Things I've Found

Last Saturday when I was downtown I saw this young fellow come out of a barber shop. He walked no further than 10 metres when a $20 bill dropped out of his pocket. I walked over quickly to pick it up, but fumbled with it because it was completely flat on the ground and my hands were a bit numb from the cold. I caught up to him after a few seconds and told him he dropped it. He thanked me and I continued on ahead of him.

That got me thinking about things I've found. The most expensive thing I've found was an iPhone last year. That was while I was walking home up Yonge Street from downtown. I was on the west side of the street near Summerhill subway station I believe. It was just there on the sidewalk. I don't remember if it was locked or anything. But, I don't believe I was able to find out whose it was. I figured they would call anyway. So I continued walking and waited.

The call came when I was in front of Mount Pleasant Cemetery. It was a lady. She had been riding her bike with her husband if I remember correctly. The iPhone had been in her seat pouch which she forgot to zip up. Luckily it wasn't damaged. I asked her to identify the phone by asking what colour it was. She told me, blue. I was actually looking for "Sky Blue", but that was close enough. I told her where I was and that I'd wait for her. They wanted to give me a reward, but I said it was fine.

The most interesting thing I found was a police officer's badge when I was a kid. It was in the parking lot behind some apartment buildings (1002 Lawrence Avenue East) around where I grew up. It was just lying there on the ground. I believe it looked sort of like a wallet, you know, brown or black leather. When I opened it I saw the badge inside. That was neat. Of course we called the police to return it. It would have been a neat souvenir though. Whoever dropped it really has to be more careful.

The largest amount of money I found was $40 U.S. I saw two $20 bills lying on the sidewalk in front of the Italian consulate on Beverley Street. Don't know who dropped it. I went to lunch with some of my friends all thanks to an unfortunate American tourist.

Lost... and Found

I recently started working three days a week (Monday to Wednesday) with my friend, Sid, at his Hot Towel company. When I first started about a year ago I was only driving on Tuesdays. Since I have to learn new routes Sid's been coming with me.

When we got done with our deliveries last Monday I went over to my parents' place for dinner. They don't live too far from Sid's workplace. I had Sports Night with the Cornerstone Church group at 8:00. I was going to go up after eating.

Now whenever I go over to my parents' place, quite often I take the stuff out of my pockets (cell phone, wallet, keys etc.) because it's just more comfortable that way. It was around that time I discovered I didn't have my wallet on me.

I looked around their house and soon determined it wasn't there. Next I went out to the driveway and checked my car. It wasn't there either. So I drove back to Sid's place, but still no luck.

During the day Sid and I drove around everywhere. We started off at VIA Rail at the Gardiner and Islington. After that we made our way up to Jane and Finch, over to Steeles and Bathurst, across the 407 to Brampton, further west to Georgetown and finally back across the 407 and up the 400 to Barrie... yes, Barrie.

We made a lot of stops. In and out of the van over and over and over again. I believe my wallet could have dropped out anywhere.

After Sports Night I returned home and started making the calls. First to RBC Visa. They were able to cancel my credit and bank client cards and issue me new ones. I canceled my library card online too. I'd have to contact the rest of the places during regular business hours.

The next day I applied for a new heath card and driver's license and vehicle ownership slip at one of the Service Ontario offices. After work I canceled my Air Miles card and Petro Canada points card by phone and was reissued new ones. The bank and credit cards are supposed to arrive first. Everything else within two to three weeks.

Now fast forward to Thursday morning. As I'm getting ready to go into Nadurra to do some temp work I pick up the pair of jeans I wore on Sunday. Guess what?... You got it, my wallet is in my front pocket on the left side. Unbelievable!

Now I have to say I'm still happy to have found it. Even if just about everything in it is no longer valid. Still there was $30 cash, a couple of TTC tokens and some movie passes. So I still can use those. Though I had to shell out a few bucks for the new driver's license and vehicle ownership slip. I still came out on top. Hopefully it'll teach me to be a little more careful in the future.