The Return of the Shore Run
7/5/2008 – 9:36 amWay back in the spring and summer of 2006, I would ride to the shore monthly.
I got the ok from my wife to make the trip myself, while she drove down the night before.
I made the 66 mile trip in 3hr 28 minutes. Averaged about 19mph. Thats alot faster then my best times in 2006. Partially because I made no pit stops on the road…except one.
Somewhere in the middle of nowhere on route 561, I spied something laying on the shoulder of the road that looked suspiciously like a nice leather wallet. I went back. A wallet is what it was.
I grabbed it and saw that it had a wad of cash. I saw from the drivers license in there that the owner was from my neck of the woods in North east Philadelphia. I got back on the bike and tried to get back to my pace.
And then began the consideration of what to do with my windfall over the course of the next 2 or 3 minutes.
It went something like this: This is the greatest road find of all time. Hands down. Certainly the most valuable. I should keep it as a trophy. Scan everything in there and put it all on flickr. I should keep the cash. But I don’t really need the cash. and if I give the wallet back without the cash that just looks incredibly shady. And I can’t keep the wallet. I would be the biggest dick ever if I didn’t make an effort to give the wallet back.
I should explain this point: For me, there is nothing more valuable then a person’s time. Especially a person’s free time. The implications of keeping someone’s wallet, with his credit cards, his drivers license and other things that were in this particular wallet would involve 100s of hours of wasted time and personal anxiety.( In no particular order, this 23 year old’s wallet contained: his social security card, his EMT license, his drivers license, a variety of bank and credit cards…oh and 173 dollars cash). Yeah, I couldn’t bear to do that to make someone go thru canceling all those cards, getting a new SS card, and waiting in line at the DMV.
In addition, there is the possibility that I could one day loose my license and have that karma come back to me in spades.
So, without slowing down, I pulled out my phone dialled 411 and within a few minutes, I ended up talking to the guy’s mom. When I explained who I was and why I was calling, She told me that she loved me and god bless you and so forth. I gave my cellphone to her and told her to have him call me.
Later on that day, he came over to my dad’s house and picked it up. He and his buddies couldn’t believe that I found it. Apparently, they had been in a rush last night to get to the shore. The wallet’s owner left it on their truck’s bumper so somehow it stayed on this bumper from Northeast Philly to the middle of nowhere in South Jersey.
Pretty strange.
So yeah, I felt pretty good about myself for the rest of the day.
4 Responses to “The Return of the Shore Run”
That must have been some bumper; incredible story. We lost a cell phone in a similar fashion (stayed on the roof of the car for at least a mile) and amazingly it was found and returned to us. You so did the right thing. That’s a lifetime of good karma right there.
By Tony on Jul 6, 2008
Similarly, I have left a cellphone on amtrak trains and nyc cabs. Both we’re returned. However, the phone was a work Nextel for when I was a sysadmin at nytimes.com, so whether or not they were good samaritans is…debatable.
:)
By CM on Jul 7, 2008
Lame. I would’ve kept the cash and bought a new team frame with it.
Yup, that’s what I would do.
By taco, steak on Jul 9, 2008