Saturday, October 28, 2006

Something to Renew Your Faith In People

The other night I had the most amazing experience which I daresay, renewed my faith in humanity - in Brooklyn, no less!

Retracing:
When I got to my apartment in the early evening, my roommate and I decided we would order some food for delivery. I casually reached into my pocket and was shocked to find it empty. No wallet! Oy. How could I not notice the weight difference in my pocket earlier? I was wearing unusually baggy pants that day so it could easily have fallen out.

I first turned the apartment upside down looking but to no avail. It didn't help that the apartment was a mess.

I'd only visited two places earlier that day. I'd been to Watana to meet helpful Violet at a favorite Thai restaurant called Watana on 7th avenue and 14th in Brooklyn. I'd also gone to Prospect Park in the afternoon where we'd found a comfortable bench not too far from the entrance where I laid down and took a nap for about 30 minutes or so. Shortly after, we walked the 5 minutes to get back home.

We called the restaurant, and while they recognized us - they had no wallet to speak of. We also went back to the park being careful to follow my previous footsteps. Of course, no luck there.

I went ahead and called my credit card agency and had my card put on hold. About an hour later I got a call from Capital One. The CSR said, that the wallet was with the 78th Precinct in Brooklyn. A couple apparently found my wallet and returned it - money and all.

I called down at the precinct and the police officer said 'yes! come and pick it up!' Her eagerness was funny to me. Apparently if they have to keep things overnight it requires additional paperwork. I explained that it was late, but I could come by in the morning before work. She finally said that she'd have an officer drop it off. About a hour later, sure enough, an officer came by to hand me the wallet.

I'm not really sure how to pay these good deeds forward but I definitely won't be making any more jokes about the police or snide remarks about Park Slope yuppies for some time.

I don't recommend losing your wallet if you can help it. If you do, maybe you'll get lucky too.



1 comment:

Neal said...

god damn raj. you must have walked with gandhi through a storm of armed british foot-soliders and got your head beat in for the sake of mother india in order to have obtained such good fortune.

down with the american-raj! wait, i meant the british raj, my bad. we like the american raj(that is the raj in nyc. not the american raj in iraq!)

i keep getting these colonial western superpowers confused.

"i am whatever you say i am, if i wasn't, why would i say i am? in the paper and the news everyday i am, i don't know, thats just the way i am."
--ntotheisza, etotheeisa, atotheaisza, ltothelesa.
they call me hova.