Grandmother's bag full of presents for family stolen on Amtrak train to Fremont

FREMONT, Calif. (KGO) -- 82-year-old Marcia Koven was happy to spend part of Christmas evening reading books to her great-grandchildren. But this isn't the start to the holidays she was hoping for .

"It's very frightening. At 82, the first thing you think, is you are having Alzheimer's," jokes Koven, who is trying to stay positive.

Koven says her bag, filled with presents, gift envelopes stuffed with cash, and her personal belongings, were stolen from the luggage rack on her Amtrak train from Sacramento to Fremont.

"I don't think it was an accident. I really doubt it because (the bag) was big, it wasn't small. You don't take something that big by accident," she explains.

She says she started to look for her bag five minutes before arriving at the station. But it was gone. She says Amtrak staff checked other cabins but weren't able to do much without delaying the train.

She arrived at her granddaughter's house with just her purse and the clothes she was wearing, and will have to spend Thursday morning shopping for toiletries and new clothes.

Koven plays the clarinet in an orchestra back home in Miami, which was also stolen.

"We have a book here that she sent us full of piano songs she can play with her clarinet," says Rachel Strauss, Koven's granddaughter. "And someone took that from us. And that's not cool."

But Bubbi, as the family affectionately calls her, says she is trying to keep the holiday spirit.

"I've had five back surgeries and rods and screws and all that. I am lucky that I am here, I am safe. And I got to see the children," says a thankful Koven.

She filled out a report at the Amtrak station and is hoping she will at least be able to recover her clarinet.