- R
Things happen.. but this is senseless.
I don’t even know where to start with this one. Hi, I’m Dean. I’ve been doing photo & video as a hobby since the 90s. And doing design & photography professionally for 20 years. A handful of corporate gigs in there but I have been full-time freelance for almost the past 2 years. So the amount of gear and equipment I acquired over the years is not f*n normal.
Last Sunday, February 4th, I was working photo/video all day on location in Warda, TX for a client. I drove back into Pearland in the late afternoon and got some computer work done for a couple hours at a Starbucks (sadly the only coffee shop around open til 9:30). Tired af I wanted to sleep but I convinced myself that driving out to Houston just for pho (viet noodles) is going to make me feel better. Places I normally goto were not open so I found a place Pho King Noodle Bar, 4720 Washington @ Shepherd. I memorized the address because I made multiple calls in the 4 after hours I was there to HPD and they kept requesting for the address. I was inside the restaurant for all about 35-40 min and came outside to my car and noticed broken glass. Cmon this isn’t my first rodeo. It’s Houston. Knew immediately my laptop bag that I lazily put in the back after Starbucks was gone I panicked to check if anything in the trunk was gone. Yes, it was actually way more than I would have imagined they could grab from the back door. I ran back inside the restaurant fkn shaking telling employees I was robbed, asking if they had cameras. It was crazy because I noticed a couple to my left look at each other and kinda just tried to slip out. (I don’t know if I heard a patron come in saying their car was smashed I would be concerned at least for your own car, maybe I’m just nosey). If there was anyone I suspected to be the point guard lookout from inside it would be them. They were there 20 minutes before me apparently. Pho King was fast and you don’t sit around long for Pho. Here’s their car anyways.
Also in the 4 hours waiting in the empty parking lot a baby Lexus parked 3 spots down from me. And he left his car there ran 500 meters across the intersection to what looked like between Velvet Taco and the gas station even after seeing my smashed car. Either someone else was in the baby Lexus or he came back without me seeing and all of sudden took off. But took off not with certainty, more like crept off not knowing where to go next. Slow enough for me to get photos.
It’s taken a while to process this. All week was crazy thinking most of the things I really would trade anything for, storage drives, memory cards, & other irreplaceables are probably in a dumpster nearby for at least a day or two. Making this itemized list helped but also threw me for a f*n loop. I also realized days later that my old iPhone that had my wild toddlers photos/videos since birth til last December was in the laptop bag. This f*n makes me nauseous. He’s literally the meaning to my existence rn.
Ya’ll, I f*n hate asking for handouts, which is probably why I’ve done so much freebie design & photography work, for people, groups, brands, companies so here we are.
The worlds were against me. Of course iPhone wasn’t backed up. There’s not enough clouds to back up the backup drives I had. Don’t want to get into reasons why any sort of insurance isn’t covering anything of this.The Friday before I had some weird feeling to even put more drives in my bag like I needed to go through it. Apologies in advance for the f* bombs. And if donating isn’t your thing. Go follow The Victors Club, you schmucks.
Maraming salamat.
VNMO@deandigamon