Thx....for nothin'

I have decided to write this story as a cautionary tale for naive and trusting souls out there who would never even consider that this could happen to them.

Earlier this week, a young woman was in a hurry to meet up with a group for a bike ride on a ridiculously beautiful early evening. Not having time to go back (in bike cleats, no less) to her office after changing into her cycling clothing, she left her overstuffed (jeans sticking out the top) drawstring clothes bag in the women's bathroom in which she had changed. In the bag (which bore the insignia of a local running race), she carried a note written on yellow post-it paper that said "Do not disturb, thx!!" with the exclamation points turned into a smiley face. She carried this note as a result of a previous experience in which someone had mistakenly thought the bag had been lost and promptly turned it and all her clothes into the lost and found. But that is a story for another day. On this occasion, she decided to use the note to inform others that she was indeed coming back for the bag and to please not take it. In addition, on one shoulder strap, a combination lock was fixed, not to prevent would-be thieves from rifling through it, but as a way to keep track of it until such a time when it was needed to lock the bag in a locker at the gym. This was the scene as the woman left it.

Upon returning from her excellent road ride, the woman was confronted by no less than three police officers. With concerned faces, they explained the situation, to which the woman exclaimed in disbelief. Someone had mistaken her harmless bag for an incendiary explosive device! Not only that, whomever found the bag had seen the lock and assumed (incorrectly) that the bag was locked to the sink. After assuring the officers for 30 minutes and promising many, many times to never, never do that again, the woman was able to change back into her clothing and proceed to the volunteering activity that she was meant to be at. In the end, the police confiscated the note, and the story was reported (incorrectly, again) in the police blotter of the local paper the following day.

Now, I would never presume to suggest the kinds of things that people should fear in daily life (mine happens to be getting hit by a car while riding my bike, but it does not stop me from commuting 8 miles a day by bike). However, we should all be aware that someone will see an innocuous drawstring clothes bag in which the contents are obviated by the clothes sticking out the top and jump to the obvious conclusion that it is a clothes bag, and someone else will instead fear for their life.

Hind sight is forever 20-20, what if she had mistakenly left the bag and not returned that evening to retrieve it (happened and stolen...have a feeling this time it would have been submitted as evidence)? What if it had been someone else who found the bag? What if she hadn't pulled out the note? What if she had had time to change in the locker room like usual? What if she had stowed it in the trash can or paper-towel dispenser instead of so cleverly in plain view, out of the way of someone using the toilet?

Let's hope that was one fabulous bike ride. I would love to hear thoughts or if anyone has ever heard of this happening to anyone else.