The Dangers Of Traveling

[Sean62]

I went from the UK to Dublin on Sept 21st, met up with Ryan and a few other FOH characters for an enjoyable evening of cigar smoking and chat.  I continued on my way to Canada on Sept 24th, arrived at 5:00 pm, traveling light with mainly my laptop and two weeks supply of my favorite cigars in travelling humidor.  I woke up the next day in the airport hotel without remembering anything after the arrival, with my backpack emptied of the cigars and laptop.  I eventually figured out what had happened.   After arriving I think I stopped in an airport cafe to get my bearings and ordered a coffee.  (I didn't drink any alcohol)  I figure that someone spiked my drink with Rohypnol,  the date rape drug!   I have been feeling rough for a few days,  missing my cigars much more than the laptop,  but it could have been worse.  At least I didn't lose my virginity! I didn't lose my passport or wallet because they were in my front pants pockets fortunately.  Now I would like to meet up with some Toronto cigar smokers.   I heard that there is a regular group that meets up.   If anyone knows about that group please pass on the information. 

 

 

[NSXCIGAR]

Have you taken an inventory of all your internal organs? 

[B44]

That’s horrible man, but glad you’re alright. What can we do to help? 

[Edicion]

Could have been a drug for sure, but also strongly suggest that you see a doctor to rule out that there is nothing wrong with your health, take some tests perhaps.

I would also report the incident to the authorities, good chances that CCTV picked up what happened to you.

Hope the rest of the trip is better. 

[La_Tigre]

And just where do you think this “regular group that meets up” gets their cigars…. 🤔 

[Sean62]

13 hours ago, La_Tigre said:

And just where do you think this “regular group that meets up” gets their cigars…. 🤔 

I hear that the Native Reservations here in Canada are free from duties and taxes,  and that they legally sell online... today I will need to try to replenish

...of course some of them may be wealthy enough to pay the exorbitant prices in the cigar stores,  or elsewhere

 

19 hours ago, NSXCIGAR said:

Have you taken an inventory of all your internal organs? 

I hear in places like Bolivia, and India that's what they are after,  how horrible!

 

19 hours ago, B44 said:

That’s horrible man, but glad you’re alright. What can we do to help? 

Thanks for the question... Actually if you live in Toronto and have some spare Partagas D4 or Montecristo 1, or Montecristo 2, or Trinidad Fundadores etc. and are feeling particularly generous I would be delighted to meet up I will be trying to replenish as much as I can as soon as I can

[Bijan]

2 hours ago, Sean62 said:

I hear that the Native Reservations here in Canada are free from duties and taxes,  and that they legally sell online... today I will need to try to replenish

...of course some of them may be wealthy enough to pay the exorbitant prices in the cigar stores,  or elsewhere

They don't pay provincial taxes or charge sales tax but they still have to pay Canadian duties. So their prices are just under 2x online duty free prices whereas Canadian brick and mortar is 3x.

[Sean62]

14 hours ago, Edicion said:

Could have been a drug for sure, but also strongly suggest that you see a doctor to rule out that there is nothing wrong with your health, take some tests perhaps.

I would also report the incident to the authorities, good chances that CCTV picked up what happened to you.

Hope the rest of the trip is better. 

Me too!  I just googled the issue and many thousands of people around the world are being ripped off / mugged in the same way.   

[Sean62]

AN INTERESTING UPDATE !!!!

TRAVELLING TO TORONTO

 

I left Manchester, UK, (Ryanair) on Sept 21^st, spent a few delightful days in Dublin and carried on to Toronto on Sept 24^th. I remember boarding the Aer Lingus flight in Dublin and the next thing I remember is waking up in the Toronto airport hotel that I was booked into the following morning at 9am.

 

I was travelling very light, with a tiny backpack to avoid the new high airline charges (at Ryanair) for regular carry on luggage. It now has to fit under the seat or one needs to pay a lot of money for the usual carry-on size. I went with the clothes I was wearing, a small old laptop a container of 20 cigars, and a few toiletries. When I woke up in the hotel I realized that my laptop and cigars were missing.

 

I had taken one sleeping tablet on the plane which is my usual practice when travelling overseas as I always get severe jetlag. I always take them for 3 or 4 days to regulate my sleep, and they have been prescribed for me since 1996 to manage jetlag. I remembered nothing since the Dublin takeoff, and I was mystified. I was picked up by a friend at the hotel the morning of the 25^th and I tried to piece together what had happened. I eventually realized that I must have been drugged and mugged. Knowing my usual habits I imagined that after diembarking in Toronto I stopped at the first ‘arrivals’ cafe to have a coke or a coffee and someone dropped a drug into my drink. I began researching on google for the ways travellers are drugged and robbed and the usual method is with Rohypnol, also known as the date rape drug. Apparently it is used 20% of the time for date rape and 80% for robberies. It is extremely common in many cities and usually wealthy businessmen are targeted. I was wearing a very expensive cashmere coat worth £1500, a Pierre Cardin, that I bought on eBay (used) for perhaps £25. I think I misled the robbers into thinking they might find money and expensive technology because of my appearance. I am living on a tiny pension. The laptop was 7 years old and not a Mac. The cigar container had some Boveda Pack envelopes (for humidification) that probably looked unusual, curious or interesting. While sitting beside me in the cafe I imagine that the robbers rifled through my backpack and put these things into another backpack, then went off on their way. I reported my missing items to the Lost and Found office at the airport by telphone the following day and didn’t hear anything back from them. It took me three days for my head to clear completely although I was much more functional the next morning. A week later I received an email:

 

“Hello Sean , I am a employee at Pearson international airport. Yesterday I found a box of cigars and a laptop in the ditch off the side of a road near the viscount parking garage . I turned the laptop on and found this email address signed in to google.

If this laptop belongs to you or somebody you know please let me know and we can arrange to get it back to you.

Best regards , Sully
Sent from my iPhone”

 

I replied to his email, thanking him for getting in touch with me, and asking him to telephone me the following morning. He did call and he told me he was a ‘Falconer’ at the airport and he was looking for a trained hawk (used to clear the runways of problematic birds) and that he was searching the parking levels because they sometimes got lost in there. He said that as he exited the ramp he noticed the laptop and cigars in the grass by the road. He opened my laptop which was still working, entered my gmail account and found my email address (as the sender). I was very suspicious that he might be the robber and could be asking for a ransom for the computer. I thought his story sounded a bit fantastic and maybe was used on many other victims. He wanted to visit the house where I was staying but I asked him to just drop them off at the airport ‘Lost and Found’. He said he would do so and sent me an email the next day saying he had done that, leaving them in my name. I then I went to the airport and sure enough they gave me back my laptop and the cigars. All I really lost was perhaps 24 hours of memory!

 

I imagine that the robbers were very disappointed to find that there was no money, no drugs, and an antique laptop when they expected much more.

 

I always travel with my passport, wallet and phone in my front pants pockets so I think although they could easily search through the backpack without getting much attention, pretending it was theirs, they couldn’t rifle through my front pockets in public without drawing attention.

 

Fortunately I intentionally leave my laptop without a password to save myself thousands of keystrokes. It was easy for him to discover the owner. If I had a password protecting the laptop I doubt that I would have had the items returned to me

 

I never lost my cool through all this and actually had some very wonderful times with family, kind of coming to resolution with people and making significant progress in some important relationships.

 

So all is well

( I was smoking Montecristo 4 cigars in Toronto as they are so expensive, so I was delighted to be reunited with this selection    )

 

 

 

[mrmessy]

Happy to hear it ended well! And all your organs are intact.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

[cnov]

Glad to hear you've been reunited with your stuff!

You've got a hell of a traveling story before you barely left the airport too.