# I was robbed...years ago...apparently **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 11, 2016, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-robbed-years-ago-apparently/757106 "2016-06-11T13:33:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2016, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-robbed-years-ago-apparently/757106/21 "2016-06-14T00:43:03Z")
> [@Asimovian](#): > > 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. This is correct. I picked up the box with intentions of bringing it outside and discovered it was empty. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2016, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-robbed-years-ago-apparently/757106/22 "2016-06-14T10:58:18Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > 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. Well that’s the problem, he was looking for it in a box on the shelf instead of up in orbit. :smack: 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2016, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-robbed-years-ago-apparently/757106/23 "2016-06-14T15:22:55Z")
> [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](#): > > 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 A story I read years ago had a man suspecting his cleaning woman was drinking his whiskey. He put a small pencil mark on the label so he could check if it was true. His cleaning lady left him a note: Please don’t mark the label. I’d hate to water down such fine whiskey. ---
**Author:** ![Whiskey\_Dickens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9fc348/32.png) [@Whiskey\_Dickens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whiskey_Dickens)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2016, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-robbed-years-ago-apparently/757106/24 "2016-06-14T16:15:24Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > 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. Thank you for clarifying that! I was wondering how he managed to encompass the entire earth and GPS satellite orbit in a box on his shelf. I’ll step back from the ledge, I was having some crazy existential thoughts. **Quimby** when the legions of worshippers show up praying to you, please just shoo them away. Let them know that you’re not the messiah, you’re a very naughty boy. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2016, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-robbed-years-ago-apparently/757106/25 "2016-06-14T17:44:17Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > 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. Something similar happened to me a few weeks ago. I picked up a pair of shoes that I hadn’t worn in months, and a one-ounce Silver Eagle coin fell out. Anymore when I lose things, I shrug and think, “It’s around here somewhere; it’ll show up sometime.” ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2016, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-robbed-years-ago-apparently/757106/26 "2016-06-14T21:57:37Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > 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. My stepmother had some jewelry that went missing once. She suspected that someone who had done work at the house (plumber or something, I don’t remember the specifics) had stolen it. A year or two later she found the jewelry. She had hidden it and forgotten about it. ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2016, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-robbed-years-ago-apparently/757106/27 "2016-06-16T02:32:34Z")
> [@Folacin](#): > > A story I read years ago had a man suspecting his cleaning woman was drinking his whiskey. He put a small pencil mark on the label so he could check if it was true. His cleaning lady left him a note: Please don’t mark the label. I’d hate to water down such fine whiskey. That’s funny. The problem was we had a home based business and one regular employee was an alcoholic. (Don’t ask. He was good at his job, not so good at life.) So we kind of had a suspect. It was only when we took a break for a month over Christmas, and he want there that we really really got confused by it. It was funny though that my babysitter remembered and paid me back about 6 years later! ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2016, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-robbed-years-ago-apparently/757106/28 "2016-06-16T13:47:21Z")
Continuing a theme … I realized a few weeks ago my stepladder was missing. I vaguely remember being worried one night a couple months ago about having left some stuff outside overnight. But I couldn’t remember if it included that ladder or not and whether I remembered the next morning to bring it in. I searched all over the house. Anyplace a ladder could be squeezed into. Under, over behind. No room left unchecked. Repeated the search a couple more times. On Saturday, I was pricing out a new ladder on websites intending to buy a new one on Sunday. Early Sunday I gave it another search before going to get one. Umm, it was up against my big lawn cart (which was up on it’s front). Most of the cart blocked the view of the ladder and the handles “blended” the rest in. OTOH, I walked around the whole area. From most angles it’s clearly visible. I had also been worried that I lost a spring clamp that was on it. So, I’ve got that back now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-robbed-years-ago-apparently/757106.md?page=1)