Arriving at the central car park in Sibiu last Wednesday evening, I was full of anticipation for a great evening exploring the Christmas Market and buying gifts and Christmas Fare for the family. As I picked up my mobile from the car's centre console, I noticed two missed calls from Mihai who I was supposed to be meeting (car stereo on too loud to hear mobile ringing!). I called and told him where I was but he was still at his apartment, ten minutes drive away. Mihai said I should carry on to the Market and he would find me.
Piata Mare is about five minutes walk from the car park and I did a quick circuit of the stalls to see what was on offer. Just after 6pm my phone rang but stopped again by the time I retrieved it from my jeans' pocket. It was Mihai again so I pressed the call button and a voice nearby said "Hi Laurie" - Mihai was right beside me! We wandered around the market for about ten minutes then I bought some warm slippers (for myself!) and three items as gifts for family. I gave the stall holder a 50 RON note from my wallet and put it back in my pocket. After collecting the change we had walked no more than 20 metres when I reached into my pocket again for my wallet and realised it had gone. I checked all my pockets and the two plastic bags containing my purchases but definitely NO wallet. We quickly returned to the last stall visited and checked on the ground - no wallet. It contained about 120 RON (£24) in notes plus some coins, three credit cards and a debit card. Less than five minutes had passed from putting the wallet in my pocket to realising it had been stolen and it was straight away reported to a nearby policeman. He advised us to go to the small police office just off Piata Mare but there we were told to go to the Police HQ. Uppermost in my mind was getting the cards cancelled but my car park ticket was also in the stolen wallet! Thankfully there was an attendant at the car park, even though it had payment machines and automatic barriers. After Mihai explained the situation the attendant said to me, in English, he was sorry about what had happened in his city and he would open the barrier for us. I still had 1020 RON in my jean's pocket and offered to pay for the time my car had been in the car park but he wouldn't hear of it and both our cars were waved out without payment! I followed Mihai to his apartment where I could get on the internet and find the "Lost or Stolen Cards" call centre numbers for my UK card issuers. There was only one number on the NatWest website, yet for some reason, after reporting my credit card stolen I was passed on to a different number to report my debit card stolen! Calling NatWest and Nationwide took about half an hour, including the inevitable "Sorry, all our operatives are busy at present. Please hold" after which my prepay Romanian mobile was down to just 41 Eurocents of credit. To call the third card issuer, I had to use my UK mobile and by the time I had finished all the calls, I only had 30p of credit left on my second phone! Mihai had kindly offered me the use of his home phone but knowing the calls would take a while, I did not want to run up an expensive bill for him. NatWest told me that one card had been successfully used at an ATM just under one hour after being stolen. The thief had obviously deciphered some of my PIN numbers written as a sort of code on a piece of card in the wallet - silly thing to do I know but as the cards were seldom used in Romania I could never remember the PINs. Attempts had been made to use a second card but the PIN had been entered incorrectly three times and the card automatically retained by the ATM.
Just as I finished making the calls, Mihai's fiancee Ioanna arrived and said how sorry she was to hear about what had happened. I decided I didn't want to spend an hour at the Police HQ that evening so Ioanna prepared a meal for us and then we chatted about anything and everything but the theft to keep it out of my mind! With the assurances that all my cards had been cancelled and once I had spoken to the banks' fraud teams in the morning my accounts would be credited with the stolen amounts, I was able to sleep on Mihai's comfortable coltar (bed/settee).
Next morning we went to the Police HQ where I filed a complaint and was given a Crime Reference Number. Mihai had to leave me at the Police HQ to catch a bus to Bucharest. However, the police lady handling my complaint spoke English anyway so there was no communication problem. In the event I was only at the Police HQ for half an hour and then headed back to Roandola.
Back in Roandola I rang NatWest from my home phone and spoke to the Fraud Team who were able to give me times and locations of the ATMs used by the thief. These details have been passed to the Sibiu Police HQ who will check the CCTV cameras at the ATMs and throughout the city to see if they recognize the thief. I'm not holding my breath though!
As a Christian I have forgiven the thief although, I must admit, this is easier to do when you receive a text message from the bank confirming the stolen money has all been credited back to your account!
Mihai's trip to Bucharest was to attend an annual railway industry ceremony and the Sibiu-Agnita Railway had been nominated for an award. Admittedly the SAR was the only nomination in the category this year but nevertheless it's still a big feather in SAR's cap! Mihai has since emailed me about the event, confirming he received the award. It was quite a prestige event and all the other awards went to large companies or international consortiums involved in multi-million Euro projects to modernise the Romanian railway's locomotive fleet and infrastructure so it was quite daunting for Mihai to be in such company! There is a report on the ceremony at http://www.railwayinsider.eu/wp/?p=12934
Over the next couple of days I shall be getting things ready for the 2500kms drive to the UK for Christmas and the New Year. My car will be loaded up with presents for the family and lots of food and drink for the festivities - plus a 90cm satellite dish which an English friend from Mana Church has asked me to take for a Romanian who now lives and works in the UK but is missing Romanian TV! He lives in Yorkshire but his job takes him all over the UK so we will arrange to meet, either at an M40 service area or at Chieveley Services depending on where he may be working.
In Roandola there is currently about 12cms of accumulated snow and the 8kms of road between my house and Road 14 is snow and slush covered but the main roads are completely clear. I am keeping a careful eye on the weather across Europe as this will determine whether I leave on Friday or Saturday morning to get to the Calais Eurotunnel terminal by 17:00 CET on Tuesday 21st. Driving to Romania in April towing a caravan at a steady 90kph (56mph) took a total of 32 hours on the road, including at least two hours searching off the motorway for petrol for my rather thirsty V6 Audi! This time however, I'll be driving my diesel Dacia Logan MCV which has so far averaged 4.2 litres per 100 kms (65+ mpg) over 5500kms of mixed town and open road driving. One tank full should get me over half way to Calais, especially as from Budapest on I will be driving on motorways and hopefully be able to maintain a steady and very economical speed. If I get to Belgium in good time I am hoping to visit Bruges, something I have wanted to do for a while but so far failed. I tried to book a coach trip from Grove/Wantage last year but it was already fully booked. If I don't get to Bruges on the journey to the UK, perhaps I will get there on the way back to Romania although the reason for visiting on the outward journey is to get some of the famous Bruges chocolates for family and friends!
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