Guam Day 133 - A beach day gone Awry

7/5/2022 - This picture says so much, how valuable do you consider a backup set of keys? Up until today I would say 99% of the time backup keys are generally a hunk of metal that is never used, but for that 1% occasion they can save so much heart ache, pain, and frustration. 

Today started out as another grand sunny day on the island, our plan including snorkeling in Tumon Bay, lunch out on the town, and then a drive down south on the island to show our guests the variety of what Guam has to offer. The snorkeling went super well, both Gretchen and Eric did great with getting the goggles on and gettin used to breathing underwater. So well that we decided to push farther and farther out to the edge of the reef. The water was calm with so much to see and we were having a heck of time checking out the fish and floating on that sea water. At this point I am sure you are thinking we dropped our keys in 20ft+ water, sadly that would have been easier to recover, Joan and I are scuba trained so a little gear rental and in business, maybe. 

We returned to the beach after a good 90 mins in the water to find that the bag we left next to our chairs and sun shade was gone, along with Gretchen's camelback. We searched and searched through our stuff before coming to the conclusion that someone walked by, picked up our stuff and ran down the beach. Very frustrated at this point, we started going through what was in the bag, my cell phone, Joan's local cell phone, the car keys, and Joan's wallet. Whoever did this hit the jackpot of bags, I mean seriously this was the loot. Joan and Gretchen tracked down the beach police and started the report process, Eric and I held down the fort and continued to look to see if we could find anything. Bummer!!

I should add here: Gretchen and Erics phones did not work on the island and were left back at the apartment. The car had the other 3 wallets, locked, of course, and we have a paddle board, two chairs, a cooler with beer, and sunshade. How the heck are we getting back to the condo was the next challenge? Also, of all people to steal a bag of valuables, and a camelback, they missed the beer!! Seriously criminals these days need to get their priorities straight. 

Joan had luck at the police station with getting a report started, and with some luck they said to check the tracking capabilities of the phones to see if we could see where the last ping occurred. They also guided that a taxi cab could be called from the police phone and payment could be made post ride. It was like we were back in the early 2000s with no cell phone, no internet, and a lack of cash. We did get extra lucky here though, Joan had cash back at the Condo, she is always prepared, and our condo had a exterior keypad lock for entry. Check we can at least all get back and start piecing things together. One more comedy bit here, the cab driver using a broom wiped me clean of any sand on my body, he was not happy to say the least with 4 beach goers hopping into his newly cleaned van. 

Back at the condo, we had a chance to war game our next steps. We had a car that needed to be moved before nights end, or we would be towed, backup car keys to get from the tiny house, and my first ever planned break in, (No I have not planned or ever executed a break in of any kind, Joan would have been disbarred of course) to our host families compound. Oh, and using the find my phone app on my computer we were able to see my phone was active still at Tumon Beach, so there was hope that maybe the bag of stuff was stashed away for a short time. My phone was on 15% power, so this was step one, after we found a way to get back there. 

We called one of Joan's coworkers to help us out, he is a life saver and spent the rest of his day driving us around and helping to work these problems out. Dinner on Dinner will be paid back to this young man, really amazing! Lets call him Jerry for now. 

Jerry came and picked us up with our first stop heading back to Tumon beach. I was carrying my laptop and with a mobile hotspot I was able to walk back and forth with the group on the beach to find where my phone was sending a signal from. An hour passed of walking back and forth along this fence line with nothing to be found, I then realize I can have the phone play a sound to be able to locate it. Technology is just so cool. Joan heard a ringing on the other side of the fence as we approached a gate, running into the brush, she found my phone lying down about 30ft in. It was the craziest thing, and quite the piece of luck to go our way. Sadly though, there was only the iPhone and nothing more. Later we discussed that maybe the person who stole the bag and gear knew that apple phones were easy to track and ditched it. Lots of searching continued until about 5pm when we decided it was best to split up, Gretchen and Eric to watch the car, and Joan, Jerry and I to head north to break into the tiny house. 

Getting into the tiny house was suppose to be easy. Our host family was brought upto speed on what happened and they guided us to where the backup key was for the main house and in addition to where they kept all their spares. We still had to jump the gate and get into the place as our car keys had every key we needed. 30 mins later we were back north outside where we live strategizing how to best get over the gate. Have you ever tried to break into your own house? Its a difficult thing, especially with some many chickens and dogs in the area, I take it all back, this is the safest neighborhood on the island, as soon as my feet hit the grass on the other side of the gate, all that could be heard was ka kaw, and barking. So much for discreet. The neighbors were wondering what the heck three young adults were doing jumping a fence in this neighborhood? Luckily one neighbor recognized us and we shared what was going on. Joan at this point was saying, I am sure to be disbarred now.... LOL!

By 6pm, we had found the backup keys and gotten access to the big house. We were feeling pretty good at this point knowing we had keys in hand that would open up all 3 needed locks, two on the gate, and one on the tiny house door. The key ring of backups must of had 80+ keys, I mean copy on copy on copy, with about 10 designs. We tried them all on the tiny house door, one by one, one and nothing worked. We tried the same sequence of events on the front gate, having to jump back over the gate to try one of the locks. Nothing, 80 keys and none of them worked. You can image the colorful language, frustration the three of us were feeling, and exhaustion at this point as the flurry of events had begun at 1pm. We had no food onboard either because the 3 wallets were in the car and our backup cash had been used to pay the cab. 

Call after call to our host family resulted in no luck getting through. They were on West coast time, visiting their family in California. Jerry gives us the number for a locksmith and after numerous tries to a series of companies, we got through to someone that could help. Another 45 min wait was in order though as this locksmith lived on the Southside of the island. After sitting and waiting 15 mins, Arsensio called us through the ring app on the condo to check in, again technology these days. He wasnt able to call us back due to cell coverage, but guided Joan to another set of keys in the house. At this point im thinking this has to work, but she came out with another 50+ keys. The definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over expecting a different result, the three of us were at the point of insanity to say the least. 130 key tries in all three locks resulted in nothing that worked. 

At this point we are worried about Gretchen and Eric who are still back at the beach. Jerry very graciously said he would go pick them up and maybe even grab some food. He completed 6, 30 min trips in total this evening to help complete our journey. Off he went and Joan and I sat there pondering our navels as we waited for the locksmith. 

As you might guess, the locksmith did a great job at getting into the gate as well as our tiny house. The rekeying took us easily another hour, so its about 9pm by this time, but we finally had the car keys to be able to move the car. This locksmith was paid double, he and his wife had a car filled with gear for emergency endeavors such as these. We thanked them both. Jerry pulled in just as we finished up, but no Gretchen and Eric in the car. They held back ensuring the car didnt get towed, also seriously good friends. 

Dinner was on us tonight, a hole in the wall place that was just about ready to close. A mix of Chinese and Vietnamese, some of the best food we have had on the island, purely out of hunger. 

The five of us all back together at this point started talking about the value of having backup keys. I will pass this along to all our readers as well, when was the last time you checked your backup key and made sure it worked? I would recommend that, time well spent.