First and foremost, I would like to thank the people who made this less of a nightmare than it could have been. Mom, thank you for coming to watch the kids while Mike came to pick me up. Mike, thank you for coming to pick me up. Shelly and Mitch, thank you for your quick responses to my tweets about being stranded (Lake County peeps are the BEST – THEY have got your back…). Friends/neighbors Farrah and Jill, thank you for also letting me know that you guys are here for us when we’re in a pickle! And last but not last to my dad Steve, who drove Mike to the airport and waited for 6 hours for a tow truck to come on Sunday…bless you…

I flew home into O’Hare from Mom 2.0 Summit this past Saturday night, and upon getting into my vehicle quickly noted that it was not going to start for me. I was still a bit shaky from the walk out to my car at 10:30pm, but to have this happen totally freaked me out. I called the number on the back of the parking ticket to take advantage of the free jump starts offered on signs throughout the parking areas. The person on the other end took down the details of my location and my car type and said someone would be there to help in a few minutes. Thirty minutes later, when still no one had arrived and I couldn’t control the shaking in my hands anymore, I braved the lonely walk back into the terminal (past a gang and a tired homeless man sleeping in the middle of one of the corridors) and waited for Mike to arrive to pick me up. I feel lucky to have made it through all of that safely. On my whole walk out to the car, while sitting in the car, and on my walk back to the terminal, I never saw one security or police officer. Glad to know someone’s got a woman’s back on a late Saturday night.

Now I’m typically no ninny. I don’t walk around scared that someone’s going to knock me off at every street corner, but the tunnels and lots of O’Hare are scary late at night. It’s quiet and mostly empty, and the people you do see around don’t look like someone I’d go have a cup of joe with. But come on, guys – a woman CALLS FOR HELP and you don’t come? Wake up call for me. I will now be a ninny when it comes to travelling alone at night.

Mike and my dad went back to the car on Sunday to see if they could work some magic and if they couldn’t fix the truck, have it towed back up north to Dick Strang Automotive in Waukegan (love these guys – my Yelp review is here). They weren’t able to fix it themselves. By the time they arranged for a reasonably priced tow truck with the capability to get the truck down the circle ramps at O’Hare, they didn’t much have the effort to complain about my lost call the night before. But, I am making it a priority this week to let this issue to be known to both O’Hare Airport and their travelers. At the very least I’d like to raise awareness about the lack of security at O’Hare late at night, and encourage women (and men for that matter) to avoid travelling in/out of there alone late at night. I’d also be very happy if O’Hare refunded my ridiculous parking charge, 1/3 of which was due to the car having to sit overnight dead.

I’ve already made sure to take the survey on O’Hare’s Web site (I won’t flatter them with a link here, though), emailed aviation@flychicago.com (not sure where that’ll end up, but at least the word is getting out – see my letter below), and am writing this blog post which will go out to my Twitter followers and Facebook friends. And of course, word of mouth will be my most powerful tool. Do you think it’ll make a difference? I hope so!

To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing to express my extreme disappointment in the lack of response to my call for help this past Saturday, February 20, 2010. I arrived late into O’Hare that night, and when I got to my car could not get it started. The parking lot was barren, so I called the number on the back of my parking ticket for help. The person on the other end said that someone would be there shortly. No one ever arrived. After about 30 minutes I walked back to the terminal. My husband had to come pick me up, and we went back for the car during the day on Sunday.

Being a 31 year old female, I will never travel alone out of O’Hare again. Walking through the tunnels to get to the parking garage is scary enough; I didn’t see one security or police officer at all during my last 2 times at O’Hare. I did, however, see a homeless man sleeping in the middle of the walkway, and a gang of 5 men “hanging out” in the tunnel. But most of all, when a woman calls for help from the parking area, someone better come.

At the very least, I would like a refund of my parking fees paid of $124. Please advise on how I can go about obtaining this refund.

Sincerely,
Heather Acton