Season’s Greetings
December 25, 2009
For the very first time, I visited Town Square this year for their Christmas festivities and it was actually quite enjoyable.
The “town” was quite crowded, and we even got to enjoy a psuedo-white Christmas. At 7pm (Sun thru Thur) and 8pm (Fri and Sat), Town Square uses snow machines to blanket the central Christmas tree, and for 10 minutes it actually feels like you are somewhere, anywhere, other than Las Vegas. Especially with last night’s temperatures in the 30′s.
Snowing at Town Square
Snowing at Town Square
Snowing at Town Square
Snowing at Town Square
Afterward, there was a large amount of Christmas shopping, window shopping, coffee sipping, and the place just felt alive as people from all ages and all walks of life milled about and seemed to be having a good time.
I can’t help but feel that Town Square is everything City Center promised to be, but isn’t. Well except for the casino and hotels.
Anyway, after playing in the “snow” and doing some shopping, we headed over to the Las Vegas Sign which is one short mile north of the Town Square parking lot.
We have a lot of whacky Vegas traditions, and a yearly family picture at the Vegas Sign is one of them. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that the sign had been vandalized for the second time this year, and they have yet to repair the latest round of damage. As I watched one group after another queue up to take photos in front of the damaged sign, I could not help but feel bad that some of them were getting their first souvenir under an imperfect landmark.
Welcome to Las Vegas Sign - Vandalized
While I blame the perpetrator for this vandalism (I’ll personally never mention his name), I do also hold the media somewhat accountable.
There is no doubt in my mind that the mass local and national hysteria that followed the preceding round of vandalism was responsible for making the sign a higher profile target. Vandals city-wide no longer have to toil in obscurity after throwing up their tags. They are now acutely aware that hitting the sign provides insta-cred and instant attention.
Oscar Goodman’s “Off with their heads!” nonsense didn’t help matters either. It was a bunch of false bravado (I’m pretty sure the vandal still has a head) meant to sound like a cool sound-bite, but which will do little more than to egg on others. Hopefully Oscar will stick to what he does best, which is being the city’s greatest media whore.
After getting some photographs, we began walking back to the car when I stepped on something. When I looked down, I noticed that I had stumbled upon a lost wallet, and I immediately picked it up and looked around. How in the hell would I know who it belonged to?
Of course, this being Las Vegas, I didn’t openly solicit the owner. Had I held it above my head and asked “Did anyone lose a wallet?”, I would have been swamped with claimants.
Instead, I flipped it open, looked at the driver’s license, and then looked for a person matching the photo.
Nothing.
I stood in the spot where I found it for a little while, and nobody came back looking for it. I looked through the wallet for a phone number, but to no avail. There was a YMCA membership card and an auto body business card, but being nighttime, I knew they would not be open.
I didn’t have all night, so I threw it in the glove compartment of the car and decided to deal with it in the morning.
I had all but forgotten about the wallet this morning, but I resumed my search for the owner shortly after noon. I called the YMCA and let it ring about 20 times before giving up. Same with the repair shop. Being Christmas Eve, this came as no surprise.
It was at this point I turned to the banking information. There were about 7 credit/ATM cards inside, so I plucked the first one out and dialed the number on the back.
The following conversation transpired:
CSR (customer service rep): Card Services, may I help you?
Me: Hello, I am in Las Vegas and I found the wallet of one of your card members, could you please have him call me so that I may return it to him?”
CSR: I’m sorry, but we can’t do that.
Me: I know you can’t give me his information, so I am giving you my information so that he can call me and retrieve his property. I assume that he is on vacation and needs his money so that he can enjoy himself. Vegas is not a lot of fun without cash.
CSR: No sir, we cannot do that. If you give me the card number, I will cancel it.
Me: How is that going to help anyone? If I was interested in using his credit card, I would not be calling you. I’m trying to return it.
CSR: I understand Sir, but all we can do is cancel it.
Me: What about his other six cards?
CSR: You should call the number on the back of those cards and cancel them as well.
Me: I should spend my Christmas Eve canceling some guy’s credit cards?
CSR: Yes.
Me: Wouldn’t the right thing to do be return his wallet while he’s on vacation?
CSR: If you don’t want his cards used without authorization, you should cancel them.
Me: If I don’t want his cards used without authorization, I just won’t use them.
CSR: Well, that’s your choice, we are a third party card services company and we are not authorized to release customer information.
Me: (at this point I began wishing her a happy holiday)
CSR: Sir, I’m not required to listen to profanity.
Me: (hang up)
Clearly the company was solely concerned about their own liability and did not give a damn about their customer who was on vacation.
Apparently, I will have no choice but to drop the thing in a mailbox, and ship it back to Florida. I am aware that the cards will probably be cancelled by the time the wallet gets there, and his vacation is undoubtedly ruined, but there is absolutely nothing that I can do.
Do I have a point?
Yes.
As you struggle to buy gifts for loved ones this year, you can take heart knowing that much of your money has already been given as a gift to corrupt parasitic corporations staffed by minimum-wage assholes who would just as shit down your throat as look at you.
Town Square Christmas Tree
Merry Christmas.
Suckers.
Written by Mike on December 25, 2009 at 5:41 am
You are a good person!
Written by Tyler Durden on December 25, 2009 at 6:54 am
You tried at least. Most people would have looked for cash and tossed it in the trash. Rather sad the credit card company wouldn’t contact the owner of the cards. I’ve been contacted by my credit card company in Vegas because they suspected fraud when the card was used at a casino for food.
This may put a damper on their vacation, but imagine the surprise when they get home and it’s waiting for them there. You should put a note with the envelope about how their credit card companies refused to inform the owner that their valuables were found. They may have one less customer after such a lame thing. So much for the Christmas spirit from credit card companies.
Merry Christmas Rex.
Written by philipj on December 25, 2009 at 2:49 pm
A. You have the name & address of the owner of the wallet. Google, Langenberg.com, whitepages.com and others might get you a home telephone number. Langenberg has somewhere a system to find a street in certain cities. That will allow you to find a neighbor who may be able to help you find the guy while he is in Las Vegas. They may know where he works, maybe someone there can help save his vacation by helping get his wallet back. It can be done.
Do not drop it in the mail box. You are a good guy. If all else fails put it in a small box & mail it back to his address, with your return address on the box. How about putting up a note/sign near the enterence of the “Sign” for_________________________________ please call Vegasrex at ________________
B. I think it would be a good idea not to use the words “tag” or “tagged”. Instead refer to it was malicious destruction or defaced. Tagging is somptin kool, malicious destruction does not have any “masculinity” attached to it. It causes people to correctly look down on the fool.
C. I am glad your family & you had a good time on Christmas Eve. That’s the way it should be. Good for you.
Written by mad dog on December 25, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Good of you to try and unite the owner with his property. I know it would be a lot of work, but if you contact his local police dept. in Florida they would be able to reach somebody at their YMCA that would know the guy and/or his family in order to get in touch with him on vacation. Now whether they would expend the effort to do all this is another thing. In the spirit of Christmas they might just do it.. All depends on how big the town is and how generous they are feeling.
In any case the guy will get his wallet back intact thanks to your kind intervention.
Written by BigRedDogATL on December 25, 2009 at 7:08 pm
One other thing to maybe track the owner down, if you are willing to spend the time and make about 1-2 dozen calls, call each of the major hotels in the strip and see if they guy is registered at the hotel. If so, leave a message to have him call you.
I know it is a lot of work, but if the guy is from Florida, then he most likely flew into Las Vegas. Without a picture ID, like his driver’s license, he won’t be able to get past TSA security and onto a plane back home.
Who knows, if you help the guy get his wallet back, being from Florida he may know some drug lords who can fix you up with a lifetime supply of goodies as a reward.
Written by Mr. Obvious on December 26, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Long time reader, first time poster.
Perhaps the Las Vegas police might be a good place to call? If he thought he was a pickpocket victim he probably contacted them, and even if he thought he just lost it he’d probably call the police to see if a good samaritan turned it in.
Written by Rex on December 26, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Perhaps the Las Vegas police might be a good place to call?
If someone was standing over me with a gun pointed at my head, and I was allowed to make one phone call before they pulled the trigger, that call would not be to the Las Vegas Police.
I would sooner dial a random number and ask for help.
It’s unlikely the man would ever see has wallet at all had I gone that route.
I know that I’m not going to steal it, but I have no idea what a 3rd party might do.
As such, it makes no sense to risk it.
Written by Dave The Gambler on December 27, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Seasons greeting to you Vegas Rex, and to the readers of your blog. I’ve followed you for several years now – always fun, always informative. Thanks for a great Las Vegas read!
http://beatthecasinos.blogspot.com – We help you to beat those nasty casinos, online and land based. Take it all – get what you can. Bring down the house!!!
Written by james on December 28, 2009 at 8:43 pm
CSRs are pretty useless when you ask them to do a task that goes beyond regurgitating numbers back and forth.
I found a stray dog in my neighborhood that had a tag, but the phone number was a cell that had been disconnected. I called the cell company (forgot which one, one of the prepaid ones) and explained the situation. Needless to say, the conversation pretty much went the same as Rex’s.
Luckily I found the dog’s owner as they were only a couple of streets over.