Great thread. Last summer, some elderly friends of my in-laws came to Boston because their cruise was departing from here. My husband was driving them to the terminal when they realized that both of their passports were missing. They frantically raced back to the many places they’d been, the old woman in tears, as they tried in vain to find the passports.
As they were driving all over Boston, my husband’s phone kept ringing, but every time he tried to answer, he couldn’t understand the person on the other end and assumed it was a wrong number. On the third phone call, he thought he heard the word “passport.” It turns out that a Brazilian man, who spoke very little English, had found the two passports in a bag in a park (the elderly couple had stopped to eat their lunch there and accidentally put the passports in the deli bag instead of their backpack, then left the bag on the table.)
The miracle was that the older man had put a post-it note with my husband’s cell number on it inside his passport, which is how the finder was able to call him. They raced to his house, gave him a cash reward, then got their passports just in time for the couple to make their ship.
What is amazing to me is how persistent the man was. He didn’t speak much English, got hung up on several times by my husband, who probably wasn’t very polite in all of the chaos, then kept calling back to do the right thing.
Fellow campers at campgrounds throughout my childhood made for good stories. My dad has no depth perception due to an eye defect, so trying to back a 27 foot long trailer hitched to a Suburban into a tight or awkwardly spaced campsite, usually in the dark of night, was always a harrowing endeavor. Luckily, two times, some men from nearby campsites came over and guided us in. That was always so nice when that happened. ^:)^
When I was 23, I went on an adventure and lived in Paris for 7 months. One night, my friend and I ran into a group of crazy Scots who were in Paris for a rugby game. They were really fun, and we ended up partying with them all night long. When we finally called it a night, I shared a Taxi with one of them. He was let off first. When I got to my apartment, I saw his “man purse” thingy sitting on the seat in the Taxi. The next morning, I called the hotel and asked to be connected to his room. I told him I had his satchel and wanted to bring it to him.
I met him and a bunch of his crew at a coffee shop and gave him the satchel. Apparently, he had $1500 dollars and his passport in it, and he had freaked out when he realized he had left it in the taxi. He didn’t know where I lived, since we had dropped him off first. His “mates” had been giving him major grief, saying that I probably had targeted him and fleeced him, and that he would never see me again. They were rather sheepish when I showed up. He offered me a “reward” for returning his wallet, and I was rather offended. I kind of had the same attitude as the Bubbas, feeling that one should not take a reward for doing the right thing. Lol, he said he would never forget the honest girl from Texas.
It does feel good to do the right thing, the honorable thing, or the kind thing. Maybe that’s why I went on to become a nurse.
A few years ago, on a Sunday morning, my dog was horribly frightened by something and when we were a couple miles from home. I ran after her, but she was fast as lightning and completely spooked. I spent hours looking for her all over that neighborhood. In the course of looking for her, I saw some flyers posted about another lost dog, and then a woman on the street said that her neighbors had found a lost dog that sounded like the dog in the flyer.
I had to go to a funeral, but I called the number on the flyer and told the person where his dog might be. I also said I had been looking for my dog. He went to the house, and found both his dog and my dog in its back yard. My dog was badly injured. He called our house and left a message, left a note for the people at the house, and took my dog to a veterinary emergency room (getting blood all over the back seat of his very fancy car in the process).
I was really grateful to everyone involved. It was a wonderful example of what it means to live someplace where people act like it’s a community.
My mom has memory issues, but had never actually lost anything for as long as I could remember. She came to visit thanksgiving weekend, a very busy travel time. When she flew home, my aunt dropped her at the airport, and she checked her baggage at the curb. When she got home, the person who picked her up realized she did not have her laptop. I called several BWI lost and found numbers. Amazingly, someone called me back within about an hour, and they had her laptop.
We were skiing once, and a kid lost a $100 bill. He and his friends were almost literally fighting with another group, accusing them of stealing the money. I told him I knew where his money was, and I’d help him find it IF he and his friends apologized to the other group. They did, reluctantly, and I handed him his money. I’d found it in the hotel hallway.
My son flew on a very long flight this summer, with over a thousand dollars cash, just left in the front zippered compartment of his suitcase. Amazingly, it was all there when He got home.
Yes, there are still many good people in the world.
One of my favorite CC threads is one where people described what other CC people had done to help each other. It may have been @oldfort who purchased a pair of shoes for a student CC poster doing an interview in her city. I thought that was such a kind gesture, and helping someone clearly trying to help himself.
Let’s see. I apparently left my wallet in the back of a cab a couple of weeks ago coming home late at night, and got a call the next day – before I had even noticed it was missing! – from a cab company garage in the depths of Queens, saying that the driver had turned it in, so I took the subway there to pick it up. All the credit cards, my driver’s license, etc. were intact (and none of the cards had been used; I checked), so I was very relieved.
However, the $100 or so in cash that had been in the wallet was missing. I wasn’t surprised – come on; people aren’t that good! (I suspect that another passenger found the wallet in the back and gave it to the driver, but decided to take a finder’s fee first.) Anyway, it was a reasonably small price to pay for my carelessness, and not to have to replace everything else I did get back.
A woman was getting ready for a big vacation and took out a couple of thousand of dollars in cash. She put it in her purse but in getting herself settled amd with so much on her mind, she left her purse on the top of the car. She drove off obviously not realizing her purse was on top of the car. My friend saw it, jumped in his car amd followed her for several miles. The purse eventually fell off, so my friend stopped, frantically,picked up the purse, raced back to his car but it was too late to catch up to the woman. He went through her purse amd found her ID with address, so he drove to her house. By the time he got there, she had realized her purse with all her money and ID was missing, and she and her husband were scheduled to fly out the next day. I can only imagine her face when my friend, having seen how much cash was in the purse, showed up on her doorstep with everything intact.
D found an unlocked Iphone 4 a few weeks back, went thru the numbers and called what appeared to be the owner’s spouse. Sure enough, they were having dinner at a very nice restaurant near her house, so she was able to find them and return it. They insisted on buying her their favorite -very pricey-meal in that restaurant, which she could not stay to eat, as she had an evening class. But she took that amazing lamb dish to class and had a very happy feast, feeling herself very blessed in the process. Being a poor grad student, that dinner was a wonderful gift. She didn’t know who the couple were, but turned out to be well known business owners in the community, so I had fun filling her in on the details. One good deed leads to another!
This thread is making me trust the world more. I have had many examples of people finding phones, wallets and returning them in my wonderful city. Sometimes I’ve considered myself too dumb to live elsewhere, as this community takes such good care of me. But there is good everywhere.
We’ve had lots of encounters over the years with good people willing to help…
My D lost her cell phone (simply fell out of her bag) at school. Someone found it and because we have a “Please contact if found” sticker on it, I got a phone call. The young lady on the other end told me what office she would leave it in and I was able to email my daughter to retrieve it. (BTW, highly recommend putting a sticker on your phone!)
I was visiting NYC with my H when I became really sick. I needed to go home, but we were suppose to meet friends. This was in the day before cell phones. So my H left me at a bank building in China Town to meet up with our friends. I swear I must have looked like a homeless person because I was so sick and draped myself over the couple of bags we were carrying (we were going to spend the night with our friends). An employee came over. I thought he was going to kick me out, but instead he offered me use of the bathroom and a place to lie down. He was my guardian angel!
My car died in stop and go traffic on the freeway. A car came up behind me and bumped me. My first thought was that the situation just got worse. But, no, the person was pushing me out of the way safely to the side of the road!
Years ago, I was biking with my 11 year old daughter and her friend to school when I noticed that the friend’s bike tire was completely flat. We were a mile from home and a mile away from school and it was before anyone had cell phones. I was standing there staring at the bike and contemplating a long walk to the school when a young man came out of his house, went into the garage and came out and started pumping up the tire. He was my hero that day!
Long ago, we left a 35MM camera loaded with our Disneyworld photos in the back seat of a rental car in Orlando. Didn’t notice until we were approaching our gate. H continued on with our 4-year old with plans to hold the flight while I raced back to the car. Had to go on the train to the rental car center. I ran up to the counter and they handed me the camera! I made it back to the gate just as they were about to close the jetway door.
Last spring we were on day trip about 25 miles from home. We went in a store and when we came out the car wouldn’t start. The store clerk told us the woman who lived in the house across the street was nice and probably had jumper cables in her garage. H knocked at the door and asked to use the cables. She told him to go look in the garage. She never left the house, but trusted us to take, and return, the cables. (Good lesson for me to always unplug my phone charger since it slowly drained my new battery over 2 years.)
About 20 years ago I was with a friend at Narita airport in Tokyo. We were waiting to catch a flight and went to the ladies room. She set down her ticket, boarding pass, and passport and forgot to pick them up. She realized she didn’t have them about 15 minutes later. We ran back to the ladies room but the items weren’t there. Then we heard her name being paged. Someone had picked up the items and taken them to the airline’s counter.
And as a family, we still follow the system that a friend first articulated many years ago. Her belief was that, if you take people to the airport whenever they need to and you can, the same will happen for you. It works. It’s not a favor returned from the people you took, it’s just about putting good karma out there. It does not have to be limited to airport service!
A visiting professor dropped his flashdrive containing his research presentation on the campus bus that travels around the U of Minnesota. An undergrad found it and was able to figure out who he was and who he was visiting at the U and was able to get it back to him.
My story doesn’t trump the first few I read, but I’ll share it anyway.
I was walking with my fellow CS students during orientation while staring down at my phone trying to see past the darkness because of how low the battery was. I felt a tug on my backpack but ignored it. As I kept walking, the tug became stronger until it brought me to a halt by this lady shorter than me (I’m pretty short). I looked up and saw a metal pole directly in front of me. Then, being the awkward nerd I am, I began apologizing and forgot to thank her. #-o
I have had an amazing MD who has an international reputation in his field. He has sent me over 500 emails, guiding my care and encouraging me over the course of 15 years. I started my nonprofit mainly as a tribute to him, to help pay it forward to others who do not have the amazing access I have had.
I was at the Department of Health parking lot when I was asked by an older couple how to hail a taxi to get to a hotel which serves military folks. I told them it would be an honor to drive them, and it was. They had just gotten their marriage license and wanted to have a rest at the hotel before dinner. (I normally don’t drive random strangers I meet in the parking lot, but it felt right and no regrets. ;))
In my pre-cell phone days, I was on my way home from work, but still 30 minutes from home when I got a flat tire. I pulled into a small town park and was just starting to think about getting the tire changed when a man with his young daughter stopped and offered to help. Well, it turned out the spare was flat too, so this kind man took it to a garage about 10 minutes away, filled it, and came back and changed the tire for me. I know how the evenings can be crazy for parents with kids (I had 4 elementary age waiting at home for dinner, and who knows what other activities…) and the fact that this man was willing to take so much time to help me out really touched me. Except for a sincere “Thank you”, what else is there to offer? He at first declined the folded $40 (all the cash I had) - “Please, for your time…maybe make your dinner plans easier anyway…”, but he did take it. Made me feel a little better for having accepted such generosity from him.
