Barcelona’s pick-pocketing rate is so high that after arriving at our hotel, our teachers, Tony and Jules (Jony and Tools) felt the need to sit us down and warn us of all the tricks these pick-pocketing pros pull on helpless little tourists like ourselves.
After learning not to stop when a guy points out a stain on my shirt, or to smile when another tries to sell me roses, we understood this was a serious matter. So serious that most of the girls in the group purchased “Barcelona Bags”. A Barcelona Bag by definition is a cheap bag with a long strap that should be comfortably worn across the chest at all times and hence prevents expert cons from sweeping it off the clever wearer. Fuck that.
With our new-found knowledge and Barcelona Bags strapped on we were prepared. We never imagined that cons would actually show up at our hotel. Oops.
It all started with a design challenge we were assigned. Some of the students were hanging around the first floor common area working on our projects when an average looking guy with a face that’s easy to forget kept appearing around us.
He made small talk with some of us mostly by asking us for cigarettes or telling us about Seattle, his apparent hometown. He also, to my distaste, kept eyeing the girls while he tried playing buddy with the guys.
After some inconspicuous observation from my seat in the corner of the room I could tell this dude was beyond socially awkward and waaayyy too intrigued by the girls in our group for my liking. I was smart enough to avoid eye contact but stupid enough to leave my unopened full can of Sapporo behind when I went into the other room for class time.
As I returned to my corner I noticed my beer was gone and that everyone was whispering about Creeper and his behaviour, which like I thought, extended beyond the social realm. According to the girls living right next door to him he had a little fight with the maids about room keys earlier and would make weird tapping noises on the walls throughout the day.
It wasn’t until I found out that he tried breaking into their room that day, and breaking into MY room the night before, that we realized this guy is no joke. (Plus I was really pissed about my missing beer, c’mon guy!) I wasn’t around for the break-in attempt but both were described similarly: with knocking followed by violent shakes of the doorknob.
I was just approaching my room when I saw two hotel managers talking to the girls across from me (next door to Creeper) filing a complaint.
“He also stole my beer!” I chimed in.
I proceeded to elaborate on his perturbing behaviour along with the other girls and described what he was wearing to the managers. To my relief they took everything seriously.
As I skipped down the 6 flights of stairs to the first floor I stopped on the third floor to warn the others about Creeper and to keep the doors locked. To my discovery, Creeper already made his presence known on floor three with Sarah crying about her missing ipod and others searching their room frantically for other missing belongings. Shitty.
I noticed on my walk down that the managers were getting anxious since Creeper was nowhere to be found. I finally made it to the first floor, (where I left my project), and as I walked across the room to pick it up, Creeper was sitting on the couch to my left. Knowing that Manager Man was a few paces behind me I swiftly made it through to the next room separated by a glass door, turned and waved frantically at Manager Man to let him know Creeper’s whereabouts.
Manager Man and Manager Woman approached him,
“Excuse me Sir, we’re getting complaints from other guests about you and so we are asking you to leave.” They were firm.
As he got up from his seat, Creeper replied lightly with an,
“Okay let me just grab my stuff.” I felt him behind me as I walked across the room again towards the stairs and elevator.
Now the stairs literally wrapped around the old school elevator shaft and my ass knew far too well that running up the six flights was no easy feat. At the same time though, the elevator doors operated manually and it would have been far too easy to get stuck in a tight fitting elevator with Creeper. I decided to take the stairs. No, not take, more like BOLT.
I could hear his footsteps running up the stairs behind me and I FREAKED I outran him, powered up to the third floor and banged on somebody’s room to let me in. No answer. My heavy breathing from the climb totally added to the drama as I pressed my body flat behind the wall at his approaching steps. (Suspense thrillahhh!)
I peeked out and saw Rachel climbing up the stairs. Holy hell my breathing fiiinally normalized when I realized that all along the footsteps I heard behind me were hers. I assumed he took the elevator after all.
But the drama doesn’t stop there folks. I was late for drinks with a few friends so I got to my room and after excitedly telling my roommates what just happened (which only made me later, obvi), I quickly got dressed and met Allie in the hall to go downstairs. Allie wasn’t alone; Manager Man and Woman were sitting in chairs outside of Creeper’s room, waiting for him to come out. We thanked them profusely and they informed us that the cops were on their way. See up to this point I thought shit got pretty real, but shit got SO real once the cops were involved.
Shortly after we entered the lobby, four policemen walked into the hotel. At this point I realized nobody was leaving for drinks, everyone wanted to see the situation through. So… I called the boyfriend. While on the phone, two more policemen and two locksmiths followed.
My conversation was interrupted when Tara came to inform me that they can’t get Creeper out of his room and we’re being moved down to a first floor room. We had to pack now!
When I got to my floor I heard pounding on doors, police yelling and my roommate Alyssa freaking out about packing. Some other students living on other floors were nice enough to come up and help us bring our things down. I protested but when Liz came up, eager to help, there was no denying that she could handle 10x more weight than my lanky arms could carry (Thanks again Liz!)
As we pulled our luggage into the elevator the cops broke into his room and found a huge lot of stolen items, among them were Sarah’s ipod, random passports, and Rachel’s face wash and other miscellaneous items. Luckily everything was recovered and we moved to a huuuge suite on the first floor.
After checking the place out Erin and I peered out from my balcony to take in the sights which were lit up by three police car lights, the whole night was so surreal. We discussed different theories about Creeper’s past and his reasoning for stealing such oddities. Eventually, we saw a handcuffed Creeper escorted out of the hotel and into the backseat of a cop car, a cop on either side of him. Perfect time for me to flip the bird at him; don’t think I didn’t.
By the way, I never did get my beer back.
All in all, was a very very good night.
