Sometime over the weekend – probably on Sunday night – my Nintendo DS Lite, DS-Xtreme, and a pair of Claire‘s sunglasses were stolen from her car, parked outside our house. We noticed this on Monday morning when we found Claire’s car door ajar and her glove compartment emptied onto the passenger seat. Needless to say, I wasn’t pleased, but did feel at least a little bit stupid to have left expensive electronics in plain sight in the car in the first place. Interestingly, the radio (far more valuable) was left, suggesting that this might have been the works of an opportunist thief "just passing"; possibly a child or somebody else who was able to identify a Nintendo console at a glance.
Of course, we called the police, who sent an officer round to investigate the scene and to take statements from anybody who might have seen or heard anything suspicious during the window in which the crime might have occured, but without much success. He advised us that even if they were able to get an intact fingerprint sample, the odds of a match or of recovering anything was minimal. No insurance that we had would cover the theft. So, I resigned myself to being DS-less until sometime in the New Year when I might be able to afford a new one.
This evening, I came home from work to find a carrier bag wedged clumsily into the letterbox. Inside, I found Claire’s sunglasses and my DS and DS-X, wrapped up in a tea towel. The stolen goods have been returned.
I have no idea who stole them in the first place, or what prompted them to return them, and while I can’t forgive them for the former, I certainly thank them for the latter. While it’s unlikely that you’re reading this – whoever you are; congratulations – stealing from a car under a streetlight in a residential area is both brave and stupid to the point of brave stupidity, but it’s even braver to sneak back to return what was taken, knowing that it could heighten your chances of "being caught" if your victim didn’t care much for your sudden honesty.
Thanks.
Why couldn’t you forgive them for stealing from you?
That is possibly one of the most confusing events ever to have occured in the history of December 2006!
The MOST likely thing to have happened, I my opinion, is that the child-braveidiot got home and brother-braveidiot took one look at the goods shook his head and said,
“Son,” Because he was also his son apparently, don’t ask me, this is the actual way it happened, “You have got there in your grubby little mits the property of SCATMAN DAN.” Then there would have been significant gasping…even from the brotherdad-braveidiot as the mere mention of the name inspires awe so I’m told “He’s going to want that back. I think you should return it…and in broad daylight, for that is the way of the braveidiot.” And then the matter would be settled.
“Ok brotherdad. We wouldn’t want to bring about the significant e-mail bombing and internet hate campaign that SCATMAN DAN would surely instigate if and when he found out.”
“Agreed.”
And that’s the story of the stolen DS.
That’s Aber.
–Jon
Matt In The Hat: I was a little unclear; pardon me. I couldn’t forgive them – by the definition of “no longer feeling resentment towards them for their wrongdoing” – because the stress and inconvenience caused was significant, and odds are reasonable that such feelings will only fade with more time than today’s words or thoughts. I did not mean to imply that I could never forgive them, because – let’s face it – I’ll have probably mostly forgotten about the event within a few years, and it will be next to irrelevant. I guess I chose some bad words there.
Tom Davies: Yeah, that’s got to be it.
Jon: Best. Explanation. Ever. You win a fried pumpkin.
I would hypothesise that the stuff was stolen by some young children and that when their parents found out they forced them to return the goods to you.
having been in a simliar position myself as a child… *blush*
Andy R: That’s my theory too.
maybe the person did it to prove how easily you could be robbed and therefore should look after your valuables more carefully? He (she) is actully a do gooder or a bad dooer turned good.
Perhaps, scleip. However, having done that kind of thing (“white hat” crimes) myself, I feel that – ethically – you should return the goods before their disappearance could have been noticed: your point is still made, but the victim never has to feel deprived of their property.