BSC Open - unfortunate experience

[unbelman.livejournal.com]

BCS in Davis is now open. It's a pretty small space and I wonder what it will be like after the new year (resolutions and all) and during peak hours.

I went today at about noon. I worked out for about 10 mins and then needed to use the rest room, when walking past my locker I noticed the lock was missing. My credit card, debit card and diver's license were all gone. Oddly, my watch and the money (about $60) were still there. The staff was sympathetic but not much they can do.

Luckily the debit card was with Wainwright so I just walked on over and they did everything. And I had literally cancelled the credit card right before leaving the house because of another issue. Not looking forward to the trip to the registry.

The staff recommended a key lock as opposed to a combination lock like I had.

All in all, it could have been worse...

Comments

Happens in every health club...

[red-liner.livejournal.com]

Really sorry to hear about your loss - but pretty much every health club has this problem. Some of the criminal element make it a speciality, as it's easy to blend in with the exercise crowd, relatively easy to break open most locks/lockers, and you can usually be sure that whoever puts their stuff in a locker and goes out to the workout room will be gone for 30-45 minutes. The Bally in Porter Square has had periodic rashes of this (actually, that club probably has a lot of rashes....), and so have several other places I've gone to.

It *is* impressive that the perp was ready and waiting so quickly, although speed is an important element of the crime. When it happened to me some years ago, I was able to tell from the credit card records that the person who did it was at an electronics store within 15 minutes and had a big-screen TV and a stereo before I'd finished on the elliptical.

Since then, I've just made a point of trying to not put anything in a club locker that would be useful to a thief (especially cards/licenses). Some clubs have little safe-deposit boxes you can use, but probably the best approach is to just leave your wallet at home, stashed in your car, or in the pocket of your gym shorts.

Re: Happens in every health club...

[teko.livejournal.com]

If BSC was smart, they'd know that everyone who's gone to health clubs has either had this experience or has seen it happen, and would trumpet their lockers as extra-secure -- say, with a card-swipe system to open with a membership card.