A small display of decency

Well, yours truly misplaced another electronic gadget. This time, it was my digital camera.

I'm not sure how I did it, but apparently I left my camera -- in its case -- in the parking lot of my apartment complex when I got home from work Monday evening. My division at work had an off-campus, staff retreat Tuesday and I wanted to bring my camera, but I couldn't find it. I figured I didn't look hard enough and assumed it would be hiding on me somewhere in my dwelling. However, it was nowhere to be found when I looked again Tuesday evening. My last hope was that it was on my desk in my office at work.

I walked into the office this morning and looked around...not there. I talked to our graphic design person with whom I share an office and said, "Well, it looks like I lost my camera...it's not in my apartment, my car or here." Just then, I noticed my voicemail light was on. I check it...and a woman's voice is heard on the message saying, "Brian Kelley, I think I have something that belongs to you. You had some business cards with it so I figured I would give you a call and let you know you can come get it whenever you can."

It was my camera...found and safeguarded by strangers who live in my complex. The funny thing, though, is that there were no business cards in my camera case until the morning of Sept. 6. I put a few cards in my camera case for my trip up to NYC to see Ben Folds at the SoHo Apple Store...just in case I was able to slip one to Ben or some other NYC power broker (hey, you never know).

So if I hadn't put the cards in the case that less than a week before I lost the camera, who knows what would have happened to it. In any event, I picked up the camera from these fine folks in my complex when I got home from work tonight and offered them $50 as a reward for finding and returning it to me. They refused the money and simply handed the camera to me.

I am one of the most cynical people in the world, but it's nice to know there are still honest and decent people left in the world.