The lyrics from “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues written  by: BOB DYLAN* bounced off the walls of Union Station in downtown Los Angeles California, it is 5 am and I am about to ride the rails to San Diego.

I put my luggage down and turned to look at the train schedules as a rough looking street person drove behind my back on a bicycle. When I turned around again my guitar was gone and , I called a security guard and we both went in search of the stolen item. We located the guitar behind on of the columns along with the thief.

I told the thief that he had stolen my guitar and he leapt from his bicycle and menaced me with a lighted Blunt. The security guard admonished me for accusing him claiming “We don’t do that with these people”. The thief became emboldened and laughed as he rode out of the station.

I was upset by the security guards lack of response to my complaint so I asked for her supervisor who was already approaching on a vehicle  went twenty five feet away. He barely stopped and he also admonished me for “Leaving my luggage unattended in a high crime area’ then he rode off.

I continued to engage the security guard and became upset at her lack of care so I asked to speak some one in charge and she called another guard who repeated the same mantra, As we all spoke a loud and angry exchange between two men ensued a few feet away and as the were ready to fight both security guards stood back and watched again doing nothing at all to prevent or restrain in any way. I asked again for a supervisor and the same one on the cart returned and repeated his mantra about (“unattended baggage in a high crime area”).

I stopped two LADP officers and tried to tell them about the incident but the just kept walking away without a word. I then approached some more LAPD and requested a police superviser.

SGT. Eldred Day #30990 appeared and to the report about the two officers Emilio Perez #30727 and Randy Suulhorn # 41783.

By then I was utterly agitated and an emergency ambulance team was called. I was advised by the Paramedics that by heart rate was excessively high I needed to be transported to a hospital.

The lack of response by both LAPD and the security guards was appalling and very frightening. I am 79 yers old and am a heart patient who has eight stents and requires 9 separate medications daily.

When I requested a dose of nitroglycerine I was told that “Protocol”  it required transportation to the hospital if it was administered.  I left the station and returned to San Diego in a distressed state.

I spoke to an Amtrak employee in customer relations in Philadelphia named Grafton Thomas who was most professional and sympathetic I am happy to say.

I am requesting a top to bottom review of LAPD and Fire Department and the security company ay Union Station in Los Angeles.

Full Disclosure.

I am the Editor of The Coronado Clarion Magazine and Chief investigator for World Wide Crime Watch a consumer advocacy group which prevents elder abuse from phone scams an other crimes against the elderly and where an article  will appear in the next edition.

Al Graham Editor Coronado Clarion 2022

*From: Just Like Tom Thump Blues Written by: BOB DYLAN

Up on Housing Project Hill
It’s either fortune or fame
You must pick up one or the other
Though neither of them are to be what they claim
If you’re lookin’ to get silly
You better go back to from where you came
Because the cops don’t need you
And man they expect the same