Cruise Ship Stay Turns Ugly For Olympian’s Mom

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Pretty much every cruiser has a story about their luggage being delayed, maybe even lost. But Cindy Lloyd, whose daughter Carli plays on the United States Olympic volleyball team, can probably top any luggage-related story you can tell!

As reported by the New York Times, the proud mom was amongst those staying aboard the Norwegian Getaway, which has been docked in Rio to house Olympic athletes and their families. Running late upon arrival, she dropped off her bag, dashed off watch Carli compete… and came back to a rather nasty surprise: After being taken to an interrogation room, she was shown the remains of her suitcase and told that it had been destroyed! “It was completely blown up,” she told the paper. “There was some clothing. They use some sort of wet bomb, I think, because everything was wet. Some of the clothes were salvageable, but some were melted. Some had holes. My American flag was melted.”

Why It Happened

Lloyd was told that two bomb-sniffing dogs had been drawn to her suitcase. It appears x-rays of the bag were then taken, which she was shown after the fact. Asked to identify several objects, the paper says she identified her extra cell phone, a charger and a bottle of shampoo. “Maybe they thought it was something wired to a bottle,” she mused.

On the plus side, Lloyd reports that Norwegian has done the right thing by her. Aside from being helpful and offering to replace the ruined items, they’ve also promised to get her a new suitcase and treated her to sparkling wine and complimentary dinners. Even better, the supportive mom has proven to be a heck of a sport about the whole thing. When told she would at least have a tale to tell, she told the paper, “But I didn’t want to have a story. Watching your daughter at the Olympics was a good enough story for me!”

Got a “luggage nightmare” to share? Hit the comments and tell us all about it!

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