Mon, 19 May 2008

Lost and found

Before yesterday, I'd never found anyone's drivers license before. In the past 24 hours, I've found two!

While riding the Centennial Trail east of Spokane, I nearly ran over a driver's license, face up, on the trail, just past one of the trail heads. Looking back, I couldn't see anyone in the parking lot. It couldn't have been there long. The first person to happen upon it would certainly pick it up—and that was me.

After mentally noting the name and taking a close look at the picture, I tucked it in my jersey pocket and continued on my way.

About a mile later, I glanced over at a cyclist I was overtaking—he certainly looked like the photo. Are you Richard E.? I asked.

Yes, he said pulling to a stop.

You dropped this, I said, handing him his drivers license.

I have truly never seen anyone so grateful. He was amazed that I'd found it and returned it so unexpectedly. With a trip to Canada planned for this week, he would have been greatly inconvenienced if he hadn't found it.

Richard told me he lives in Liberty Lake, gave me his address, and offered his private beach any time I want to go swimming. I almost took him up on the offer on the spot. It was nearly ninety degrees.

It felt great to have made someone's day. I almost felt a bit guilty, though. There was almost zero effort on my part. His gratitude outweighed the good deed.

Having never found someone else's drivers license before, imagine how surprised I was this morning when I pushed the lawn mower out front to clip the grass before the heat of the day and found one laying in the yard. There was eighteen year-old Brena H. looking up at me.

The license was punched to indicate it had been replaced. But just a few feet away was the temporary license that had replaced it. Strewn along the edge of the street in front of our house and our neighbors' were a dozen or more receipts, paycheck stubs, and business cards.

The temporary license had expired over a year ago. Nothing I examined was current.

Using the white pages tab on Dex Knows, I found a phone number with an address and last name matching Brena's drivers license. The number has been disconnected.

I called the Sheriff's Department and not long afterwards an officer arrived and collected the items a neighbor and I found. It's probably the contents of a stolen purse, dumped on the street after everything valuable was taken.

The second find was certainly less rewarding. Hopefully, Brena H. suffered no great loss.

[/cycling] [link]

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