About 6 months ago, this lady came into our shop. She was dripping in gold jewelry. Tons of necklaces - ala Mr. T - and a bunch of very heavy bracelets.
She browsed our jewelry cases, which were very lean at the time Hey, we'd only been open a couple of months! She couldn't find anything she liked, so she left the shop.
As the door closed, one of my partners noticed that one of her bracelets had somehow come off, and was on the floor. He looked out our front window and saw that she was still walking towards her car. In a semi-panic, he secured his sidearm, ran around the corner of our cases, grabbed the bracelet and bolted out of the door.
By the time he got the door open, she had just gotten into her car, had started it up, and was backing out of her space. My partner came running and yelling up behind her car, trying to get her attention.
Apparently he looked like some kind of mad man. The lady "burned rubber" out of the parking lot as this "crazy dude" - my partner - chased her towards the lot exit!
So... what to do? Well, the first thing we did was weigh this bad-boy bracelet up. It had $1700 of gold in it - 6 months ago!
We had no idea who the lady was, so we pulled some images from our security cameras, and called our rep at the local newspaper to see if they would run some sort of Lost and Found story. No dice, unless we wanted to kick in $300+. Not really possible for our start-up company.
So, we just kept the bracelet in one of our safes, hoping she'd pop in again.
Guess who came in yesterday? Yep, The Catwoman.! The same partner who had chased her down was working yesterday. When she came in, he recognized her immediately. Still dripping in gold jewelry, he told her he had a very special piece for her.
He ran back to the safe, and brought out the bracelet. She said something along the lines of, "Wow, I've got a bracelet just like that."
"No you don't," was the reply from my partner.
She was a little taken aback, so he told her the story about how he had chased her in the parking lot 6 months ago. Yep, she remembered the incident!
He gave her back the bracelet, and she started crying. It was pretty cool.
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OK, you're probably wondering why we call her the Catwoman. No, she didn't have a bunch of cats, or boxes of cat food, or cat charms, etc.
When we looked at her footage on our security system, my other partner noted that her hair style looked like someone had wrapped a dead cat in her hair!
Apparently, her hair style is still the same, as my partner recognized her immediately!
Hey, cut us some slack - we sell PMs, not cut hair ;-)
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Did we ever consider melting this thing down and taking the cash? Hell yes! But the whole pesky morality/karma thing kicked our butts, and we decided that if we had it for a year, we'd melt it down and donate the money somewhere.
Unlike a bank - where unused or forgotten bank accounts are escheated (handed over) to the State - there are no clear rules for shops like ours. No way was this going to some bureaucratic Lost and Found. The bracelet would have "found" its way to Sacramento to be pissed away.
We told the story of the Catwoman to many, many folks that came into the store, and one of our customers gave us the answer. The customer, named Kat (seriously), did animal rescue of..... wait for it.... cats!
If the Catwoman had never returned, at least the money would have gone to her namesake!
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Not only have you retold this wonderful story many times, I'll bet she has, too. I hope good things come from her spreading the good word.
ReplyDeleteHmmm...
ReplyDeleteSomewhere along the line, I've seen articles and photos expressing the idea that people choose dogs/dog breeds that look like them. The question, of course, is whether the person chooses a dog that looks like them, or whether they adopt a look that resembles the dog.
I could wish. We have a dobie. It's been a very long time since I was as lean and lithe as she is...!
Good on you! I'm a big believer in what goes around comes around. I've always tried my best to do the right thing and it's surprising how it seems to surprise folks. How sad is that?
ReplyDeleteI use a walker and when I go shopping some of the clerk's forget to check it like they would a shopping cart or I'll forget something to ring up until I get home and have to put it away. I take the product back with the recceipt (inventory tracking) and pay for it.
The great thing is I am always remembered, get a heads up for sales and great service and sometimes special discounts.
Karma is only a bitch if you ain't nice to her.
Plus, though I'm tempted to not do the right thing, guilt and the chick in the mirror would be dissapointed in me. Doing the right thing means I make their day and I make mine as well.
Lynda, it was kind of cool. Because of her being "scared off," so to speak, by my partner when he was chasing her in the parking lot, we didn't really expect to see her again. It was nice how it turned out.
ReplyDeleteSue, if I was going to guess at what kind of dog she'd have, I would have guessed one of those little "pocket Chihuahua's" that you see celebrities carry in their purse. What was going on with her hair.... I have NO idea!
Adventures, yep, the eyes looking back at you in the mirror are the tough part, even when THINKING about doing something unethical.