The story of the stolen bike reminded me of something I did many years ago. I got married in June (1997) and moved out of the duplex I lived in with 4 other guys. When I was moving my stuff out, I didn't have room for a couple of things - a box of misc. junk from my desk and my bike, so I left them in the garage intending to go back and get them later that day. As sometimes happens, "later that day" turned into a couple of months. By that time, all the roommates I knew best had also moved out. I called the old phone number a couple of times to arrange to pick up my stuff, but never got an answer. I did leave a message once, but never heard back - so it's possible that the phone number no longer belonged to the duplex.

Anyway, one day that fall I went over to the duplex to get my stuff. Nobody answered when I rang the doorbell and knocked. I tried the front door, and it was unlocked - so I went inside, went to the garage and my stuff was still there. So, I opened the garage, put the box and bike in my truck, closed the garage door and drove off. As I was driving away, I saw a couple girls from a neighboring duplex that I recognized waving at me, so I waved back at them as I drove by (evidence that I wasn't trying to hide my "escape").

Once I got home and unloaded the bike, it became apparent that someone had been using it in the intervening months because there was a new seat cover/pad on it. I felt a little bad about that. This wasn't an expensive bike at all. It was a typical cheap student bike, and the seat was in bad shape, so the new seat pad would have been needed if someone were going to be using it regularly.

I've sometimes wondered what the residents thought when they discovered the bike gone. I assume they realized I came to get it after the message I had left on their phone a week or two earlier (assuming it was their phone I left the message on) and that I also took the box of junk, but didn't take anything else that didn't belong to me (other than the seat pad I discovered later). I suppose the best thing I could have done would have been to leave a note, or call back and leave a message saying I had come back to get my stuff. But I never did, and never heard any more about it.

So, am I a thief or not a thief? Should I attempt to track down the individual who bought the seat pad and reimburse him for it? Maybe he's a bishop by now and can use the story in a talk.