Duke City Officer Deserves Kudos

On Dec. 31, my husband and I were on our way from Manitoba, Canada, to our vacation home in California. We stopped at a McDonald’s in Albuquerque for a quick lunch.

Just a few minutes after we returned to our vehicle I realized that I had left my purse on the chair at McDonald’s. I rushed back (maybe 5 minutes later) to retrieve the purse but it was gone.

What was in the purse? About $300 cash, all my credit cards, our Canadian passports and assorted personal items. I was very upset. I asked the staff and patrons in the McDonald’s whether anyone had seen who it was that had taken my purse. Nobody could help me.

We called the local police to report the theft. We were told it might take a couple of hours for someone to respond. This was understandable since it was New Year’s Eve.

In the meantime, I again went in and quizzed the patrons. Nothing.

The manager suggested that we check the surveillance video. And there he was — caught on tape, clear as day. Not the guy I suspected, but a young man whom I had questioned and who had even allowed me to take a look inside his backpack — although I hadn’t seen my purse in there.

But by now he had left the restaurant and was gone.

Then the policeman arrived, less than 30 minutes after our call. We completed a report. The officer looked at the tape and he, too, saw the culprit. He suggested that maybe the purse had been dropped into a dumpster nearby and offered that he would take a look around the area.

We canceled the stolen credit cards. We left our contact info with the policeman and, after about a two-hour delay, got back into our van and continued on our way. No, I wouldn’t be driving — no driver’s license.

I felt horrible, but what could I do? With an ailing mother at home, I might very well need to fly home in an emergency. This complicated matters for us — it would be impossible to fly home without our passports. It would take time to get a temporary passport. We were not looking forward to the prospect of spending a good part of our next week or two dealing with getting our documents and credit cards replaced instead of enjoying our holiday.

Although the policeman had been very kind and sympathetic, we really were not hopeful that we would ever see my purse or its contents again.

On New Year’s Day we arrived at our rented home in California. When we checked our email there was a message to call Officer Luis Castaneda, the policeman with whom we made our report. We did, and were very surprised to learn that yes, he had recovered the purse with everything in it except for the cash! Amazing!

We are very impressed with the kindness and efficiency of the Albuquerque Police Department, and in particular, Castaneda. We also want to say thank you to the manager of the McDonald’s restaurant at 2305 Central Avenue NW for her help.

Castaneda didn’t just file a report and forget about it. He went back to the restaurant several times, and eventually tracked down the thief and recovered my purse. He promptly communicated this information to us and arranged to have the purse and contents sent via Fed-Ex to us here in California.

So we’d like to say a big public thank you to Castaneda. Because of him our most unfortunate experience in Albuquerque has a happy ending.