Beautiful Headdress with Horns and Chainmail Loincloth Skirt Lost- Crazy story attached!

Lost something on the playa? Tell us about it here.
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SriAlmighty
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Beautiful Headdress with Horns and Chainmail Loincloth Skirt Lost- Crazy story attached!

Post by SriAlmighty » Thu Sep 14, 2017 11:36 pm

Greetings fellow burners. On Wednesday night into Thursday morning (August 30th-31st), I lost two very beloved costume pieces of my playa persona: a beautiful pewter headdress with horns and a chainmail loincloth type skirt. This was my first burn and I went the extra mile to wear something that I really felt reflected something within me and to challenge myself with being comfortable with my own body in the view of others. The items were lost as I was being baited by undercover cops from around 2:00 and Esplanade through town until I finally made it to Zendo near Center Camp over the course of 3 hours. Thankfully nothing happened to me but they tormented me for THREE HOURS and I had to get rid of these items of clothing because they made me too visible and easy to follow. Believe me- undercover cops are very much out there at Burning Man and they dress and look like burners and intentionally create situations where you might feel safe and accidentally incriminate yourself for them to ruin your lives.

The headdress was lost at a camp somewhere around 3:30 or 4:00 and B or C. The camp had a trampoline out front and when you enter... a bar on the left. I entered this camp trying to get help on what to do if I was being targeted by law enforcement and in my hyperalert state of fear I think I left my headdress on the counter there or lost it somewhere between there and the Emergency Medical Services Camp. I still have the metal chains that make up the necklace part of the headdress... so you can rest assured that this piece is going to the rightful owner if you have seen it or have it!

The chainmail loincloth skirt was lost somewhere around the Rangers booth at the same time that I lost my driving license. The driving license came back to me at Lost and Found on the Friday of the burn, but the other two pieces have yet to make their way back. I truly believe in the magic of the playa and the sacred space that I experienced there and hope that these two pieces will make their way back home to me. If they don't, I'll rest assured knowing that I still did the right thing losing them in order to get rid of those bastard undercover cops that illegally torment and taunt people and bring the mistrust and fear from the default world into our created safe space of trust and compassion.

As you can imagine, the experience of that night left me pretty shaken for the rest of my burn but thankfully two weeks out, I'm able to look back on the experience and see it as part of the burn I was meant to have. If you or anyone you know may have seen these items, I'm eager to reunite with them and will repay you in great karma and/or also in appropriate financial means as well!

I'm eager to visit the playa again and won't let this mishap hold me back!
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Bless
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Re: Beautiful Headdress with Horns and Chainmail Loincloth Skirt Lost- Crazy story attached!

Post by Bless » Fri Sep 15, 2017 10:24 am

Hold on... you had to get rid of your fancy custom costume because undercover cops were baiting you for three hours? They illegally taunted and tormented you? This sounds like the stuff of eplaya legend lore. Please, do provide more details.
FUCK YOU, I'M A WIZARD. FUCK YOU, I'M A SHARK.

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Token
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Re: Beautiful Headdress with Horns and Chainmail Loincloth Skirt Lost- Crazy story attached!

Post by Token » Fri Sep 15, 2017 10:41 am

Bless wrote:Hold on... you had to get rid of your fancy custom costume because undercover cops were baiting you for three hours? They illegally taunted and tormented you? This sounds like the stuff of eplaya legend lore. Please, do provide more details.
Be nice Bless.

Seems she already paid The Iron Price.

SriAlmighty
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Re: Beautiful Headdress with Horns and Chainmail Loincloth Skirt Lost- Crazy story attached!

Post by SriAlmighty » Fri Sep 15, 2017 12:54 pm

Bless wrote:Hold on... you had to get rid of your fancy custom costume because undercover cops were baiting you for three hours? They illegally taunted and tormented you? This sounds like the stuff of eplaya legend lore. Please, do provide more details.
Yes, I don't want to go into great detail about things here but multiple situations were created to entrap me because I assume they thought I was a suspected drug dealer. They followed me through the 2:00 side of town to see which camp I was heading to, but I took detours and made my way to Center Camp to get rid of them. After I got to Zendo and finally felt I could trust someone again and I revealed the entire story, the folks at Zendo not only comforted me as I was shaking but confirmed my suspicions were most likely correct based on the sequence and types of situations that I described to them. I'll never be able to prove it, but I know what I experienced and I can say without a doubt that there are highly organized groups of undercover cops working to entrap you by hopefully gaining your trust on the playa... particularly on the last four days of the festival when the music events are most saturated.

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lucky420
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Re: Beautiful Headdress with Horns and Chainmail Loincloth Skirt Lost- Crazy story attached!

Post by lucky420 » Fri Sep 15, 2017 1:09 pm

hola!

my camp/village was at 3:30 & B. I cant think of the name for the camp that was right behind us on C but you might try posting this on the burning man 3:00 sector page.

good luck to you I hope you find your stuff
Oh my god, it's HUGE!

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some seeing eye
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Re: Beautiful Headdress with Horns and Chainmail Loincloth Skirt Lost- Crazy story attached!

Post by some seeing eye » Fri Sep 15, 2017 5:59 pm

This needs to be written into a short story! Alice in Dusty-Wonderland?
Then you could illustrate it, or reenact as a video next year on playa.

Don't be afraid to ask someone you trust, can you walk with me to X? Plus a walk is good for conversation. But all's well that ends well!
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Re: Beautiful Headdress with Horns and Chainmail Loincloth Skirt Lost- Crazy story attached!

Post by BBadger » Fri Sep 15, 2017 9:06 pm

"The essence of tyranny is not iron law. It is capricious law." -- Christopher Hitchens

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SriAlmighty
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Re: Beautiful Headdress with Horns and Chainmail Loincloth Skirt Lost- Crazy story attached!

Post by SriAlmighty » Sat Sep 16, 2017 6:55 am

Bless wrote:Hold on... you had to get rid of your fancy custom costume because undercover cops were baiting you for three hours? They illegally taunted and tormented you? This sounds like the stuff of eplaya legend lore. Please, do provide more details.
I really don't want to get into too much detail on here of the events that happened, but they tormented and followed me through the town believing that I was a drug dealer with multiple "burners" approaching me trying to buy drugs and asking me "You don't do drugs, etc?" trying to get some kind of incriminating confession out of me. I did not have any drugs with me and knew I was fine but I was separated from the people I was with at this point and had no idea whether they were safe or not. Each and every single one was wearing camouflage pants and boots under their burner outfits. It all started when I had realized one of the guys standing next to us at the dance event at 2:00 and Esplanade was an undercover cop because of the ear piece he had in his ear and the way he was standing over the bags that had been dumped by other burners on the floor waiting for someone to make a mistake and take something out of the bag that would give them reason to bust people. I outed this guy to all of the burners who were around me because I realized what was going on... and this led to me being followed and harassed for a very long time. I am certain they were following me to see which camp I might go to but thankfully I was smart enough to go to Center Camp and one of the volunteers at the cafe was kind enough to get me to safety at Zendo where I could finally let my guard down. Relating everything that happened to the folks at Zendo once I finally felt safe, they seemed pretty certain that I was indeed being baited as well... though my extreme paranoia and fear in that moment likely led me to mistrust every single person I encountered until I made it to Zendo. I will never be able to prove it, but I'm certain of what I experienced and believe me: there are sophisticated rings of undercover cops out on the playa particularly on the last four days of the festival when the city as at its most saturated point. They're working together to create situations in which you might feel safe and incriminate yourself only to bust you and ruin your lives. Be safe out there and don't let your guard down.

SriAlmighty
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Re: Beautiful Headdress with Horns and Chainmail Loincloth Skirt Lost- Crazy story attached!

Post by SriAlmighty » Sat Sep 16, 2017 7:18 am

lucky420 wrote:hola!

my camp/village was at 3:30 & B. I cant think of the name for the camp that was right behind us on C but you might try posting this on the burning man 3:00 sector page.

good luck to you I hope you find your stuff
Thank you for your suggestion! I'll definitely post a message there too!

Blessings :)

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Re: Beautiful Headdress with Horns and Chainmail Loincloth Skirt Lost- Crazy story attached!

Post by Sham » Sat Sep 16, 2017 7:39 am

It sounds like quite a mess you had going on there. The good news is you kept a crew busy for 3 hours going in circles for nothing.

Personally, if I knew I had nothing to hide, I would have kept them following me all night. These are all practice drills that various LEO's come to Burning Man to play. The fines are just a bonus for them. Remember, it's a completely non-threatening, non-dangerous place for the police, so they can dress in their finest swat gear and play games and make small busts. It gives them experience for when they get back in the real world--where things are really dangerous.

There has been some talk that cell phones, text messages and emails can be seen by law enforcement, in the completely remote environment of BRC . Some may be paranoia, but mostly people should just remain smart.

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Admiral Fukkit
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Re: Beautiful Headdress with Horns and Chainmail Loincloth Skirt Lost- Crazy story attached!

Post by Admiral Fukkit » Sat Sep 16, 2017 8:31 am

So, you don't do drugs and didn't have any drugs... but you were hyper paranoid and running from cops that were looking for drugs...
I hope you get your outfit back but that story sounds more suspicious than those cops were!

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some seeing eye
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Re: Beautiful Headdress with Horns and Chainmail Loincloth Skirt Lost- Crazy story attached!

Post by some seeing eye » Sat Sep 16, 2017 10:33 am

Sham wrote:These are all practice drills that various LEO's come to Burning Man to play.

There has been some talk that cell phones, text messages and emails can be seen by law enforcement, in the completely remote environment of BRC .
There would be nothing stopping county and a myriad of federal alphabet soup agencies from practicing their electronic surveillance skills on playa. Many large cities even have the Stingray cellular intercept equipment.

As for the original poster, sound's like Alice crossed with the Pied Piper...

Thanks for telling your story to ePlaya!

(Now you are an experienced burner hope you return)
increasing the signal to noise ratio with compassion

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