What would you do? - An informal poll
I thought having a panic attack in the middle of my statistics test would be the weirdest thing to happen to me yesterday. Apparently not. Aldo and I completely had a WWJD kind of a moment yesterday. And all this was because we decided to get a slice a of pizza. But really I would hope that you guys could help. It seems that we're surrounded by some amoral people. Just some.
We finished our pizza and were just joking around and before we got up to leave, Aldo turned to the right and saw a wallet on the floor. I saw it a second after he did. I had to ask if it was his. He told me no as he reached to picked it up. As soon as he opened it up, there was identification of a man named Colin Mitchell. There was some money and credit cards and receipts. The thing is that the pizzera was almost completely empty. It probably didn't help that Aldo was telling me how broke he was a little while before too. I looked through the wallet, hoping to find some information on the guy but it was not the most helpful. All I can tell is that he's from out-of-town because his drivers license and life insurance card said he was from Santa Fe, New Mexico. We looked through papers only to see that it was a lot of cards in Chinese and receipts from the past 3 or 4 days (which he spent a crazy amount of money on at a bar and grill nearby as well as other things). and, I think some Home Depot gift cards. And there were a lot of credit cards too. I'm just happy that we were the ones who found it and not one of the high school kids who usually come by there.
We waited there for a good 20 or 30 mintues before we left in case he happened to make his way, since Aldo had to go to class and I had to go to home. We even left the pizzeria slowly in case we a body running towards our direction. No such luck it would seem. The thing is this is one of my biggest fears, losing my wallet. That and losing my cell phone. This just further instilled the fear of God in me. Thanks Colin.
We've asked our parents what to do. My parents told me that perhaps Aldo should take some of the money to buy an envelope at the post office and mail to address in New Mexico and to leave a note about using the money, as well as whatever change would be left over. Much to our surprise, Aldo's father gave him some pretty honorable advice. It was pretty much the same thing as well. It was his mother that pretty much left us scratching our heads and left him feeling pretty unnerved. She said he should just take the money and throw the wallet away. Excuse me? This coming from the woman who has to declare what a Christian she is every time it's convenient or if Aldo and/or his father say something. Good job. This is exactly why my mother says, understandably so, that people can't stand Christians. Especially the ones who feel the need to preach to a train station. He pointed this out to her and I guess to make herself feel better said that well if he was such a Christian himself that he would have turned it into the police station. We thought about it but the fact that the police have to worry about every other thing in such a big city in the middle of the Christmas season, well that doesn't seem like they would be worrying about a lost wallet. Then she had to point out that they would think that he had stolen the wallet. Right, because all theives turn in wallets they've stolen. Makes all kinds of sense to me. Nice to see what kind of character some people have when faced with this kind of situation. But I guess it's somewhat comforting to know that we're not completely surrounded by amoral individuals.
The problem is that what if this guy has moved to the city permanently? What if he is only here for holiday? This is such a bad way to spend the holiday, though. And Aldo told me one of the receipts is from November 20th. I don't know if mailing the wallet back to Santa Fe will just result in a 'return to sender' situation. Also, it doesn't help that his name is pretty common. But at the same time he could get it back to him if we do mail it back. After all his car insurance is stated as being in New Mexico as well.
So kids, what would you do? I know the hassle of having to cancel credit cards is beyond frustrating and the having to get back one's driver's license at the DMV is pretty much entering the 9th level of hell. A part of me felt that this must have been one of those hidden camera experiments to show that some people may or may not have intergrity with this sort of thing. I was almost hoping because at least we would have been waved down and told about the experiment, maybe. Mailing it New Mexico seems to be the best thing to do right now but I'd still like as much advice as I can get out of as many people as possible.
We finished our pizza and were just joking around and before we got up to leave, Aldo turned to the right and saw a wallet on the floor. I saw it a second after he did. I had to ask if it was his. He told me no as he reached to picked it up. As soon as he opened it up, there was identification of a man named Colin Mitchell. There was some money and credit cards and receipts. The thing is that the pizzera was almost completely empty. It probably didn't help that Aldo was telling me how broke he was a little while before too. I looked through the wallet, hoping to find some information on the guy but it was not the most helpful. All I can tell is that he's from out-of-town because his drivers license and life insurance card said he was from Santa Fe, New Mexico. We looked through papers only to see that it was a lot of cards in Chinese and receipts from the past 3 or 4 days (which he spent a crazy amount of money on at a bar and grill nearby as well as other things). and, I think some Home Depot gift cards. And there were a lot of credit cards too. I'm just happy that we were the ones who found it and not one of the high school kids who usually come by there.
We waited there for a good 20 or 30 mintues before we left in case he happened to make his way, since Aldo had to go to class and I had to go to home. We even left the pizzeria slowly in case we a body running towards our direction. No such luck it would seem. The thing is this is one of my biggest fears, losing my wallet. That and losing my cell phone. This just further instilled the fear of God in me. Thanks Colin.
We've asked our parents what to do. My parents told me that perhaps Aldo should take some of the money to buy an envelope at the post office and mail to address in New Mexico and to leave a note about using the money, as well as whatever change would be left over. Much to our surprise, Aldo's father gave him some pretty honorable advice. It was pretty much the same thing as well. It was his mother that pretty much left us scratching our heads and left him feeling pretty unnerved. She said he should just take the money and throw the wallet away. Excuse me? This coming from the woman who has to declare what a Christian she is every time it's convenient or if Aldo and/or his father say something. Good job. This is exactly why my mother says, understandably so, that people can't stand Christians. Especially the ones who feel the need to preach to a train station. He pointed this out to her and I guess to make herself feel better said that well if he was such a Christian himself that he would have turned it into the police station. We thought about it but the fact that the police have to worry about every other thing in such a big city in the middle of the Christmas season, well that doesn't seem like they would be worrying about a lost wallet. Then she had to point out that they would think that he had stolen the wallet. Right, because all theives turn in wallets they've stolen. Makes all kinds of sense to me. Nice to see what kind of character some people have when faced with this kind of situation. But I guess it's somewhat comforting to know that we're not completely surrounded by amoral individuals.
The problem is that what if this guy has moved to the city permanently? What if he is only here for holiday? This is such a bad way to spend the holiday, though. And Aldo told me one of the receipts is from November 20th. I don't know if mailing the wallet back to Santa Fe will just result in a 'return to sender' situation. Also, it doesn't help that his name is pretty common. But at the same time he could get it back to him if we do mail it back. After all his car insurance is stated as being in New Mexico as well.
So kids, what would you do? I know the hassle of having to cancel credit cards is beyond frustrating and the having to get back one's driver's license at the DMV is pretty much entering the 9th level of hell. A part of me felt that this must have been one of those hidden camera experiments to show that some people may or may not have intergrity with this sort of thing. I was almost hoping because at least we would have been waved down and told about the experiment, maybe. Mailing it New Mexico seems to be the best thing to do right now but I'd still like as much advice as I can get out of as many people as possible.