I had purchased a roundtrip ticket from Los Angeles to Tehran and back to L.A.
Going to Tehran I had no problems. However, when I was returning I encountered the followings.

Return flight TK 0871 flow from Tehran at 17:55 on Dec 14, 2013, and landed in Istanbul at approximately 20:00.
I had a connecting flight scheduled for 12:50 on Dec 15, 2013 from Istanbul to LAX.
That means that I had a layover for 16 hours at the airport.

Upon arrival I walked downstairs and stood in a line to get a room from Turkish airlines due to my long layover.
To my surprise, they told me that my name is not on the list of people who get a room.
They sent me upstairs to talk to some other parties, and from there to the manager, because I was disappointed that they expect me to stay in the airport for 16 hours. I talked to two managers, to no avail.
They did not offer any alternatives. They were rude, and uncooperative.
Most of them didn't speak English. They keep passing me from one window to the other. I felt like I was being passed around like a football!

I finally gave up after a few hours, and asked if I could spend the time in Turkish airline's lounge.
They refused and did not allow me to go into the lounge.

I didn't know what to do for 16 hours.
Some of the agents suggested that I go into the town and see Istanbul, since I had never seen Istanbul.
They suggested that I would take the bus (HAVA TASH) to Taksim square.
So I did.

At 4:00 A.M. on Dec 15, 2013 I returned to the bus station, and took the bus to return to the airport.
The bus took me to another airport (Sabiha).

Not knowing that I am at the wrong airport, I waited until 8:00 A.M. for the Turkish airlines counter to open.
Once They were open, I proceeded to an agent behind the counter, and asked her to look at my boarding pass to see if everything is O.K.
The lady behind the counter looked at my boarding pass and said: everything was O.K.
She didn't tell me that I was at the wrong airport, or that they don't fly to Los Angeles from here.

So, I decided to rest until 11:30, about an hour before my flight.
When I went thru passport control, the officer told me that I was at the wrong airport.

I came back angry trying to find the lady who gave me wrong information.
She was not there. However, the other agents told me that I must go to Ataturk Airport as quickly as possible.

I remember the lady who was behind the counter. The one who caused me miss my flight.
She was younger, had Islamic Hijab, and was pretty, with very limited command on English language.
If I see her again, I would recognize her.

So, I hurried up and took a taxi to take me from Sabiha to Ataturk.
By the time I got to the gate at Ataturk Airport, it was 1:00 P.M. (13:00) and I missed my flight.
The taxi fare was about $120.00.

After I missed my flight, I walked over to the Turkish airlines counter and explained what happened.
Again, they offered no solutions, and told me that I had to purchase another ticket.

I argued, by didn't get anywhere.
I ended up paying $1040.00 to purchase another ticket for the next flight scheduled for the next day, Dec 16, 2013 at the same time...12:50 P.M.

I was very sad that I had to spend another day at the airport.
This time I had to stay at the airport for 23 hours!

Not wanting to risk losing my flight again, I decided to stay at the airport the entire time.
I loafed around, got on my laptop and did some work, did some people watching and window shopping, had lunch and dinner until night time.

I was getting sleepy. So I decided to take a nap at Burger King.
As soon as I got comfortable, the Burger King's sales rep told me I cannot sleep here!
I tried to do the same at the coffee shop. However, they kicked me out too.

I finally found some chairs on the first floor of the airport. I put my carry-on bag on a cart next to me and proceeded to relax.
Around 2:00 A.M. on Dec 16, 2013 the cleaning crew showed up and woke up whoever was asleep. Moved the benches around and cleaned the floors.

Around 3:30 P.M. a civilian started talking to me in Turkish, in rather a loud voice.
When he realized that I don't understand, he said: where is your bag?
I looked around me...there was no bags!
Then he said: police, police, come!

I followed him to a room where the airport police office is , to make a report.
I must have dosed off for a short time. That is when someone stole my bag.

It was strange that a civilian police officer (undercover), would walk over to me and ask me where my bag was!

I sat at the office waiting for them to find someone who could translate English.
Finally, they found a Turkish air agent who could barely speak or understand English.
As a matter of fact, he didn't understand me fully, and many times asked me the same question several times.
He even had a hard time explaining my answers to the officer who was writing the report.

In the interim, while I was waiting, the police explained that everything was recorded on the airport cameras.
He said: there were two thieves. One was watching the grounds , while the other thief took my bag and left the airport.
He said that, they have the thief that was on a steak out arrested, and he pointed a guy who was sitting on a chair about 10 meters away from me.
He said that they zoomed on the other guy who had my bag. He took a taxi and went to the center of town.
He also said that they contacted the taxi driver, and found out where the driver dropped the thief off.

Meanwhile, the other crime partner was sitting on a chair comfortably talking on his cellular phone.

It was rather strange to see the guy not in hand cuffs, or even detained in a special room. He was freely roaming around.
I wonder why they didn't have the guy call his partner and ask him to bring the bag back to the airport and give it to the police!


I proceeded to tell my story to the translator, and the officer made a report.
Obviously, the report was in Turkish, and I did not know what has been written.
Even though I signed it, I didn't understand a word of it.
No one explained it to me either. There was lack of communication!

Now that I have translated the report, I see that there is no mentions of the two thieves, or the person who was in custody!

My bag which contained my HP laptop, my wallet, my California Driver's license, my American and Iranian passports, my boarding pass, my cellular phone, approximately $1600.00 in $100 dollar bills, along with some other personal belongings were stolen from me at Ataturk airport.


Around 5:30 -6:00 A.M. (a few hours after the loss), the same civilian police officer took me to another police building outside of the airport to make a report about my stolen passport. He was driving an unmarked police car.
He took me to a person who made the "passport stolen" report.

While I was there the civilian officer played a CD that he had recorded from the cameras at the airport, showing the actual theft.
The two officers argued with each other watching the CD, and again they asked me if the bag shown in the CD was my bag.

The civilian officer left, and they had me sit outside in the waiting room.

Around 7 A.M. the shift changed. The night shift employees left, and new officers came into the building.
One officer came to me and asked me what I was doing there.
I explained what happened.
He then ordered me to leave the building.
I told him that I lost everything I had, I don't know where to go. I have no money and do not speak the language.
He said: you have legs, you walk!
I said walk to where? He proceed to grab my neck and kicked me out of the building in the pouring rain.
He said: walk back to the airport.

I walked for 40 minutes, in the rain, to the airport.

When I reached the airport, I begged everyone to let me use their phone to call home to ask for help.
No one let me use his phone.

At this time, I broke down and started to cry very loud in front of Turkish airlines counter, asking for some kind of help!

Umut Atatung, an agent from Turkish Air; walked to me asked me to calm down, because I was crying profusely.
He then let me make a phone call to my wife in the U.S.
Then he made a call to the U.S. consulate and reported my loss, and got information about acquiring another temporary passport.

I ended up missing my flight again, because the U.S. Consulate closed, by the time I secured money to go to the consulate.
I needed money for the taxi, fees for the passport, and fees to have my pictures taken.

Meanwhile Umut bought me a sandwich and a bottle of water, since I had nothing to eat, drink, or sleep for 48 hours.


The next day on Dec 17, 2013 I took a taxi to the U.S. consulate at 7:00 A.M.
I proceeded to fill out the forms, took pictures, and waited in the waiting room to get my temporary passport.
I finally got my temporary passport around 11:00 A.M.

I took a taxi and rushed back to the airport, in hopes of catching the 12:50 flight after 3 days!

I arrived at Ataturk airport at 12:15 P.M.
When I tried to check in, they told me that there was an alert issued for my lost passport, and they had to verify my temporary passport because it looked different than the usual American passports. Plus I didn't have enough time to get to the gate, and they are not going to issue a boarding pass.

I called Umut, and asked him for help. I had acquired his telephone number on the previous day. His number is: 0506-276-6075.
He came over, got my passport from the agent. Took me to his counter and issued a boarding pass.

He helped me at the passport control (because passport control had the same issues with the alert, and the looks of my temporary passport).
He helped me carry my bags to the gate, passing me thru some other hurdles because we were carrying large oversized suitcases .
He got me thru the gate and had my language loaded onto the plane right before I entered into the plane.

I thanked him with a hug and kissed him on his cheeks, telling him that he was my brother!
I couldn't believe that after 4 days I am finally boarding the plane, and leaving Istanbul.

If it wasn't for the efforts of Umut, I would have ended up staying at the airport, at least for another day; if not more!!
Umut was my savior!!
I will never forget his assistance and help!

I reported back to work 4 days late.
When I reported to work, my employer was cleaning my office, since I hadn't shown up for work for four days.
I almost lost my job!

They deducted 4 days of my salary, and asked me to replace the laptop, and the cellular phone; since they were the company's property.


I am holding Turkish Airlines and Ataturk Airport responsible for all my financial and emotional losses.
No one should experience the kind of trip that I experienced.

Please follow up with your investigation while I am briefing my attorney.
I will wait to hear back from you before proceeding with the law suit.

Regards;

Mahmood Jabbari
Civil Engineer, M.Sc., M. ASCE