Honestly, as anyone who’s been subjected to this indignity will agree, you can’t possibly hold someone responsible for their actions after a gruelling series of long distance international flights, even if that particular person happens to have a well-documented history of idiotic faux pas.
Yeah, that’s what I’m gonna go with.
And I’ll back it up with a concrete, but obviously hypothetical, example:
An elderly gentleman flies for literally 2 full days from, let’s say, Canada to, oh… New Zealand. Upon arrival, he wisely decides to use his first two days in-country to relax and gather his wits about him. Clever boy. He drives to a bucolic little town, organizes his belongings and takes a brief, enervating hike. Upon his return, he notices he’s received an unusual email.
A package of documents was found on a track that could be yours I will hand in at akaroa police station
It’s an obvious scam, right? Not the Nigerian prince variety, but still… they’re looking for something. But what? He knows he has all his documents. He’s checked carefully. His interest is piqued, so he drives to the police station. Empty. Ah! There’s an emergency number. He dials it and begins explaining the ruse to a puzzled lady on the other end of the line.
“Excuse me, sir? Are you saying someone has found documents that you haven’t lost? Hello? Hello?”
He’s just getting her to come around when yet another young, athletic looking woman walks up to him and says, “Are you looking for some documents?”
Hmmm…just how elaborate is this scheme? We seem to be entering into Mission Impossible territory now. As he begins to explain the situation, she interrupts and starts asking for personal information, much of which she seems to already know.
“Are you travelling to Japan? Have you rented a camper?”
By now, his head is spinning and he’s finding it difficult to breathe, much less respond.
“Wait here,” she says, and rushes off, only to return shortly with a large Ziploc freezer bag containing, many documents - as a matter of fact, HIS documents.
What sorcery is this?
Well, as it turns out, Alyson owns the pottery studio across from the police station. She was approached by a pair of German tourists who had found the bag lying on a hiking trail and were attempting to return it to its rightful owner. She took it upon herself to relieve them of this burden and because one of the documents happened to have the old man’s email address, she was able to contact him and then deliver the bag to the police chief’s wife who lived next door. Not that it would have been a problem either way. The bag only contained all his travelling cash, his International Driving Permit and reservations for hotels, etc. No big deal.
But how could this have possibly happened to a man well known for his razor-sharp mind, steel-trap memory and the organizational skills of Martha Stewart? Could it be that in his befuddled, jet-lagged state he had unzipped his knapsack, removed certain items and then forgotten to close the zipper? We’ll never know. Because, as I said, this is a purely hypothetical scenario. Case closed.
Very interesting! But Stupid!
ReplyDeleteAs Von schleinitz would wantvho say!