Back on May 1, my wife inadvertently left her digital camera at a Girl Scout camp she had just spent the night at with our daughter and a few hundred other people. This was a Sunday morning. On Monday she called the Camp and nothing had been reported. She called a few more times and finally about 10 days later, the Camp reported that someone had contacted them about the camera. This person had picked it up thinking she knew who it belonged to. The GS Camp would not give my wife the name of the person who had the camera, but they would tell her when and where that person's GS troop met. So about 3 weeks into this whole charade my wife drives about 40 minutes to try and find a GS troop meeting at a church but she hasn't even been told the name of the person who has admitted having the camera. There was NO Girl Scout meeting at that church that night! A few more calls to the Camp by my wife go unanswered and unreturned. Last Wednesday, I called the GS Camp and explained to the Director what had been going on; she claimed to have a bare familiarity with events. I made her promise to call me back before the end of the week. She didn't. On Saturday I mailed her a letter stating that if I didn't hear from her by Tuesday that I would involve the police in the matter. I stated that the GS Camp was not a thief but they were witnesses to a thievery and I suggested that they had been less than helpful in remedying the situation. On Monday, yesterday, I get a call from the GS Camp with the name, address and phone number of the woman who has the camera. My wife calls that same day and tried to make arrangements to meet and exchange the camera. At first, the camera lady stated that she was too busy to do it this week: it IS the last week of school, but my wife countered that she need her camera for our daughter's fifth grade graduation on Friday of this week. They agree to meet in the parking lot of a local, large grocery store--another 40-minute drive for my wife and a 10-minute drive for The Possessor of the Camera. fThe lady says that she will be in a silver Town and County van. My wife gets there 40 minutes early and waits. When the lady was fifteen minutes late, my wife called me and asked me to map out a route to her house in case she didn't show. Mrs. G was getting a little agitated. I should mention that by then my wife had called the Camera Lady's cellphone twice with no answer and no callbacks. I suggested to my wife that if the camera lady doesn't show that my wife should just call the local police and ask them what to do and to intervene if possible-- as long as she's there. About 10 minutes later, my wife calls back and says that the lady just called her and gripes that she'd been waiting for half an hour in the very parking lot. Of course my wife had been waiting that amount of time plus the amount of time due to her early arrival. At any rate, the lady gripes that she will come back and meet her in the parking lot. When she arrives, she drives up in a burgundy car (not a silver T/C van) and gripes that my wife was waiting at the wrong end of the parking lot. When reminded that she didn't bring or answer her cellphone and, by the way, came in a different-colored car, the camera lady got huffy and literally THREW the $1000 camera to my wife and stalked off. What a turkey! We're glad to have the camera back but I'd have liked to see the cat-fight....
And did you reward the nice woman who returned your expensive camera to you, even driving to a designated meeting place? If someone found something like that of mine, I'd be falling all over myself so they didn't have to inconvenience themselves in any way, and I'd offer compensation for any troubles they might've had (or reward). Maybe I'm just weird.
The lady said she took from a common loading area thinking that she knew to whom it belonged. Then it took her about 10 days to contact the GS Camp to let them know that she had a camera that didn't belong to her. What nice woman? She erroneously took our property, held onto it for 10 days before contacting the authorities. She stopped resonding to the GS camp who tried to contact her on our behalf. Only when I threatened to involve the authorities, did she do anywhere near "the right thing." That nice woman?
She picked up the camera only because she thought it belonged to someone she knew. Technically it wasn't hers so she stole it. She's only returning stolen property. Of course that would be stupid to insinuate but it's not like she did everything in her power to get it returned in a timely manner. I'm sure she only drove to that designated meeting place because she didn't want a stranger driving to her house.
At first I thought this was over a small $200 dollar camera or something. I can see how you could lose one of those. Then I read it was actually $1000. How the hell did she leave that behind?! I have a dslr that cost the same...I know exactly where it is at all times.
Pretty much, this. I thought it was a $200 camera and wondered why she was going through all that trouble (time and gas money) to get the camera back. It's understandable since its a $1000 camera but at the same time she should have been more careful with an expensive camera in the first place. Despite all the hassle, I think you guys are really lucky to get the camera back! Cool story, bro.
Personally I don't think she stole it when she first took it; I think she thought she was helping someone she knew, someone in her "group." The problem arises when she takes 10 days to report to the Camp authorities that she, IN FACT, has someone else's camera. My wife had called the Camp on Monday after returning on Sunday. Then Camera Lady compounds her mistake by ceasing to respond to the Camp's email inquiries sent to her prompted by my wife's phone calls. Camera lady only did the "right thing" when I threatened to involve the authorities which I'm pretty sure the GS authorities communicated to her. Before that the GS authorities wouldn't even give us her name or her phone or her email address. They made us do everything through them. Her retention of a camera that she admitted to Camp authorities was not hers and her piddling efforts to find its owner or just return it to the GS Camp is where her failure was epic. She has no defense. She mistakenly took the camera and should have had that camera back to the GS Camp on that following Monday. I would have and so would most of us....
Yes. They kept our memory card and didn't leave anything interesting behind. She did tell Mrs. G that she took a photo of the bank's time and temperature message to "prove" that she had showed up to return the camera. Never mind that she came in a different car than she had advised and didn't bring her cellphone to facilitate meeting a stranger in a parking lot. My wife was where she said she would be when she said she would be there and in the vehicle she said she would be in and was carrying her cellphone.
