April 14th, 2009 part 2

The Great Train Robbery
If you havent read the post leading up to this, we were in Poland for Easter... and so the story continues.

I think I am a pretty cautious person. I am alert, attentive, and I definitely am protective. So when we got on the train Saturday night to head back to Prague I took it to heart when the nice old ticket taker on the train told us to be careful of thieves.

So back up a second. By Saturday we felt that we had seen much of Poland, spending 3 full days there, and Britt, Frank, Ashley, and I really wanted to make it to church service on Easter at our own church. So we decided to cut the trip short by a day and leave late Saturday night on the overnight train. Gina, however decided to stay one more night with our friend Maggie.

So we are in a sleeper car for the overnight train back. Next to us there is a group of American girls studying in Europe. We say hi and retire to our room. For the trip, Frank and I did what we always do.. buy beer, because.. really it makes the trip so much better. So the ticket guy comes by pretty soon after we take off and tells us to make sure to lock our door at night because "the gypsies" could come and rob us. (I put gypsies in quotes because obviously it could be anyone but they blame all thieving on the gypsies).So we look on the door and realize there are like 4 locks on it. one at the top. Two in the middle and one on the ground. One of them in the middle was a hardcore deadbolt that no one could have picked. So we took this picture because we were shocked at how crazy the locks were.

So now that we were safe and locked inside we felt safe. So we started drinking. The girls werent drinking and frank and I started. However Frank was drinking very slow. We were all talking and having a good time, and when I finished my beer, I just picked up another one. Not to mention before we got on the train, we were at a restaurant eating dinner, and I definitely had at least 2 beers there. So we are traveling and I am just drinking and drinking.. pretty soon I open the last beer and Frank's like.. "man, I've only had one. Did you drink all of them?"

I was drunk. I didnt mean to. I wasnt planning on it mom and dad, but I was. I tell this part because it matters in the story.

So after some arguing between me and Ashley (you would be arguing if she told you "you cant prove to me that vegetables exist, scientifically.") We all went to bed with the door securely locked.
**BANG BANG BANG**
I look down at my watch and it is 5:30 a.m. Me and ashley (who slept on the bottom two beds) open the door and see the ticket man standing out in the hall.
"The gypsies. The gypsies."
And then he takes off down the hall... Weird. Well I decide to take this opportunity to walk down the hall to the restroom. As I am walking back I see in the empty room next to ours a purse sitting on the seat. Weird.
So I go back in the room and lay down. a few minutes later the ticket man walks by with the purse in his hands. He gestures with the purse. "Gypsies steal." and offers it to us seeing if it was one of the girls purses. We shake our heads "no" ... just catching on that the purse had been stolen apparently.

So we start to talk. "Nothing of ours got stolen did it?" we start looking around. My ipod is still by me. My $700 nikon camera is sitting on the floor right beside me. "looks like everything is here."
Then ashley says. "Well, guys, this morning I woke up and our door was wide open. did anyone go out? in the middle of the night?"
None of us had.
So then we get a little nervous, when the American girls next door poke their head in.
"Did you guys get anything stolen?"
"we dont think so"
"Well one of the girls had their purse taken off of them while they were holding it asleep and they took $300 out of it and her camera and her ipod and some other stuff in our room."

So we all start looking around and we check everything, and sure enough, Ashley had $5000 crowns ($250) and some other Polish money taken out of her wallet. We look around and dont see anythign else that was taken.
"so how did they get in?"
The ticket guy comes into our room and comes and looks at our window. The lock on it had been broken.

So this is what happened:
We all fall asleep. I am a very light sleeper, but because I had too much to drink, I was out and not getting up. At about 3:00 am we were stopped in Ostrava for about 45 minutes. While we were there, someone broke in through our window. came through and took money out of Ashley's purse. Went out of our door, leaving it wide open and went into the American girls room next to ours. ( who hadnt locked theirs well.) They took the purse from one of the girls and took it into the other empty room. Emptied it out and left what they didnt want there.

Crazy... and the worst part of it all was after we got home, we went and ate at our favorite American Breakfast place. As we were leaving, the sun was coming up. so I reached in my bag and I realized they stole my sunglasses! :) ok.. so it wasnt so bad.. but they were armani.. and really cool.

So anyways... But it was Easter... and Jesus has risen!