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The Garden Party

What would you have done?

16 years ago

I'm washing my hands after making use of the public restroom in my office building. This is at a 12' long counter with three sinks spaced down the length. A group of women come in, chatting about whatever. One of them walks past me, plunks down a large cup and her purse on the counter beside me, then goes into the stall. Yep, leaving her purse totally unsupervised. I didn't know her or any of her companions.

What would you have done?

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Comments (12)

sheila
16 years ago
I probably wouldn't have done anything since the woman's friends were there.

And I imagine had her friends not been there the woman wouldn't have left it.
calliope
16 years ago
Nothing surprises me anymore. Many women are very complacent about their handbags. I used to docent at the library. This was in a specialty department off by itself, and that was scary enough after dark when there weren't very many patrons. But, just because most everyone in that room (aside from some strange characters who would come in and out for goodness knows what reason) were doing research, and they had a docent on duty they assumed valuables such as laptops, purses, phones and sometimes stacks of change for the copiers were perfectly safe and just left them sit unattended as they disappeared around isles out of site of their belongings.

Well, one day, a docent's purse went missing from under the desk, tucked into the knee-well. She had several hundred dollars and various credit cards in it. We had drawers with locks on them for our belongings but nobody took the time to secure anything. After that, we hung signs to the effect to watch your own property. I've even had patrons, whom I didn't know, ask me to watch purses when they went to the loo. NOT!!!!!! How much trouble is it to pack a purse with you?

I see shopping carts at the market half-filled with groceries and a handbag left sitting in what is used for the child seat. The owners blithely down the isle looking for a bargain. Not very smart. God knows at any given time in a store there will be, no doubt about it, a shoplifter or two. If they'll lift a jar of peanut butter, they'll lift a handy purse.

I don't know what I would have done, Meldy. Knowing me and my mouth prolly have reminded the person in the potty her purse was out in the open. Maybe she expected her friends to watch it, but if you didn't hear her ask them to, likely they were so busy chatting, they were't paying any attention to it.
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I can agree with just about everything everyone else has said,but......maybe she was a scammer,maybe not.Maybe she had just gotten off work,maybe she hadn't thought of just having part of the script filled.Some people don't know that can be done.I probably would have taken her back to the pharmacy and paid whatever she needed to get the meds,that is IF I had the money myself and tell her to pay it forward. Last summer DH and I drove into town to get a burger but we didn't want to get out and go in the place to eat it.so we drove a couple of blocks down the street and parked in the Post office parking lot on the main street to eat our burgers and watch the traffic go by. We do that sometime,just to get out of the house.LOL Anyway,I had taken DH's burger and fries out of the bag and handed it to him when a woman walked up to the window and asked if we could give her some money to buy something to eat because she hadn't eaten in a couple of days and she was really hungry.I told her we didn't have any cash,which we didn't but that she could have my burger and fries that I hadn't even taken out of the bag.She said,"Are you sure?,and I told her that she was welcome to it.She thanked me profusely and walked on with the burger and fries tucked under her arm.I don't know if she was feeding me a line or not but I do know that the whole incident had an effect on me that I hadn't anticipated.I started to bawl like a baby,don't know why,it just hit me that way.I told DH that I didn't know if she was really hungry or not but I did what my heart told me to do.If she was scamming us then she was the one who had to live with it.All it cost me was a burger and fries that I probably didn't need anyway,and my sweet DH shared his with me! LOL About a month later we were eating in our favorite hometown restaurant and there she sat with a group from one of the local Churches enjoying a chicken fried steak! So,I really don't know if they were treating her or what but as I said,if she is a scammer she will be the one to suffer in the end.
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A similar thing happened to me when I bought a $300 stroller from K***s. I ordered it online, ship to home. For some reason, a week after receiving it the order was canceled and refunded. It was the strangest thing. I called their 800# to tell them they gave me $300. I was put on hold while they talked to higher ups and was told since the refund was already put into my account there was nothing to be done, so I got a free stroller. It was around Christmas time, too, and I was like, wow, thanks, Merry Christmas to me, and the lady said the same.
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Pidge
16 years ago
I probably wouldn't have done anything. In fact, I'm not sure I'd have even noticed, especially with her friends right there. In my own case, I leave my handbag in my office and usually but not always lock my office if I have to leave for a few minutes. Not my best plan when I leave the door unlocked, but I don't sweat it.

BTW, my office was robbed once when I left the door unlocked--my wallet was lifted maybe 10 years ago. I no longer carry a wallet, I carry very little money and what I do have is tucked away in a pocket of my bag. I don't make it easy!
oakleif
16 years ago
If her friends were there,would'nt have done anything. If she were alone.....having reached the age i can tell anyone who does'nt have grey hair,the obvious correct thing to do,would have told her not to leave her purse unguarded and handed it to her. Sometimes it's so nice to have a head full of grey hair.LOL
meldy_nva
Original Author
16 years ago
Well, I feel a bit better about not actually doing anything, although I did stay until she retrieved it. We do have light-fingers in the building; memos been have distributed again, to remind all not to leave purses unattended due to the possibility of theft. Nevertheless, just this week, I have seen 5 purses left alone on tables and desks, no one in sight. The washroom incident is the first where I actually saw the owner leave the wallet.

I think next time, and I expect there will be a next time, I will say, "Don't DO that!" and ask that she not not abandon her wallet, and I certainly do not want to be responsible for watching over it. Will that be effective? I doubt it.
sylviatexas1
16 years ago
Are you old enough to call her "honey" or "darlin'"?

as in, "Oh, honey, you left your little purse here where somebody could get it!"

If you don't have grey hair, "honey" & "darlin'" are good.
meldy_nva
Original Author
16 years ago
Oh sure, plenty and more of the grey, although I'm having trouble seeing me address a stranger as either honey or darlin' ! Although at the speed she was moving, the door was closed before anyone could have said anything.
andie_rathbone
16 years ago
LOL Sylvia, you took the words right off my keyboard!
calliope
16 years ago
It all goes back to the idea of getting 'involved'. I'd rather err on the side of being superfluous and dismissed as a busybody than to not have said something when I could have and have somebody suffer the consequences. Yes, I tell gentlemen when their flies are open, or women when the have spinach on their teeth or goobers hanging out of their nose. It's embarrassing to them for an instant, but saves them more pain in the long run. How many times have you said, Why didn't somebody tell me?
oakleif
16 years ago
calliope, wish i could go places with you. yes, a moments embarrassment, but so much more embarrassment to go home and find something thats been out of place all day. I'd much rather be told.
mats_2007
16 years ago
I probably would not have done anything, her friends were there, so they knew her purse was there.
meldy_nva
Original Author
16 years ago
I'm not sure that the friends were aware.. she was last into the room and I think they were all in stall by the time she laid her purse down. That, in fact, is why I stayed to be sure that she, and no other, picked it up.

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