"Sir, we understand but we cannot do anything, your query has to go through the system". This was the 5th time I'd heard this from different teams in the police department of Las Vegas, Nevada. Since the last 30 hours, I'd not moved from the EV bike charging port on the floor of a public parking lot, starving and sleepy and cold, waiting for the guy to show up. He didn't - and here's the story of how it went down.

Landing up homeless in a parking lot

I was traveling to Vegas for a conference and bunked in a cheap dorm for 3 days. On day 1, my AirPods were stolen from my bed and I discovered about it 8 hours later after returning to the room. I detected them 2.5 kms into the desert, using iPad FindMy and just starting running through a chilly night, to the location, tightly clutching my iPad. 4mins away from the location I waved to a cop car on the street and requested them to accompany me to this unearth this.

Fun thing is - we did detect the window-sill, in an old-age shelter home the AirPods were detected in but couldn't search the place because we didn't have a filed report. The cop told me to just go home and wait for things to play out. I wasn't taking no for an answer so the moment his car pulled out, I tried to enter the building through one of the residents and was strongly determined to go bust the person. Unfortunately, the cop pulled back into the street and started walking towards me. From fear of getting booked for trespassing, I just ran back out and didn't go anywhere near for the rest of the night.

I finally retired to my dorm at about 11pm and started telling people there about what had happened but 1 person in particular - let's call him "Dave" - seemed particularly perplex each time I approached him. So I just lied to him - telling him that the police had gotten the CCTV footage of the dorm and were on the way to catch the thief. He grew more frustrated and started ranting about his problems so I gave him a protein bar and called it a night. An hour later, I again detected the AirPods, except they were at a motel 300 metres away - so I ran and inquired there too, with a friend, and tried triggering the AirPods to beep - but after a failed 30min search - I just came back. I was working through the night on my startup Recontact - talking to clients. Again at 2am - I detected the AirPods at the same motel. This was a chilly, isolated desert I'd be walking into. I got my cofounder to be on call with me just in case something dangerous happened. As I trudged back from the motel, once again, empty-handed, I ran into "Dave", high on cannabis. Funnily enough, the AirPods were also in the vicinity. As I frantically tried to trigger a beep and hold a conversation with him - he started cursing about how he hated his life and the protein bar I gave him, and wanted to kill himself. He seemed beyond anything, scared. And as his eyes turned a bit more menacing, I exited, fearing unnecessary conflict.

Next morning, I woke up and checked the iPad FindMy for AirPods and they were detected at another motel nearby. I went and checked out the ground floor rooms, near the parking, but was thrown out because disturbing guests for anything was against policy.

3 days later, after a heavy conference, I headed to the Metro Police Department and filed a police report. They said it would take 7 days to just assign me a detective and post that, there was no guarantee of taking this on priority because this was a "petty theft". I hated the fact of being helpless and had about 17 hours before my flight back to San Francisco. I pulled out my iPad and detected them just a street away from the location before. I once again started running to the location, but keeping my brother on call with me, in case things went south. I stopped at a massive 4 storey parking lot and frantically checked each and every corner and dustbin while triggering a beeping sound. As I was just about to give up and leave. I heard a faint beeping sound. And then I heard it again. And again!

I traced it back to a white Hyundai in the parking lot and immediately alerted the parking security - who rushed up and I explained the situation to them. They started getting details on the vehicle's owner while I dialed the police. The vehicle had entered the parking just 3 hours back and usually people exit within 12 hours maximum. The police threw their hands up saying that it was later than 6pm and the office can't assign me someone for such a petty theft so I had to wait till day after, since it was Halloween holiday the next day.

I had 2 choices - The rational choice was to leave the parking and let them handle it. The crazy choice was to wait for the car owner and try to reason with a stranger (who could be the likely thief). I picked choice #2 because I feared the police would be too slow and the vehicle would leave by then. After all how long does a person keep their vehicle parked in a lot?

10 things don't work

Now I was determined. I'd wait at the parking's entrance-cum-exit constantly, next to the security booth and jump at the car the moment it left. Hour after hour passed, the car didn't arrive. I became really good friends with Jodi, the guard in-charge and she at least kept giving me water. I couldn't go eat as I feared that if Jodi as much as walked out the parking lot, and the car pulled out - I'd lose my only shot. I told my friend Haarish to help cover my shift for 30mins while I ran back to the dorm and got my laptop back. He bunked with me too, in the garage, till he had to leave for his flight back.

It was a freezing cold Halloween night. 12 hours passed - no sign of the guy. I saw a a sloshed Spiderman throw up, a rambling Batman and even helped a drunk Cinderella, text her angry boyfriend to come get her. All this while, my mind was restless, looking through 100s of vehicles that pulled in and out of the garage.

Guard shifts changed twice. By 5am in the morning, I'd started to faint so I just took a quick 10mins break to get a bag of chips from the 7-eleven - all the while fearing if I'd miss the car. Fortunately I did not. I had to check out of my dorm by 10am so I took an hour out to run to the hostel and get my suitcase back.

12pm on the next day - still no sign of the guy. I couldn't call the police dept because it was Halloween and they'd just end up telling me to go home I had 2 choices again - leave for my flight, or wait for yet another day and see if things click. And most of my friends/family told me to just tap out. Unsurprisingly, I once again picked option 2.

But this time I decided to take the investigation in my hands.

Cracking the case

After inspecting the car and its plate - I traced it to "Don Davis Auto Group" - a dealership in Texas. I rang them up and requested them to run the plate, find the car owner and request him/her to just come back to the parking lot for 5mins to sort this out. They just said they'd "try" to reach him, but even if they did - they can't contact me back about it, since that'd breach some privacy contract they had in place. Dead end again. Called up another division of the police department - same answer - "Sir, we understand but we cannot do anything, your query has to go through the system". And both stopped taking my calls after 12pm since it was Halloween. A lot of the repeat people who showed up for parking thought I was homeless and 1 guy even asked me to move.

By 2pm I decided to step out and now start looking for any police person who could help me as now - they were my only bet. Because the guy was just not showing up. So I stayed close to streets near the garage, waving at any cop car in sight. Luckily, I caught the attention of an 911 officer and they were surprised that a person had waited for this long to get something back. So they came and did their investigation and used my research to coerce the Metro Police to come and show up given the urgency I had for these and what they already knew. After 3 more hours the Metro Police came. We drove to the location in their car, and we updated the entire inspection report with the facts about this car - but they told me the same thing - can't search someone's vehicle for a petty theft

After they left I just wrote a paper note to the vehicle owner, tucked it in the vipers on the windshield and left for SF. I felt like I hadn't tried enough and was a bit disappointed. Little did I know, I'd solved the case.

How the AirPods came back and what had actually happened

I kept following with all 3 shifts of security guards everyday to see if the car had moved. It hadn't and we were starting to suspect that it was either a stolen vehicle or the hiding nook of stolen goods. Either ways, till day 7 - nothing. Then on day 7 I receive a mysterious text from a guy claiming that he found a note in his windshield regarding the Airpods and was willing to courier them to me.

He also told me that he had found them dumped on Las Vegas boulevard (close to where I met "Dave" at 2am) and took them in his car. He had received a call from his dealership regarding the situation but was in Miami for the week, after leaving the car parked. Upon returning, he saw the note I left in his windshield. I realized that in the hurry to check inside rooms, I discounted the fact that the AirPods were in the parking near to the ground floor rooms. And parking has?.......well - CARS!!

So what must have happened is that - the 1st night when I went with the police to the venue the thief must have seen us, and suspected that they might get caught. I suspect "Dave" for this, since he seemed most shifty whenever I mentioned AirPods. So the person got spooked and just threw the AirPods randomly in the street from where the Hyundai owner picked up. He might've taken to his hostel - but all this while, the AirPods were in the car. So anyways, I confirmed the date and time of postal services with him.

2 hours later my "assigned detective" calls me and asks me about my case. I just said "Thank you Sir, my case has been solved and my Airpods are on the way back!"

Moral?

I tried 10 different things - right from ringing multiple police departments, to reaching out to the dealership, leaving a note, asking the guards to be on alert and none of it ever worked. Atleast till I'd left Vegas.

But connecting the dots back, the investment actually paid off. The only learning I'm taking back from this, apart from a bunch of no-good state laws and ways of how police operates - is that persistence pays.