A friend asked that I post this. This is a great story of how you just can't keep a good guy (or woman) down. What started out bad finished with a happy ending. Plus, this story will alert you to why you need to always be aware of your surroundings, why you need to have a good inventory, and why a guardian angel can be very helpful.
Ok Everybody – have I got a story for you! And if you have never believed in miracles before, I don’t see how you couldn’t change your mind after reading this.
My husband makes beautiful, high-end gold jewelry. Last weekend, we did the show at Lincoln Center in NYC and on Saturday night, after the show when we were getting out of our van at our hotel in New Jersey, 4 guys wearing masks jumped my husband, threw him facedown to the ground, held him down, and yanked the backpack of jewelry off his shoulder and jumped into the car they had pulled up right behind our van. I screamed and grabbed the door handle on the driver’s side, but he just gunned the car and took off, and left me lying on the pavement. And there we were, stunned and devastated, our entire livelihood ripped from us in less than 15 seconds.
Of course the police came and we filled out a report, then spent a sleepless night just clinging to each other, too numb to even talk. We still had about 12 pair of earrings and 5 bracelets which I had been holding in a separate bag so they didn’t get, and we actually opened the next day because I didn’t think we would be allowed to tear down early.
Word spread throughout the show and the other artists were very sympathetic and even took up a collection of about $400 and we were touched and blessed by that. We had decided to be as positive as possible and were thankful that we hadn’t been shot, and I kept believing for a supernatural recovery, because I knew that’s exactly what any recovery would have to be. Our whole church was praying for the same thing.
And guess what – IT HAPPENED!!!!!!!! The following day, Monday, we were in the airport getting ready to fly home, when I get a phone call from a police officer in SOUTH CAROLINA, and in a nutshell, they had pulled over a car going down I-95, for some “irregular driving behavior”, and opened the trunk and there they found a pillowcase filled with a bunch of gold jewelry. They confiscated it and tried to figure out who it belonged to – they didn’t know anything about the police report filed in New Jersey.
My husband stamps the inside of his rings with his first name, but it’s extremely difficult to read because it’s so small – you really have to use a magnifying glass and even then sometimes it is illegible. But they figured it out and googled him on line and FOUND HIM, and that’s when they called me at the airport!!!!!!!
The stolen loot after it was recovered
Of course I was screaming hysterically with happiness in the middle of the airport. The officer said he wasn’t sure how long we would have to wait to go get it because of paperwork and whatnot but then he called a couple days later and said they were releasing it! So we dropped everything, jumped in the car and drove till midnight to get there, and after spending most of the following day in the police station inventorying everything --- WE GOT EVERYTHING BACK EXCEPT THREE PIECES!!!!!!!!!
Not only that, there are more layers to this miracle. Out of their entire police force of 127, those two officers are the only ones on a special team called an “interdiction” force, and they are trained NOT to be just regular traffic policemen, but to specifically look for certain driving behaviors and other things they couldn’t tell me that alert them to thieves and drug runners and stuff like that, and THOSE two officers happened to be at the right place at the right time when these guys went zipping by on I-95 at 5:00 that Monday morning, and they pulled the car over for a “slightly irregular lane change”. The Good Guys
One more layer – those officers were scheduled to work that evening from noon until 7:30, but they said they just had a feeling they would catch more bad guys in the early morning, so they came in to work at 4 a.m. instead. Unbelievable.
And also, another little part of the miracle and a lesson to all of us about keeping a good inventory system: up until about 3 weeks before this happened, our “inventory” system was a big unorganized MESS, but because we had gone about 2 months without doing shows, we had just gone through and taken pictures of every single piece and organized them into folders of Pendants, Rings, etc., and had made a new notebook where we wrote everything about each piece and its price. That notebook was actually in the back pack that they ditched after they dumped everything into the pillowcase, BUT, we had made a copy!!!! And with that in hand, we were able to identify all of our pieces to the police!!!!
When you think about the odds of us recovering that jewelry, especially in the way it was recovered, they would be astronomical – it truly is a miracle.
The Happy Reunion with the Recovered Loot
A few after notes:
- We donated the $400 that was collected for us at the show to C.E.R.F., and told them the story as well.
- We learned that the bad guys were part of a Columbian gang working with the drug cartel, and they were heading to Miami when the officers stopped them on I-95 that morning.
The police made them open their luggage, and there they found the masks they used when they jumped my husband, one of those tools that are used to open a car by going in through the window, and – get this ---- they also found a GPS tracking device that they had used to track us!! In other words, they had put some little device on our van, and with that GPS tracker that they had, they knew where we were even without physically following us. Very scary.
- And scariest of all – these guys are not in jail!!! From what I understand, even though they had enough grounds to apprehend the jewelry, the police had to let the guys drive away because they claimed that they had bought the jewelry all in a big clump from a jeweler and though the police knew they were lying, since they didn’t actually have a victim at the time, and the guys said they would send a receipt (riiiiiight……), by law they had to let them go!!!!! And even though now they have a victim (us), nobody has arrested them because they don’t know exactly where they are and the information I have is that “the investigation is still going on and they are looking.” Isn’t that terrible??? I just hate it when the law protects the bad guys more than us!!!
Comments
Same story with those Columbian gangs when I got hit in 1999 for a huge loss, and other theft attemps that were thwarted. And so many other friends of mine on the show tour got hit. Most not so lucky as in this story. Glad I am out of the business but I always carry now in case I have to defend myself. After all its Florida and the police told me it would help make their job easier if I would shoot the perps first with everything I got, and then call them. You won't hear that in public. I've had some friends in the FBI working these gangs. My uncle was a detective and worked in law enforcement for 40 years. He emphasized the importance to stay alert all the time and practice at the range to stay proficient in using your weapons. The very fact that you carry makes one more cautious because you know the danger.
Tip: Crimes of opportunity are not random, the perps scope you out, know your routine, and figure out the best time to hit you. They will often bump into you or ask you some question while you are busy just to check out your demeanor and see how alert you are. You have to wonder what those chance encounters really are and see if anyone is watching you or following you. They like to hit you while setting up or breaking down when you might be tired and distracted (that was my mistake), or separated from your partner because one person is tearing down and the other is carrying valuable to the van. Checking in and out of hotels is a critical moment for the same reason. I've gotten out the shot gun while moving my luggage to the room. One person stands guard while the other unloads. Be leary of perps hitting you on the way to the ice machine, or breaking into your vehicle at a resraurant. Also disabling your vehicle so it breaks down on the road. Had my tires cut on the inside of the rim where I couldn't see it, so the tire would deflate on the highway. They have even followed artists home and tried to rob them in their driveway. I knew a couple in California who shot it out in their driveway and drove the perps offs, but these artists were very lucky and also very experienced shooters. It is dangerous out there so be careful and be prepared.
Oh my goodness! Sad you had to endure that, but happy you are all right.
It is scary that thieves are using a GPS to track artists. They are always one step ahead. We need to always be aware of what is happening.
Carry a gun, less likely to steal from someone with gun strapped on them. I knew a guy who had a safe bolted to his van for his gold, thought that was a great idea.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to protect themselves from this happening, given that we are out there in the public and easily visible to not only the good guys but the bad ones.
Sometimes things are just meant to be, great story!
Horrific story with a miraculous outcome...thanks for sharing it with us, Jacki, and I hope they catch those bums...
Thanks for posting this story. It sounds sooooo scary! Thank goodness you weren't hurt, except for the 10 years they scared off you. You have to believe in angels when you read stories like this one! Aren't art fair people wonderful??
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