Threatening you with violence, wow. In your situation, I’d like to have said “learn how to park, jackass!” but that would probably result in either physical harm, or a nice solid love tap from the opposing vehicle.

I have a similar story from this week, in a way. I live in LA, where as everyone knows, there are 3 cars per human being. This is especially evident in my neighborhood, where parking is almost impossible after 3pm.

What’s worse is the lack of courtesy that park-ers show when arriving home. It is generally acceptible to park 10 feet from the nearest car, which means that the block has about seven or so less spaces at the end of the day.

I have tried to put an end to this. I will pull up to the car infront of me or to the curb behind me, consciously allowing for as much neighborhood space as possible.

Until this week. When I pulled up to a car and a guy ran out of his house, wearing FM Radio earphones, screaming at me that I had parked him in. Now, there was more than enough room for me to walk between our cars, and enough space behind me for another car to park, but he wouldn’t have it. He yelled at me so much that other people started coming out of their buildings to listen. Although a few people defended me, eventually I had to move my car back (as he was threatening me with violence, and I’m just a small girl worried about running into him in the evening).

This, like the iPod, is simply about human principles. You should always do the right thing, because you are the one who conceives of rightness, and to go against it would be to deny yourself.

Oh, and I hate crazies.

what’s that? kharma? i can’t hear you… i’m listening to my ipod.

but seriously.

sure i could have at LEAST tried to craigslist it like you did. but like i said…
i knew how that would turn out and you’re dealing with it right now.

if the person was smart enough to put their name and contact info on the ipod where it belongs… then it’d have been a different story.

And hey j, didn’t you buy an iPod a short while later, and you ended up accidentally breaking it, and Apple wouldn’t fix it? You know what they say about Karma…

2) There is something strangely compelling, at least in my imagination, about a woman in a thick Jamaican saying, “You trying to be a thief?”

I heard some crazy stories over the summer about people doing The Right Thing in returning forgotten cell phones. Like, leaving it in a taxi. IN PARIS. And the cab driver calling you up and going out of his way to ship it overnight.

I also remember one time, at a co-op job, a coworker receiving a call out of the blue from a stranger that was basically:

“Did you lose your wallet this morning …”
“Umm, I don’t think so–”
“…because I found it!”

Apparently it had fallen out of his coat pocket in front of a grocery store on his way in that morning, and someone had picked it up, and (based on whatever was in it) called his house. His wife told the good samaritan the office phone number.

Still it’s cool of you to try and locate the iPod owner and insist on getting the name for the bank card. That guy pretty much proved himself a thief IMHO, if I’d lost a card I’d be happy to state my name to get it back.

10 gig. on the sidewalk. in front of the gramercy hotel. two year anniversary of 9/11. (did i feel extra guilty? yes.)

there was a name on the ipod. and a playlist… and i considered doing exactly what you did on craigslist.

why didn’t i?

because i knew EXACTLY what happened to you would have happened to me. a thousand people claiming it… or trying to buy it on the cheap.

that and i didnt do it because i wanted an ipod.

I once found a cellphone in a gutter (it was a nice one, too!) and managed to reunite it by the owner by calling “HOME” to their kid. The kid was a little confused, but in the end the owner was able to get the message! She never did email me the photo I took with the cameraphone though, as she promised to :p

(yes, a phone is a LOT easier to “do the right thing” with than an iPod…)

I was appalled when I asked a bunch of people, mostly friends and acquaintances, and all “New Yorkers”, what they would do if they heard a woman screaming from the other end of a dark alley, and they basically said that they would not get involved. Some did say that they would call for the cops, but no one really said it with much vigor.