|
Korean Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Teachers from Around the World!"
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Tiberious aka Sparkles
Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Location: I'm one cool cat!
|
 Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 4:39 pm Post subject: Thievery |
 |
|
We moved on Saturday, and yesterday my cell phone was stolen. I'm 95% sure it was the internet hook-up guy, but I don't know if I can go ahead and accuse him because there's a small chance I looked at my wife's phone instead of mine, shortly before he arrived, to see what time it was. In that case, I don't have a complete recollection of seeing my phone at home after we arrived home from lunch. I know the phone has been stolen because it has been shut off, and I had a full battery yesterday.
There's a miniscule chance it may have fallen out of my pocket in the taxi we took home after lunch, but I really, really doubt it. For one, nothing ever falls out of my pockets. Not ever. And, secondly, whenever I come home I always put my things (keys, wallet and mobile phone) on the top shelf of our bookcase. Doing that yesterday after arriving home, one would think I'd have been alerted then that my phone was missing.
So I'm contemplating accusing the cable guy of stealing the phone. I realize that even if I do there's a slim chance of getting it back, because it'll basically be his word against mine, but I have to try something. There were over 100 photos of our lovely daughter on that phone.
Anyone else have stories about movers, cable guys etc. stealing from them?
Sparkles*_* |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
JongnoGuru
Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep
|
| Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 5:53 pm Post subject: Re: Thievery |
|
|
| Tiberious aka Sparkles wrote: |
Anyone else have stories about movers, cable guys etc. stealing from them?
Sparkles*_* |
Movers, yes. Money. Money that was stuffed in an envelope, in the drawer of a small table. The drawer was taped shut to prevent the contents from slipping during the move. By the time I got to the small table, the tape was gone and so was cash from the envelope.
We use a special tape which doesn't adhere like other tapes do, so you can safely remove it without pulling off wood veneer or leaving behind any tape gum on the surface. Ideal for wooden furniture, antiques, large framed paintings, etc.
Depending on what you're hiring the movers to do, you can have them (a few ajumas, specifically) come in beforehand and pack your small items (clothes, books, plates, etc.) and ready your furniture for the move. In this case, they will also unpack, arrange and store your items at your new home. I specifically did not order the "full service", as I didn't know exactly where I wanted a lot of things. I just tried to indicate which boxes and furniture go in which rooms, and I would unpack and sort everything myself after they leave.
There comes a point in almost every house-move when it's a bit of three-ring circus -- movers offloading fridges, dining tables, sofas, blocking stairs and hallways, you can't get around them, you're running in and out, up and down, trying to supervise everything.
It can be chaotic enough when all your rooms are on one floor, as in an apartment or a villa. Multiply the confusion 3x or more with a house, several floors, basement, garage, etc. And things get scratched or dropped or toppled, or just stowed in the wrong corner/room/floor. Pandemonium. The Three Stooges may be entertaining to watch, but it ain't so funny when it's your stuff that's at risk.
So my main concern was to maximise the proper placement of items and minimise the collateral damage. Once the job was done, I paid them, tipped them, and sent the movers on their way.
Hours later -- may have even been the next day -- as I had worked my way up room by room, floor by floor, I came to that small table. Odd... Why would they have removed the tape from this one single item?  They'd left the tape on everything else, as I requested. Opened the drawer, saw the envelope (which had been there for a few days, and what with the move and all, I'd forgotten about entirely), and found the amount to be W200,000 lighter than it had been. I had prepared that money to give to my maid, and no-one had been in my home since I put it there, so I knew precisely how much had been there prior to the move.
I went directly to the moving company the next day, with the envelope, and confronted them. They denied knowing a thing about it. End of story. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
eamo
Joined: 08 Mar 2003
Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.
|
| Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 8:41 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Don't think you get any joy by confronting them Sparkles. It's not like they're going to own up. Might make you feel better to go and vent just so they know you know he did it.
Might get him in some hot water with his boss. Once a thief always a thief. Maybe his boss has covered up for him before.
Is there anyway the phone company can track the phone once it's used again? Some clever CSI-type triangulation thing??!! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
itaewonguy
Joined: 25 Mar 2003
|
| Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 8:46 pm Post subject: |
|
|
sorry about that man..
guess you havent moved much in your life...
all valuables go with you in your car..
keep an eye on your stuff all times when movers are in the house..
and GURU dude.. why did you have cash sitting in a drawer.. you asked for that one.. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Zyzyfer
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Location: who, what, where, when, why, how?
|
| Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 9:44 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Were they still helping you move on Sunday? I text messaged you Sunday morning about B-ball...was it stolen after that? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
JacktheCat
Joined: 08 May 2004
|
| Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 9:58 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Compared to most countries I've lived in, Korea is a pretty safe place. (dishonest, scumy hackwon bosses aside)
The only major problem I've run into is the &*@#s who keep trying to steal my motorcycle. Three times they've tried to take it. The last time they went so far as to cut the ignition wires and hotwire it.
Luckily, I am a paranoid fucker and keep my bike changed to the wall with a chain, a very big, thick chain, when I'm not riding it. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
agraham
Joined: 19 Aug 2004
Location: Daegu, Korea
|
| Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 10:11 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| That's crappy Tiberious. My buddy had his cell stolen at the water pia when he left his locker open while he fixed his hair. Luckily some other stranger saw the thief do it, chased him down and got the phone back. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
bosintang
Joined: 01 Dec 2003
Location: In the pot with the rest of the mutts
|
| Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 10:42 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| JacktheCat wrote: |
Compared to most countries I've lived in, Korea is a pretty safe place. (dishonest, scumy hackwon bosses aside)
|
I keep hearing this from different people...I won't be convinced until I see actual statistics. It's not that I think Korea is a *dangerous* place, but I suspect most people just take it for granted that it's a safer country than our own countries without any substantiation behind that. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
JacktheCat
Joined: 08 May 2004
|
| Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 10:48 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| bosintang wrote: |
| JacktheCat wrote: |
Compared to most countries I've lived in, Korea is a pretty safe place. (dishonest, scumy hackwon bosses aside)
|
I keep hearing this from different people...I won't be convinced until I see actual statistics. It's not that I think Korea is a *dangerous* place, but I suspect most people just take it for granted that it's a safer country than our own countries without any substantiation behind that.
|
That's just my personal experience from living in 13 countries.
Japan being the safest; South Africa the most dangerous.
In Africa, my family had barbed wire topped walls, an armed guard, and burgler-bar windows, and we still got robbed twice.
Countdown to Real Reality posting a link to Korean crime statistics 1 2 3 ..... |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
agraham
Joined: 19 Aug 2004
Location: Daegu, Korea
|
| Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 11:13 pm Post subject: |
|
|
My life in downtown Vancouver felt like fighting a tide of constant petty crime. I had cars and motorcylces and bicycles stolen. My apartment broken into, my van spraypainted on. Windows in my car smashed over and over. Partyers throwing a planter at me, a complete stranger, from a ten story apartment just for kicks.. yeah! You put something down in Vancouver for two seconds and it's gone. Working in retail was rediculous. At one point I worked in a copy shop that could not buy insurance at any price. Working in a cell phone store I chased down a mugger. Years ago I was mugged myself. I've called the cops on crimes in progress probably a dozen times, seen two apartment breakins happening personally, and most of my friends have been broken into at some point or another.
You hang out on Granville Street after the clubs let out for any amount of time at you're going to see blood spilled.
The worst part is the absolute worthlessness of it all. Some cracked out bum steals the seat off your bicycle. What's he going to do with it?
Here in Deagu in ten months I've heard about my friend's cell stolen and then recovered by a stranger. My girlfriend's, friend's hair salon had the cash taken from the register. My buddy was punched by some xenophobe for looking like an American. That's it. If I went went ten months in Vancouver never experiencing a crime and only hearing about three, I would have to assume the East Vancouver cracktown got warped out of existence or something. If I went went ten months clubbing and barhopping and never experienced someone trying to start shit with me I would think someone's putting valium in the water. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
JongnoGuru
Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep
|
| Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 11:16 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| JacktheCat wrote: |
In Africa, my family had barbed wire topped walls, an armed guard, and burgler-bar windows, and we still got robbed twice.
|
But for the armed guard (we do have regular roving patrols, though ) you've just described my neighbourhood in northern Seoul. (And we've "invisible" as well as the metal burglar bars.)
Right, nothing beats Japan. But, as I just said in the Pepper Gas thread, Korea certainly is in that direction re: likelihood of violent, criminal attacks on your home or person. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Tiberious aka Sparkles
Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Location: I'm one cool cat!
|
| Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 5:43 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Zyzyfer wrote: |
| Were they still helping you move on Sunday? I text messaged you Sunday morning about B-ball...was it stolen after that? |
It wasn't the movers, though one mover in particular deserves his own vitriolic post. It was the internet hook-up guy. It happened after we came home from lunch, which is where I was when you sent me the text messages.
Funny thing is, I think the guy did it from spite. When he arrived 2 hours late, I realized we didn't have a spare multi-tap for the PC. My wife urged me to run to Hi-Mart and pick one up, to which I replied:
"He made us wait 2 f-ing hours; he can wait while I walk to Hi-Mart and pick the damn thing up."
What really slays me is that, when I returned, the dude was laughing at all my unfunny jokes; and he didn't once look me in the eyes.
Guilty. I hope the rotten batard gets crabs.
Sparkles*_* |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Konundrum
Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Location: Boston
|
| Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 8:29 am Post subject: |
|
|
Once, my favorite sungalsses went missing and I figured they must've fallen out of my pocket on the bus.
About a month later, I got on a bus (of the same #) and I found them...on the driver. I KNOW they were mine from dings and marks I had made on them. I asked the bus driver about them..they said they were his. I asked where he bought them..he said his girlfriend bought them for him.
ehh...whaddya gonna do? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
shawner88
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
|
| Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 8:32 am Post subject: |
|
|
In 4 years (is it 5 now?) I've had nothing stolen from me. I didn't even have a working lock on my door the whole year that I lived in Ulsan. Had an apple notebook computer that time too. Not saying that I was too smart, but getting my boss ( or girlfriend) to do anything for me was a major pain in the rear and I had no idea how to contact a locksmith.
However, I've had a few friends who've had their scooters stolen.
Last edited by shawner88 on Mon May 02, 2005 7:00 pm; edited 1 time in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Zyzyfer
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Location: who, what, where, when, why, how?
|
| Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 8:42 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Tiberious aka Sparkles wrote: |
| Zyzyfer wrote: |
| Were they still helping you move on Sunday? I text messaged you Sunday morning about B-ball...was it stolen after that? |
It wasn't the movers, though one mover in particular deserves his own vitriolic post. It was the internet hook-up guy. It happened after we came home from lunch, which is where I was when you sent me the text messages.
Funny thing is, I think the guy did it from spite. When he arrived 2 hours late, I realized we didn't have a spare multi-tap for the PC. My wife urged me to run to Hi-Mart and pick one up, to which I replied:
"He made us wait 2 f-ing hours; he can wait while I walk to Hi-Mart and pick the damn thing up."
What really slays me is that, when I returned, the dude was laughing at all my unfunny jokes; and he didn't once look me in the eyes.
Guilty. I hope the rotten batard gets crabs.
Sparkles*_* |
That sucks. I always stay on premises and keep an eye on folk like that. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
