worth more because of all the time I have put into it.
Either way, on the flight back we had a layover, then I got put on standby.... Which meant my bags that were on the airplane continued onto Oregon... Without me... I then went straight to United Airlines while I was at the airport, and I asked if I should have my parents come pick up my bags in Oregon, since I wouldn't be there. She told me that there would be no way that anyone could get them, not even my parents, that they would have to use my ticket stub to get them. She told me they were totally safe...
When my plane arrived in Oregon, my parents and I went straight to pick up the luggage. We saw my small suitcase behind a rope.. my mom walked right through and picked it up... without any security guards... hmmm... what's with this security of how they promised it would be impossible for anyone else to grab the bag? We then talked to United and asked if they had gotten the bag... They looked through there systems, and said it had for sure arrived.. they could even scan that it had gone on the conveyor belt 3 times before they put it behind the line.... From there they didn't know where it went....
So we filled out a report, and had to come back the next day... Met with the police, where they have been reviewing all the security cameras... When we got home this afternoon, around 4.. I get a call from another police officer who had found my bag in a car rental parking garage at the airport, he didn't know the bag had even been stolen at the time, he just saw my name and phone number was on it, and called asking why I had left it.... He then told me he checked before hand and all that was in it was some padding that I had put in to protect my camera stuff.
So yeah... that's where I am now... The bag had everything that I have acquired over the last 6 years of pursuing video.. so it's not the ideal situation.. Right now it doesn't look like United is going to cover it... But we will see..... If not, plan on me making a youtube video about the whole thing, and know that I will be very clear on expressing myself ;)
My whole life/career was in that bag.. that was stolen....
I fly to Tahiti in two weeks to continue on the documentary that I have been shooting in Hawaii... and as of now.. I have no equipment to make that happen....
Anyways,... bring it on :)
p.s. on the super positive side of life, I brought my laptop and all the hard drives of all the footage I have shot over the last 8 months with me on the plane, so none of that was stolen/lost :)
