Finders Keepers and Cold Hands

Where was my head yesterday afternoon? Not anywhere that could be considered functional. It started following an hour-long session on the elliptical at the gym. As I entered the locker room to change I realized that I had left the key chain containing my membership card and padlock key in the tray attached to the machine. Fortunately it was still there when I went back, only costing me a couple minutes. It continued on my way out. After changing I made it all the way to my motorcycle before realizing that I had left my jacket in the gym, in the front right pocket of which was my driver’s license and credit card. I then put my gym shoes and clothes into my trunk bag and went back in with my gloves in my pants pocket to retrieve the jacket which was still there. Then things got somewhat interesting.

Jacket now on I made it to my motorcycle again only to realize that I had dropped my gloves somewhere along the way. I started to walk towards the gym again with my gaze fixated on the ground. Looking up again I could see about fifteen yards ahead a woman briskly walking towards her car with a pair of black Alpinestars motorcycle gloves, my black Alpinestars motorcycle gloves. She was about to try them on. Yes, this person was planning to take my gloves home, finder’s keepers.

I called out to inform her that I believed that she had found my gloves. Seemingly startled by my calling out she replied, “Oh, I was surprised that no one was looking for these” to which I said, “yeah, it just happened a second ago and I was walking back towards the gym to find them, thank you for finding them”. She handed them over and looked to be a little embarrassed (or was it disappointment in the loss of her new gloves, I’ll never know). I thought about a clever retort but didn’t much feel like it. It might have been momentarily satisfying to call out this person but in the end I was just glad that I had found them and didn’t have to ride home without any hand protection having to spend an appreciable amount on a replacement pair.

This situation reminded me of a recent post by one of my Facebook friends. Their small child had lost a camera on an outing and was never found so they were wondering what their friends would do if they had encountered a lost camera. My reply was that I would leave it where it was. I wouldn’t take it but I wouldn’t try to find the owner or attempt to find a lost and found or anything either. Learning after the fact that the question was in regard to a child’s lost toy I was somewhat embarrassed by my response as I remember what it was like to lose something. I revised my response to taking them to some place of authority wherever it is that the item is found, in anticipation of some kind of lost and found.

Finders keepers is a term referred to above and it may seem justifiable, but really, finding my gloves outside of a gym and that person didn’t think that someone would be looking for them? That person didn’t have to do anything with them. They didn’t have to take them inside and hand them to the staff at the front desk; it would have been perfectly acceptable to leave them and continue walking. But to just pick them up, assume ownership and rush to her car is disappointing. At least I got there in time.