I was talking to my friend and neighbor who keeps the candle and incense shop next to our gallery/gift shop today, and she relayed a disturbing tale.
She had been in the shop, just going about her business as usual. A young man of maybe 20 had come in, looked around for a while, asked a couple of questions... and then — quite openly — punched a hole in the lid of a donation jar she keeps to collect money for homeless shelter animals and started filling his pockets with the bills in the container.
My friend approached him and asked — quite loudly — "What the HELL do you think you're doing? Put that BACK!"
Heart of one of our camellias
This is where it gets creepy.
He just looked at her with a blank expression and said "uh oh, my bad!" and then continued taking the money, unperturbed.
My neighbor is NOT someone to be trifled with, and can be a pretty "formidable" woman when angered, so she dialed it up a notch and said "Put that back NOW, thief!"
Again, the youth seemed completely unperturbed, and just said "my bad," with a blank look on his face... then swiftly turned, left the store and was gone in a flash.
She was still quite shaken, when she told me the story.
Dreams of summer...
The police were less than helpful — evidently the theft of maybe $20-25 from a donation box did not warrant a visit, although they took the young man's description.
It made me sit back and wonder what sort of world we live in... in which thieves being called on their actions don't even react.
We talked a bit more and figured it was likely the young man was mentally ill, or possibly in some kind of drug haze. Still, pretty disturbing. I guess we will no longer be taking donations "visibly" for worthy causes...
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Created at 190419 00:35 PST
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