I Got My Hat And Gloves Back!!!

Well, I consider this to be a miracle.

Sunday I went down to the Hooters at the Mall of America because they e-mailed me a coupon for free boneless wings for my birthday.  While I was there I figured I would swing by customer service to see if they found my hat and gloves.  So I went down to one of their desks and gave them a description of those items.  The person helping me located a vague description matching the gloves, so I volunteered that the winter hat I lost along with my gloves had the logo of the Surly Brewing Co. on it.  To which she replied, "Yep, that's it!"

Wait ... you found it?  Really??  You mean to tell me that my asking about it two weeks after I lost it actually worked???  Oh my God, I got it back!!!

So the way it was told to me is that it was turned in as lost around 2:30 the day I lost it.  I remember getting back out of my car to retrace my steps a little past 2:30 that day, meaning that it was turned in after I realized that I had lost them.  And any doubts that somehow they weren't mine were dispelled after I looked at them: Oh yeah, those are mine.

I have never recovered anything from a lost and found before, so I was surprised (though pleasantly so) as to what happened next.  Apparently there is a central station where all lost and found items are collected.  The customer service agent called someone, who then walked down to the desk with my hat and gloves (it took her about ten, maybe 15 minutes to come down; I don't know if she was busy or she came from the other side of the mall).  After that she needed my ID, after which she punched in ostensibly my information.  She then cut the string that bound my hat and gloves together, attached to which was a note detailing the items and the time and place it was found.

It seemed like too big of a deal at the time, but upon further reflection the Megamall needs to do this in order to cover its ass.  The customer service agent told me that there was a note on the computer system saying that they suspect my hat and gloves belonged to someone else because -- and I think I heard this right -- the person turning them in found them on a cart, and they had the name of the last person to use that cart.  Well, if he wants to raise a stink about it, go ahead, because one look at them and I knew they were mine, right down to the "Water Proof" tag on the side of the glove I forgot.

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I was back from depositing my test scoring paycheck to find a scalper for the NCHC Frozen Faceoff final when, along the way, I came across two really solid black gloves just lying on the sidewalk.  There was a loud family that passed by me about a minute before, and I thought that the gloves belonged to the man, but when I picked them up and looked back, they seemed to be fighting while continuing on.  If they were his, I assumed that he would have went back for them.  Hey, these were good gloves, and the weather was kind of chilly that Saturday evening.

I thought about the gloves I lost at MOA, and I thought about them.  If someone took mine, wouldn't it be fair to take these?  I thought about it for a minute, and then took both gloves off of the pavement, put them together, and placed them on top of one of the plastic boxes that holds those alternative weeklies.  And I spoke out loud, "These are not mine."  Someone else may have taken my gloves, but even so, on principle, I do not have the right to take gloves that were recently dropped by its rightful owner.  Maybe that guy would never come back for them.  Maybe someone else would swipe them.  But it's not going to be me.

I didn't think it was going to be good karma, but shoot, the day after I made the decision not to take those gloves, I got my gloves back!  Maybe I did do something right, and maybe someone up above saw it and rewarded me!!  Oh, hat and gloves -- I am so, so sorry to lose you.  I will never be careless with you guys ever again.  You are back with me, and we will never, ever be apart, ever again!!!

My faith in humanity has been restored.  There is good in the world.  And I am have a small measure of peace with myself again, for we have reunited, and it feels so good!