Every day of our lives, our well-being hinges on the trust we put in others. We trust that the pharmacist gave us the correct medication, we trust that our children’s pre-school teacher will keep them safe, we trust that the house cleaner isn’t pocketing our loose change, and we trust that online poker rooms will take proper care of our money (wait…how did that last one slip in there?). Some things, like handing our car and keys to a valet, we don’t even think twice about. It was that simple, every day act of giving his vehicle to someone to park that caused poker pro Barry Greenstein quite a few headaches on Saturday.
In a scenario that played out over Twitter, Greenstein first made the public aware of his plight shortly before 4:00pm Pacific with the message, “I don’t think twitter can help with this but you never know: my Aston Martin DB9 was stolen from valet parking!”
He followed that up with by letting everyone know that it was taken from a Marriott in the Mission Hills area of San Diego. And while an Aston Martin would likely be easy to spot, he made sure his followers knew I was olive green with plates reading “BG3.”
He went on to explain in multiple tweets, “Guy came up to valet and said his name was Greenstein. Didn’t have a valet ticket. Flashed a california ID. The mariott [sic] manager said that valet parking is outsourced to a third party. I’m hope they’re still liable.”
And as of course HAD to be the case, Greenstein said he was the big loser in the mixed game at the nearby Palomar Card Club that night, so this just made things worse.
But then, in a situation reminiscent of the famous joyride scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, the thief returned the car to the hotel. After some confusion, Greenstein found out what happened:
The faux Barry Greenstein saw the car in the valet parking lot and simply asked the valet for it, telling him what was on the license plate. After having given him the Aston Martin, the valet realized he had made a big mistake and invented the story about the man showing him a California ID in order to possibly save his job. He didn’t; the valet was fired. The perpetrator actually had the car detailed, inside and out, before trying to self-park back at the hotel. Hotel security spotted him and called the police, after which the man was arrested.
According to Greenstein, “The perp’s mother claimed he has mental issues and somewhat believes it’s his car. He is now in the hospital.”
From Greenstein’s tweets, it appears that the car was returned in good shape, and as already noted, was actually cleaner than it was when he left it.
For those who are wondering, a new 2011 Aston Martin DB9 Coupe with just the base package is priced at approximately $190,000, according to MotorTrend.com. The convertible eclipses $203,000 and of course, adding extras beyond just the base package can add many more thousands of dollars.
