I went to get an old GPS system (remember those?) that I never used to put out for a yard sale. The box was no longer in plastic but I never opened it and had been sitting on a shelf in my hallway for years. Picked up the box and noticed it was light, opened it and it was empty! All the paper work and packaging was inside but the GPS itself was gone. Don’t really care that much since I was getting rid of it anyway but it means someone in my house robbed me at some point. My theory is I had some work people all over my house a few years back and I suspect one of them may have taken it.
I suppose I could be mad but it was so surprising I couldn’t help but laugh when I found it.
What i told a teenager who was stealing things from me… You WILL be caught! (Eventually when I discover something is missing. I do notice these things eventually.)
Its not fair to you and its not fair to them, but you remember the name of the contractor you paid?
Put that company name in your phone book, highlighted an odd color, as a company that hires people who stole from you. You don’t Have to bad-review them on Yelp, but you also don’t ever have to have them in your house ever again.
Honestly I have no proof at all so I’m not going to accuse anyone. It’s just the only theory that makes sense. Like I said, I’m not even mad. I hadn’t thought of the thing for years until today. It was just background dressing on a shelf in my hallway.
ETA: It is unlikely I misplaced it. I never even opened the box. It was a gift I had planned to return and never did.
Oh, did you not understand our message? Awfully sorry. You see, we found out that you wanted to return it, but as we were messengering it to the store, one of our operatives found an actuary in Paducah that was offering $200 for that very model. We met him at a diner near the Paducah train station (since you were busy having dinner with work friends). If you look back at your checking account records for 2009, you’ll see a random “adjustment” where you were credited $200.
Now in our defense, we did let you know. If you remember, the next evening you turned over a Community Chest card that said “Bank Error in Your Favor, Collect $200”.
If there’s anything we can do for you in the future, feel free to call (find a pay phone, put in a half dollar and mash random keys until you hear Miss Minquin, our Customer Service Maven). Or online (try to send an AOL message to your high school girlfriend’s defunct AIM account, but drunkenly misspell her nickname; we’ll get it).
I’m guessing this should be “GPS receiver”. Properly speaking, there’s only one “GPS System” - it consists of a whole bunch of GPS satellites and a ground-based center that controls them. It’s one of the great human inventions of the 20th century (indeed, of the last thousand years or so), and has a pricetag well into the multiple billions.
If (as you imply) your GPS receiver was an ancient one, it probably has little other than curiosity value today. Can you tell us the make and model?
Many years ago my home was burgled and long, long after the insurance claim had been settled I would discover various small items that were “gone.” The one I best remember was a portable electric drill that I only ever used once in a rare while.
Did you worry about reimbursing the insurance company? You would if you were my dad.
His foot locker went missing from the middle of WWII. Some armed forces lawyer wrote him a check for $50 and he replaced most of the stuff he’d lost.
Fast forward twenty years and my dad gets a call from a random dockside warehouse in Milwaukee. Apparently a ship came in with “Misc. Items”. Yep, one of those was my dad’s trunk.
He tried for days to find out who to return that $50 to, while we all laughed at him for worrying about it.
My case was the opposite. I would realize that something had been stolen that I had not claimed for at the time of the burglary. The burglars had filled bags and laundry baskets with small things and taken them. We noticed all the obvious stuff - jewelry, cameras, VCR, computer gear, the bags and laundry basket but didn’t notice the absence of other stuff until we later went to use it.
Slightly off topic but my son’s babysitter used to pilfer small amounts of alcohol off us. Not very much, and she was 18 by this time. It only became noticeable when we noticed our vodka started freezing. (She was replacing it with equal amounts of water). A few years ago I was visiting my home town and went to see her and her new baby. I brought a baby gift, she gave me a bottle of Finlandia vodka
I believe the OP is saying he discovered the device was missing before the garage sale. He had intended to sell it there, but never had the opportunity.
I’ve heard a lot of stories of people losing things, assuming they were stolen, then finding them years later.
Myself, I lost my remote for my bedroom TV. Bedroom wasn’t cluttered or messy, but it just vanished. Years later I found it in a box of clothes my wife had packed away, it probably fell off the nightstand and into the box unnoticed.
