"Stolen"

By Ron Stultz

2 June 2009

I wonder if everyone has had something stolen from them?

I don't mean time or love or something like that but objects, possessions, things.

Perhaps it is simply a function of time. The longer one lives, the greater the chance something has been or will be stolen.

I have had things stolen from me and for some strange reason I remember each and every one and where it was stolen.

I wonder if it is the same for everyone?

Stolen:

    - Baseball glove. Probably my biggest loss. Was a absolutely great glove and my Dad bought it for me after seeing me play little league baseball with a $1 glove I had bought myself after collect and returning soda bottle for $.02 each. Had this glove for years and years and then in 7th grade, stolen out of my gym locker. Teacher said I probably left combination lock, unlocked. Maybe so. Was heartbroken and never bought another glove. Jealousy the cause?

    - 8 track tape player out of my car dash at the National Zoo in broad daylight. Window smashed and player ripped from dash. Why? How much could a player fetch at a pawn shop? Broad daylight in Zoo parking lot! Drug habit really that bad?

    - VW bus accelerator cable. Probably the strangest thing I have had stolen. Scheduled to fly out to Arizona for work early in the morning but when I got into my old VW bus, accelerator pedal was flat on the floor and when I checked, accelerator cable. which went from engine to pedal was gone. Had to have been stolen as drove bus into apartment parking lot night before and cable not on ground anywhere. Boss in Arizona must have thought I was crazy when I told him about my problem and that I would not be able to fly out that day. Someone needed for emergency repair? What???

    - Reel-to-reel tape player/recorder. Stolen at night from 1st floor apartment while I away and wife and oldest daughter there. Guess just too tempting as player set in window area so it could be seen by anyone passing by on the sidewalk outside. Strange. Tracked down a replacement and bought on time but never received payment book and when I called, no record of me ever buying unit! Karma?

    - Automotive wrenches and sockets stolen from inside my VW bus. Hidden under a seat but apparently not hidden well enough as one morning, seat cushions not in place and all my tools gone. Jealousy? Poor mechanic needed to get work? Pawn shop drug habit?

    - Hammock out of front yard. Taken one night. Nasty loss as hammock was hand made by my wife and I. Stealer not feel guilty every time they laid in hammock? Certainly not a pawn shop item. College students decorating a rental house?

    - Plastic ice chest full of soda and beer. Taken in broad daylight in Pittsburgh while my car parked on a side street near stadium there. Another smash window and grab. Only took the ice chest and let 2 leather coats and a case full of cassette tapes. Steal a little ok but not everything? Only needed the beer? Didn't care about ice chest and beer but busted window made for a very cold ride home in the dead of winter.

And I wonder where all this stuff is now? Sold and resold and sold again? Trashed?

Remember hearing about an ocean freighter losing a cargo of rubber ducks one year and for years and years the ducks would turn up on some shore somewhere. Provided excellent way to map ocean currents. Too bad all my stolen stuff did not have some sort of cosmic tracking mechanism. Did the baseball glove make it to California or NYC? Did my stolen tools get sold and sold and sold and are now in some car restoration shop somewhere?