Sgt. Silverman
Active member
.... to a Sheriff who came to my house this evening. Allow me to start from the beginning. I found the girl's class ring on Saturday. I began looking up the girl Saturday afternoon and even enlisted my sister-in-laws help to see if the girl has a FaceBook page. Apparently, she is now the 3rd person I know next to my wife and I who DON'T have a Facebook account. So after looking up the last name in the phone book, (it's pretty close to a Smith or Jones) so THAT was a waste of time, not to mention the girl goes to school 15 miles north of here. Off to the WORLD WIDE WEB! Yup, dead end. Again, the all-to-simple-and-common-last-name kept popping up with 97 bazillion results. So I figured, "I'll just contact the High School Monday morning". And it all went down hill from there.
I was explaining to a friend of ours yesterday who teaches a bible class at a local community college what happened and he recommended NOT asking for the student but explaining everything in detail to the person answering the phone and then asking for their email address, and then asking them if they could forward the email to the parents. Sounds like a great idea huh? Yeah.... no. It would have been, had Katie KNOWN HER RING WAS MISSING. So after crafting a very thorough email from my work email address to the parents explaining who I was and what happened, along with attaching my company business card, I sent it off and was feeling very good. Very peaceful. Until I get a call about a half hour later from the Sheriff's department. The sheriff asked a bunch of questions and I was caught a little off guard. Apparently when "Katie" was questioned, she did let the Sheriff and the school know that indeed the picture I sent WAS her ring, but she didn't know it had been missing at all. The sheriff then explained to me on the phone that Katie had asked him to "pick it up for her". (I can appreciate this since she's still a minor, plus I wouldn't feel comfortable with that any way even with Al and the kids unless her parents were there... which was my utopia-end result to begin with) He asked where we could meet and I gave him my home address.
He showed up and was very nice. He met Alissa and the kids and he loosened up a bit and told me that Katie's grandfather had purchased the ring for her and that she had, "just thrown it in a back-pack and kept it in there". She didn't know she was missing the ring until all the hoopla today apparently. Needless to say, no pictures were taken. Sorry Mike. As for me, I learned a lot today. What I learned is, "JUST BECAUSE YOU FIND SOMETHING DOESN'T MEAN SOMEONE IS MISSING IT". I'm sure the Sheriff realized by the time he put the pieces together that it wasn't stolen and that surely Katie dropped it. As for not knowing it was gone, I guess with teenagers today I can see that. Face buried in an I-Phone testing some girl and whatever.
Not the outcome I was expecting at all. However, I did glean a teachable moment with the girls that regardless of what you find, if you can find out who it belongs to, you should always return it. Mr. nice Sheriff with the big-happy Glock and taser agreed with Daddy. Mission accomplished. God Bless folks.
Greg
I was explaining to a friend of ours yesterday who teaches a bible class at a local community college what happened and he recommended NOT asking for the student but explaining everything in detail to the person answering the phone and then asking for their email address, and then asking them if they could forward the email to the parents. Sounds like a great idea huh? Yeah.... no. It would have been, had Katie KNOWN HER RING WAS MISSING. So after crafting a very thorough email from my work email address to the parents explaining who I was and what happened, along with attaching my company business card, I sent it off and was feeling very good. Very peaceful. Until I get a call about a half hour later from the Sheriff's department. The sheriff asked a bunch of questions and I was caught a little off guard. Apparently when "Katie" was questioned, she did let the Sheriff and the school know that indeed the picture I sent WAS her ring, but she didn't know it had been missing at all. The sheriff then explained to me on the phone that Katie had asked him to "pick it up for her". (I can appreciate this since she's still a minor, plus I wouldn't feel comfortable with that any way even with Al and the kids unless her parents were there... which was my utopia-end result to begin with) He asked where we could meet and I gave him my home address.
He showed up and was very nice. He met Alissa and the kids and he loosened up a bit and told me that Katie's grandfather had purchased the ring for her and that she had, "just thrown it in a back-pack and kept it in there". She didn't know she was missing the ring until all the hoopla today apparently. Needless to say, no pictures were taken. Sorry Mike. As for me, I learned a lot today. What I learned is, "JUST BECAUSE YOU FIND SOMETHING DOESN'T MEAN SOMEONE IS MISSING IT". I'm sure the Sheriff realized by the time he put the pieces together that it wasn't stolen and that surely Katie dropped it. As for not knowing it was gone, I guess with teenagers today I can see that. Face buried in an I-Phone testing some girl and whatever.
Not the outcome I was expecting at all. However, I did glean a teachable moment with the girls that regardless of what you find, if you can find out who it belongs to, you should always return it. Mr. nice Sheriff with the big-happy Glock and taser agreed with Daddy. Mission accomplished. God Bless folks.
Greg
Ma