Don't Just Get Mad, Get Nancy Drew-ing
Great piece on Salon about a woman who tracked down the thief who robbed her. Her name's Amanda Enayati, and here's an excerpt from her story:
At this point, I hadn't called the cops. I hadn't filed a police report and was leaning toward not filing one. Our car was unlocked, after all. It was almost as if we deserved to get robbed. But then something peculiar happened. A woman who lived a few blocks away e-mailed to say she found some papers from my wallet, including my business card, in her front yard. She wanted to return them to me, thinking I might have dropped them accidentally. I had to wonder: What else might be dumped around my neighborhood?After school, my kids and I set out on foot for a scavenger hunt. On one neighbor's lawn, we found the little cardboard wish boxes the kids had decorated at the museum the previous day. We found my discarded Books Inc. frequent book buyers' card, ready to be redeemed, among some bushes. (Not a big reader, this guy.) My backpack lay in someone's driveway, barely hidden by some shrubs. My BlackBerry and makeup were still inside.
For about a mile up the road, I found pieces of my life, snatched and discarded. It was like Hansel and Gretel, like the thief was creating a path to him, as if he wanted me to find him. Then, abruptly, the trail stopped.
I suppose I should have been glad to get my things back (but not that the insurance company would cancel the new phone I'd already ordered, so that's $100 I lost). But here's a note to aspiring thieves: If you're going to steal someone's personal items -- the BlackBerry with contact information for dear old friends, the wedding anniversary wallet that her husband bought her when she finished chemo, stuffed with about two years' worth of love letters from her toddlers, hopeful doctors' notes, and other scraps of paper she couldn't bear to part with -- that person would probably prefer you just dump it all in the trash. Because finding fragments of your private life on people's yards and scattered on the street, in the shrubs and gutters, is a unique kind of psychological torment. Suddenly a routine violation starts to feel really personal.
When I first moved to my house with hubby he had a collection of import CDs stolen out of our van.. About a thousand dollars worth. The cop told me it was a waste of his time for me to have even called. He did want to check out the inside of my house though. Kept saying why don't we talk inside. I told him the van was outside not in. Probably hoping all those import CDs added up to pot heads.. They were Japanese though, not jamaican, and only added up to computer nerds and comic books..
I always thought anything over a thousand dollars was grand theft and not petty theft. It led him to buy an iPod and put all his music on there though. Sucked having everything just gone.
JosephineMO7 at September 25, 2010 8:50 AM
When I first moved to my house with hubby he had a collection of import CDs stolen out of our van.. About a thousand dollars worth. The cop told me it was a waste of his time for me to have even called. He did want to check out the inside of my house though. Kept saying why don't we talk inside. I told him the van was outside not in. Probably hoping all those import CDs added up to pot heads.. They were Japanese though, not jamaican, and only added up to computer nerds and comic books..
I always thought anything over a thousand dollars was grand theft and not petty theft. It led him to buy an iPod and put all his music on there though. Sucked having everything just gone.
JosephineMO7 at September 25, 2010 8:50 AM
Got news for her: the thieves DO NOT CARE how they mess up your life. Stealing your stuff for what they can get for it is far more important to them.
Firehand at September 25, 2010 3:48 PM
Great article, Amy. Though, I think I would have been very glad to have recovered those items, even if they were scattered across lawns and yards. I know the thief doesn't care for them, but I sure do.
Years ago I had the strangest experience- someone snatched my purse while I was visiting a museum in DC. Two weeks later they mailed me the contents of my purse anonymously- minus the $50 in cash birthday money for my daughter, of course.
Still, getting my license and other cards back... that was a strangely courteous thing to do... in a weird sort of way.
Jewels at September 25, 2010 4:01 PM
Found another interesting article by her here" http://www.uga.edu/bahai/News/071397.html
Em at September 26, 2010 9:02 AM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2010/09/dont-just-get-m.html#comment-1758628">comment from EmI experienced something similar in my first days as a freshman at the University of Michigan. I sat down at a table of girls -- who happened to be black -- and the whole table went quiet and they looked at me like "How dare you?!"
Amy Alkon
at September 26, 2010 9:14 AM
From the syndicated columnist Clarence Page, 1996:
"White people are quick to notice whenever black people are getting tribal. They are slow to notice that white people are still tribal, too. White students were segregating themselves long before I came to campus in the 1960s and continued right through these times that, by contrast, are far more openly conservative. Black students sitting with one another is called 'self-segregating' or 'balkanizing.' White students sitting together is called 'normal.' If self-segregation is not a virtue, it also must be remembered that, alas, students of color didn't invent it."
lenona at September 28, 2010 11:15 AM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2010/09/dont-just-get-m.html#comment-1759528">comment from lenonaIf self-segregation is not a virtue, it also must be remembered that, alas, students of color didn't invent it."
Well, if you come sit down with me, if you seem friendly and don't smell of urine, I'm going to be nice to you. Whatever color you are.
Amy Alkon
at September 28, 2010 11:23 AM
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