Returned

"I don't need to worry about identity theft because no one wants to be me." - Jay London

I had dinner with Jacob a week and a half ago. He was upset that a few days before, his messenger bag had been stolen while he was playing a game with some of his friends in a public park near the university. Apparently the kids had put their bags under a tree next to the playing field. A few moments later, some of the bags were gone. While Jacob's loss was not as significant as some of the others, he did lose the Ray Ban sunglasses he bought while we were in England in June. At a price equivalent to about $300, the glasses were the most expensive purchase Jacob ever made for himself. His bag also contained about $100 in gift cards that Jacob had received for his birthday. The fortunate thing, is that the bag didn't contain his laptop, wallet or phone. One of the girls lost all of those things.

After the kids were robbed, they went to the police to make a report. But the police told them not to hold out much hope of seeing their things again. Jacob was hoping that at the very least, his messenger bag would be found and returned. He had ordered it specially from an American company called Think Geek and the canvas bag was imprinted with the geeky slogan "Bag of Holding" on the front. He loved the bag. After a week he checked with the police. Nothing had been turned in.

When he told me this story over dinner, he was still stinging. I told him he could of course, replace the messenger bag and it's contents but he said he would not. The messenger bag would be expensive to replace because the shipping and customs costs alone are high. He would never again spend so much money on a pair of sunglasses. When I got home that night from Guelph, I went on-line and ordered a new messenger bag from Think Geek. He was thrilled when I sent him a note to let him know. The messenger bag arrived just three days later and yes, the price was terrible because of the shipping and customs costs but I really didn't care. I intended to fill the pockets with the gift cards he had lost before he comes home for Thanksgiving. Merv offered to replace his glasses. I'm glad we didn't get around to doing those things yet because yesterday, Jacob got his bag back, complete with glasses, gift cards and Canadian Tire money.

He ran into one of the girls who had been robbed at the same time as he had. She asked if he had gotten his bag back as she got hers back a couple of days before. Her wallet, money, phone and all possessions were in the bag intact. Someone found the bags, went through her wallet and found her student I.D. So they took the bags to the campus police who contacted her and returned her bag. Jacob's bag didn't have any I.D. in it so they didn't contact him. He went to campus police and described his bag. In a matter of a couple of minutes, he had it back. The bag was full of muddy clothes and so was dirty inside. Other than that, everything was as he left it.

The mystery of where the bags have been for two weeks will probably never be solved. Jacob is happy and I'm happy for him. There is a very expensive "Bag of Holding" sitting in its packaging on his bed. I trust he'll find a use for it. I doubt he'll ever leave it under a tree again.