With all the press, attention and media stories focusing on the bad things that occur in society, it is easy at times to believe that society has really gone downhill, leaving one to wonder if any good remains. Working in the field of fraud investigations, it is easy at times to believe that might be the case, with everyone out to get what they are “entitled” to, at any cost. Certainly it can be seen in people’s behavior, especially this time of year with long shopping lines and bad driving habits.
I for one decided a while back that good does remain in society, albeit hard to find at times, and that there are many people like me that work hard to go out of their way to help others by doing good deeds, and by doing the right thing, with no expectation of compensation or acknowledgment.
Today was a good day of redemption. The northeast is about to get blanketed in a blizzard, and the grocery store was mobbed this morning. All the shopping carts were scattered in the parking lot, and the wind was blowing before the snow’s arrival. My son and I just finished shopping after renting a Red Box movie, and loaded the bags into the car. We then collected carts across the lot and returned a bunch to the front door, with customers waiting and thanking us for bringing them carts.
When we finished unpacking our groceries, we discovered we must have left the rented movie in our cart, now in the midst of all the carts we brought back. We called the store, but no one returned the movie. We learned the consequence of our forgetfulness was going to be $25 (versus the dollar daily rental fee). We watched on-line for notice that someone returned the movie to the vending machine, but nothing appeared.
Then, most to my surprise, a movie return notice appeared in our email in-box. Someone obviously found our rented movie, and rather than take it home and watch it, or worse, simply keep it or give it as a gift, they simply put it back into the vending machine, limiting my loss to $1.06.
To the person who returned the movie this morning – a big THANK YOU! Not just for returning the movie, but also for showing me that people still do exist that do the right thing when presented with a situation. You made my day.
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