So I left my keys in a park by the library on Sunday, Sept. 3rd. My husband was driving and he had his keys, so I didn’t notice them gone until later. My key ring has my return phone number on it and I later got a call from a woman who said she had them and wanted to give them back to me. She left her phone number and I called her that night. She said she’d be out of town on Monday (Labor Day), so I should call her on Tues. I called a few times that week and left messages on her phone, trying to sound very sweet, asking what the easiest way for her would be to get the keys back to me. I finally got her on the phone this weekend and I asked if I could come pick them up. She wouldn’t tell me where she lives, but did say she lives near the library, so I asked if she could leave them at the library. She said she’d do that, but when I called the library today, they didn’t have them. So I called her just now and as soon as I identified myself, she said angrily, “I’m in school right now and can’t talk to you!” and hung up on me.
What am I supposed to do? It’s been almost two weeks. I called the police for advice and they said I should write off the keys and change all my locks. What kind of human being belongs to what kind of society that would do something like this? Why did she call me if she did not intend to give me my keys back?
I tried to look up her phone number, but it’s a cell and I’d have to join some kind of service to get any info. on it. Any ideas?
Call her cell phone enough times so that it’s pointless for her to keep it turned on. Call all hours of the day and night, such that she either has to turn it off and chance missing importnat call because of nuisance ones, or she has to become a nuisance. Leave a message (every time, thus also filing up her voicemail box) saying the calls will stop when she returns your keys to you. Make sure she knows you have the recorded message that confirms that the person who found the keys is at this number.
I’m not going to harrass her (calling at all hours, as an earlier poster suggested) because she DOES have my home phone number and can find my address pretty easily. It irks me that I’d need to pay a cash reward to someone for simply doing the right thing - returning something of mine that she found - that involves practically no inconvenience on her part. She’s holding them ransom, which I think is a crummy thing to do. I know I definitely don’t want to have lunch with her at this point as I am becoming convinced that she’s a scumbag. I guess my choices are leaving ten bucks and a note to her explaining how I feel about her anti-social behavior in an envelope at the library and leaving her a message that the money is there for her in return for my keys. It would be cheaper than changing my locks, in any case (not to say she didn’t make copies).
Change your locks. THis woman sounds like a nutcase . . . and she has your keys. She has your phone # so she can easily find out where you live. Even if she ultimately gets your keys back to you she could have made copies. Who knows what’s going on in her head?
My gut feeling is that she intended to return the keys to you but she’s a slackass and now she’s embarrassed that she hasn’t gotten them down to the library. If you call her more, she’ll probably just get more defensive. Your call at this point. You might just ask her if she can leave them at the library sometime this week (don’t pin her down to a specific day) and if she hasn’t done it by the end of the week, go ahead and change your locks.
If she intended to use my keys to get into my house, why would she have called to tell me she has them? Now I have her phone number, too (though I can’t trace a cell).
I’m thinking of calling her once more and telling her that there’s ten bucks in an envelope at the library for her in return for leaving my keys there. Here’s the letter I would put in the envelope with the money:
Andrea,
It’s been about two weeks since you called to tell me that you found my keys in the park. I was happy to hear this, because it’s been a real hassle not having my keys. I have no idea what your motivation was to keep putting me off (and then hanging up on me). Why didn’t you just tell me where to pick em up or leave them at the library by your house (as we agreed)? If you’ve ever lost a set of keys, you know what that’s like. How would you feel if someone did this to you?
You didn’t ask for a reward, but at this point I realize that, if I want them back, I need to pay you a RANSOM to get my property back. Let me take this opportunity to tell you that, to me, this goes against the basic rules of society that most human beings agree to follow. Please don’t add this incident to your list of “Good Deeds” you’ve done in your life.
I needed to write that letter to get it out of my system, but I’ll moderate the tone. The idea was going to be that she would have to give the keys to the librarian in order to get the envelope, anyway. I’ve got replacements for all but three of my keys, so am going to try to wait about a week before I contact her again. Maybe by then she’ll get around to dropping my keys at the library (which, apparently, is right by her house) without any more reminders from me.
On my planet, nice people help others because it’s the right thing to do, and that is reward enough.
If the keys have your phone number on them, I bet she could just drop them in a mail box. I suspect ANY postal worker would be more trusting than this flake.
Andrea,
Thank you for calling me about my lost keys. I’m sorry we have not been able to hook up. If you cannot find time to return them, would you please just drop them in a mail box?
Write the letter, but don’t leave it with the ten. Anything that you say will only serve to make her angry and refuse to give you what you want. Just writing the letter (or writing about it here) is as much satisfaction as you are going to get from this nutcase. There’s no way that you are going to bring her to reason.
I say change the locks. Don’t wait a week - it’s been too long already. She has keys that give her access to your home. Everything you own, value and cherish is in there. I personally wouldn’t feel safe .
Also, forget the letter. If she takes it the wrong way, wave good-bye to those keys and your peace of mind. If you feel you must write one, go with **enipla’s ** suggestion.
Change the locks already. Yeah, it’s a drag and expensive but what’s peace of mind worth?
Imagine how you’ll feel if you come home tomorrow, or next month and your place is cleaned out. How are you going to feel about the hassle and expense while you’re explaning to the police, your insurance agent and your boss how foolish you were just to save a little dough.
The God’s have thrown you a pebble, don’t wait for the brick, do the the right thing.
Um, given that it’s trivial to track an address down given a (landline) telephone number, why do you have your phone number on your keys. That’s just asking for trouble. There’re lots more anonymous ways to get your keys back – a cell phone number or a yahoo email address.
I paid $14.50 to an online service to search for the name attached to the cell phone number of the person who reported that she had my keys. Her name, I thought, was Andrea. The name I got from the service was CK. I looked in the phone book and there was no CK, but one of the Ks listed had a NW address. I did a mapquest search and found out the NW address was two blocks from the park where I lost the keys! I called the number in the phone book and got a woman who said her son had found the keys but hadn’t gotten around to returning them to me, apparently. I think he’s the one I thought was Andrea - he’s probably a pre-teen. Anyway, after I talked to his mom, he left me a message last night that he’s returned my keys to the library.
Another mystery resolved.
It’s great that you got your keys back, but next time try putting the phone number in Google, unless that doesn’t work with cell phone numbers. I learned about this on these boards, and the person’s name and address pops right up. Hope this helps.
Sorry for being dim, and I’m glad you’re getting your keys back, but my inquiring mind wants to know: why did you think you were talking to a woman named Andrea when you were, in fact, talking to a pre-teen boy whose name was something else altogether?
