[fingpilot]

I have a funny story about a trip to Dusseldorf, and driving to AMS, putting a rental car in a lot in the city, and then going eating/drinking with a crew.

If you know AMS, none of the streets are exactly straight. Yep, could not find the car lot after several last calls. Took a taxi back to Dusseldorf, and told the car rental guy the car 'disappeared' from the hotel parking lot.

Fast forward several months, same run, same layover, same rental lot, and after shower and shave, back to AMS. This time with a portable GPS (they were new at the time). Found a parking lot, dropped the car, took the GPS, got it to lock, marked the spot as a waypoint, turned it off, and pocketed it, and off we went.

You already know what happened. Now the sun is up, we are all ready to run back to Germany and sleep. I pull the GPS from my pocket, and light it off. If you know AMS, the streets in a certain part of town are all 3 or 4 stories tall, and very narrow. Could not get enough 'sky' to get a GPS lock. Would stumble to an intersection, where it was a little more 'open' and get a 2D lock, enuf to get a rho/theta Bearing and Distance as the crow flies. 2.1 miles thataway. Of course, the streets didn't exactly go thataway. Walk that general direction zigging and zagging thataway 20 blocks or so, and find some 'sky', repeat the process. Mind you, this is a large airliner cockpit crew, all true professionals.... 1.4 miles thataway... did this 4 times.

Taxicab back to Dusseldorf. Same story to the rental car guy at the airport. He pulls me aside and says, they found the last car in AMS, and charged my credit card $500USD for parking fees and to retrieve it... ( I never saw the charges). He asked point blank, was this the same deal????? Of course, I copped, and gave him the claim check. All it had on it was a claim number, no other data.

Needless to say, I am blacklisted from renting cars from Avis in Dusseldorf, probably still.