If you re-read what I wrote, I've said that I think her intent was good; she thought she was helping a friend. But as soon as she found out that that wasn't true, anyone should realize that they have someone else's valuable property and you make haste in correcting the mistake. I don't see "Wait 30+ Days" in that playbook, anywhere. Our "force" was used against the Girl Scouts; they were equally unconcerned about helping out in this situation which is a great dismay. After we first heard that someone indeed had the camera, the Scouts stopped returning my wife's calls until I called them about 10 days later. Then I sent the letter to pressure the Scouts to resolve the matter since they wouldn't give us the name/address/phone of the person who had the camera. Only they knew who had the camera and if they were too busy to help us then surely they didn't want the police showing up to interview them and taking up their valuable time. My aim was to motivate them to resolve what should not be a challenging problem. I think Camera Lady's first bone-headedness was in simply not leaving the camera with camp authorities saying "I think I know who this belongs to; I'll have them get in touch with you...." You know it is possible that Mrs. G was still there when Camera Lady removed the camera? There were about 300 or so girls with parents there so it was a melee in the pick-up zone. I don't think that is a likely scenario but it is possible. It might explain why my wife didn't miss it: out of site, out of mind. Camera Lady's stated driver was that she thought she knew to whom the camera belonged-- not that there was a camera carelessly left behind with her as the last human out of the compound.
I don't understand why you just didn't pick it up at her house or have her give it back to GS for a pickup. It would have been much easier.
Oh, that would have been so easy... The Scouts wouldn't give us her name, etc. until I sent them the letter advising of my intent to involve the police. My guess is that they kicked it into gear and contacted her and she gave them permission to give us her contact information. That was 36 days after the camera was left. At some point our Scout contact stopped returning calls to my wife so I got involved. We were forced to work through the Scouts-- who really dropped the ball. The day they got my letter, the Scouts left me a phone message with her name, address, phone et al. My wife called and the lady wanted to put her off until next week because she was "busy." My wife had offered to drive to her house....
giddy, you said that you contacted the lady on day 36 and she met you on day 37. Any chance that it wasn't the lady, but the girl scout people who caused the delay?
They both did. The lady kept the camera for about 10 days before she contacted the Scouts to say "This camera doesn't belong to my friend." She should have thendropped it off at the Scout Camp because she took it ill-advisedly. Then, according to the Scouts, she cut off contact with them about a week later-- not returning phone calls and emails. At about that same time, the Scouts stopped communicating with my wife. I got involved because we had a graduation upcoming (last week) and a family reunion (this week) and we needed the camera! My letter was intended to goose the Scouts into action. It sounds like they used it to goose the lady into action. Fine. If people won't do the right thing on their own, we should use the authorities in place to make it happen. That's what we did.
Clearly sounds like the lady was trying to keep the camera, what a stellar example for her Girl scout daughter. DD
how so? if she was trying to keep the camera, why in the world would she call the girl scouts to say she had it?
I agree with you, but look at the bad impression and upset feelings all around that she created with her mis-handling of the situation and, even worse, her lack of correction. There is the slight possibility that when the Scouts didn't pursue her aggressively that she gave thought to keeping it. I don't think so but that is not an unreasonable interpretation of her lax response. No one is too busy tor return a thousand dollars worth of someone else's property that they carried off intentionally-- rightly or wrongly. As I've said a few times, I think she meant well but she should have taken responsibility to fix it when she realized that she had been wrong and walked off with someone else's camera. The girl scouts should have also been more responsible; this was not a favorite towel that got left behind; this was a Grand worth of camera/lens. And, of course, Mrs. G needs to be more careful with her belonging!
What is your favorite thing about this thread? I think mine is the number of times the phrase "the authorities" appears.
I'm going to go with post #73 when giddy posted the girl scout promise, law, motto and slogan in gigantic bolded font to prove a point.
I like how giddy keeps insinuating that the Good Samaritan wanted to steal the camera even though she reported to the girl scouts that she found it.
My main question here is Why the hell did she pick it up at all. It wasn't hers, if she felt it was a friend's maybe she should have called the friend and checked to see if she had her camera. Whether you guys think giddy/MrsG is over-reacting or whatever other stuff I aint getting into, the point remains that the woman should not have taken what wasn't hers in the first place. I'd be a bit irritated myself (both at my wife for leaving it and the woman for taking it)
This reminds me of the time Uncle Billy left the camera in the rolled-up newspaper and then Potter took it and the Building & Loan almost went bankrupt. But then after a prayer request, hundreds of cameras were donated and everything was saved.
Knowing that, why did you want to contribute to this: Wouldn't it be better to buck the trend, just tell your kid that you are proud of all her accomplishments, but you think real celebration should be reserved for more important milestones?
I easily have hundreds of pictures of my grandson. I will take thousands more. Once you have children and grandchildren you will understand better. I wish there were more pictures of me as a child. I wish I had taken more pictures of my children. I wish I had taken more pictures of my parents. I have lots of memories of my parents that I would like to visually share with my children and grandchildren. I don't want to miss the opportunity to share and savor the memories of my grandchildren.
Oh lord, now even our standards for "Good Samaritan" have plummeted! A "Good Samaritan" would have rectified their ****-up immediately. It's not hard to do.
