Sunday, January 08, 2006

The saga continues

I am in shock. My faith in humanity has been somewhat restored.

I was on the phone with my grandparents tonight when I answered a beep. The caller was my cell phone thief. He said he got my number because it showed up on the caller id of my cell phone when we called it while searching the house for it.

He was well spoken and polite. He told me that he couldn't get a cell phone on his own because of credit issues (he's about 16 or 17 and thus has no credit yet). Because of that, his cousin told him that she would just get him a phone on her plan and then he could pay her for it. He already paid her for the phone and thought he just had to pay her the monthly usage for the phone.

He said the phone was brand new and appeared to have never been used (apparently his cousin erased my phone book and the pictures that I had stored on the phone). And he said he wasn't going to return it because he thought it was his friends messing with him. He heard my son crying and apologized for waking him up and felt bad because he knows what it's like to have a family member in the neonatal/pediatric icu as his niece was there, too. In fact, he said he thought he knew who we were because he had been in to visit his niece. I have a feeling that he was one of the very large African-American family who were in the waiting room a lot of the times that I was in there making calls on my phone and that he recognized my voice when I answered the phone.

He wanted us to know that he was not a thief, that he had never stolen anything in his life and was not the kind of person who would do something like that.

And he assured us that he would drop the phone off for Mr. W at the newspaper office tomorrow morning. I'm realy hoping that he's telling the truth, because I just so want to believe in this boy...in the good of humanity. In the fact that there are decent people in neighborhoods where the police assume that all young people are gang members and refuse to get involved (I mean, who knows, if they did get involved maybe the whole gang violence problem that resulted in 54 homicides in 2004 in this relatively small city would ease up and eventually just go away?).

[ posted @ 11:11 PM ] [ Post a Comment ] [ View Comments (6) ]
[ E-mail this Post ]

Comments about my post, "The saga continues":

This is the last thing you need. I hope they guy returns this to you. I've had phone stolen and it is a pain. Did you shut off the serive yet?

[ Permalink ] posted by Gia-Gina : 5:15 AM

I really hope he comes through. That would be a much better end to the tale.

[ Permalink ] posted by Jen : 7:24 AM

I hope this works out. Maybe his Grandmother told him that she would kick his butt if he didn't. From what Grandma said to you I think she may be the moral compass here. I'm praying for that.

[ Permalink ] posted by Maribeth : 9:51 AM

I hope he comes through too - I am always (often) naively believing in the goodness in people. Best of luck. keep us posted

[ Permalink ] posted by Anonymous : 7:14 PM

Aaaaand...? We're hanging on the edges of our keyboards here! :)

[ Permalink ] posted by Jen : 7:16 AM

That is good news. I hope he is 100% on the level and you get both your phone and your faith in good people restored.

[ Permalink ] posted by cat : 1:05 PM