A cautionary tale from my erstwhile colleague…. don’t mess with the man! It never would have occurred to me, but this seems only fair….
As you may know a few months ago my wife wife’s purse was stolen at a restaurant. Well, in the purse was my cell phone. Thank God that the purse only had $15 and my cell phone. Although, (I did take the precaution of replacing) the locks on my house and car. In the 20 minutes before I cancelled the phone, the thief called 14 people. Now he was a great thief in the fact he/she could lift a purse in a busy restaurant without anyone noticing, but he/she should know never to make an outbound call on a stolen phone. When I got my bill, I recorded the numbers he/she called. Using the internet, I found the name associated with many of the numbers called. The police did not care. (editors note … dja figure?) So— I knew that a call from a pay phone from the transit stop shows up on call display as Ottawa Transit. The plan was to call the numbers stating that I worked for transit and that we found a notebook with the list of names and numbers— Well seemed good, but everyone I called only seemed to speak Spanish—My plan failed— Then I looked at one of the calls to the Northern US. The lady seem older, perhaps mother or aunt. Now what were chances that crime runs in the family? (Editor’s note… dja figure) I called US INS. They have been looking for the family for 2 yrs to deport for theft etc—I may never find who stole my phone but I got their mother (or aunt) deported.
So anyway, from the perspective of 2019 I find this story horrifying, but I’m leaving it here as a reminder that I am a work in progress and it’s my duty not to hide my darkness. I would never laugh at this story now. I would probably say nothing or remonstrate with J. And I never mentioned it in my blog but he was married at the time – still is as far as I know – to an Indigenous woman so there’s a whole extra layer of wtf for you.
