At 10:30 at night, a Wichita, Kansas, man was walking home from work. Two younger men approached, one leveling a big semi-automatic. They demanded his wallet and cell phone.
He handed over his wallet, but not his phone. The man with the gun gave it to his confederate to hold, and started going through the holdup victim’s pockets. But at that moment the confederate recognized the victim as someone he had been in prison with.
He apologized. He gave back the wallet, and the two shook hands. The robbers took off. The victim called the police and reported the crime. He said he didn’t think he could identify the robbers.
I think I understand. If I were robbing somebody and suddenly realized that they, like me, had passed through the torment that was Lewis M.Terman Junior High School, I would feel remorse at adding to their suffering. I’d probably give their stuff back, too.
Why, why, why aren’t we given the wording of this intriguing apology? I feel that it must
Say… you look familiar.
have been sincere, because they did stop robbing the guy and give back the wallet.
But was it a badly worded apology? Like, “Sorry about the stick-up, you just looked like such a patsy” or “I apologize about the gun, but I’ve had the worst day” or “Hey, it’s regrettable if you were upset about the armed robbery thing.” Is that why the victim still felt moved to report the crime? Or did he report it because even if you don’t steal stuff, it’s illegal and a bad practice to hold people up at gunpoint, and folks can get hurt that way? I fear we’re never going to know.
Ha!
He reported the crime and then said he could not identify his assailants!
So:
1) Had our victim never been in prison with the perpetrators, and he was too smart to say , “No, you have me mixed up with someone else. Go ahead and rob me.”?
2) Had our victim been in prison but not recognized the perpetrator? “Sure, I…remember…you…yeah, you look…familiar. No you don’t need to rob me. Sure no hard feelings.” And therefore been unable to identify his assailant to police. Light may have been poor after all.
3) Had he known the perpetrator for who he was, but felt the need to report a crime in order not to violate his own parole? And then been too polite under the circumstances to identify his buddy.
4) Did he mention the prison angle to police? It got into the news story so one presumes he did.
Lots of intriguing possibilities.