Interesting that you brought this up, as I was just about to post my tail of woe with stolen items.

A month ago I stayed at the Guatemala City Marriott for 5 days. On day 3 I contracted a horrible case of "Montezuma's Revenge". 102 fever, chills, the whole enchilada. When I checked out I was not in my right mind, so when the porter, a 70 year old man named Pablo, asked to carry my bags (duffle bag & laptop bag), I let him. We walked together to the parking lot where I watched him load my bag & laptop into the hold of the shuttle van and close the door. 3 more passengers were behind me, and everyone loaded their bags into the hold. When we arrived at the airport 10 minutes later and the driver started unloading...no computer. A ride back to the hotel turned up nothing.

Even though a Marriott porter was handling my bag, and loading it into a Marriott shuttle van, they were not liable as I had already checked out. If you have never been to Guatemala, the Marriott is like a compound...complete with guard gate. The parking lot was empty, there were no "street people" within the gates. It was early on a Saturday morning, so it was very quiet and seemed very safe. I'm still not sure how they did it. BTW the other three passengers also had laptop bags in the cargo area, but I guess mine just looked best!

Normally I watch my laptop like a hawk. I never put it through the airport x-ray until I walk through with it. I always carry it on the airport shuttle on my lap. I cable-lock it to the desk in the hotel. I mocked those who had laptops stolen, thinking they must be total idiots to let their laptop out of their site. In this one moment, shaking with fever, I let my guard down and became a statistic.

It was a company laptop so it was insured, but what a tremendous pain-in-the-... a theft is...changing passwords, wondering if you had any sensitive info on it, etc. I had a checkbook in that bag, so accounts had to be changed, etc. No fun.

The moral? You have to have your guard up 100%, all the time when on the road...even when ill, or in the most seemingly benign circumstances. And dont be too smug like I was...it could happen to you.

There is a silver lining however...thanks to my little Guatemalan parasite, I lost 15 pounds!

PF