"Something to Renew Your Faith in People"

So, a blogger who does a blog called Rajbot lost his wallet in Park Slope, got it back and was so pleasantly shocked that he wrote about it. We figured we'd help pass it along too, given that we read so much about people doing nasty stuff, not to mention crime and mayhem.

Here's some of the blogger's story:

I casually reached into my pocket and was shocked to find it empty. No wallet! Oy...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.

The NYPD delivered the wallet? For real? That's almost enough to undermine the credibility of the story.

This reminds us, in a small way, of the time a couple of years ago we were walking down the boardwalk in Coney Island when we heard someone shouting behind us, "Excuse me! Excuse me!" It turns out they were trying to get our attention. We had somehow dropped a ten dollar bill and they were running after us to give it back. Not quite like a wallet, but it just goes to show that an awful lot of us, given the opportunity, will do the right thing.

BONUS: Having delivered the happy news, we did note that there has been an epidemic of pickpocketing at the Park Slope Food Coop recently. It was reported in the Brooklyn Papers this week. (Sorry, the story isn't online, so there's no link to it.) Suffice to say that one of the thieves was caught via the Coop going to its security video tapes and giving them to the NYPD. One of the thieves was busted, a second is still at larger. Neither Mr. Sticky Fingers One or Mr. Sticky Fingers Two are said to Coop members, which deprives us of the opportunity to crack many, many, many jokes.