Monday, August 11, 2008

I might be a criminal now, but I only took what was mine

About two weeks ago, I purchased a couple of DVD’s online through Amazon, and I wasn’t paying attention when I finished the purchase. I failed to notice that my old address was where the DVD’s were going to be sent. In fact, I didn’t notice for a couple of days, when I suddenly decided to look at the e-recept and went…OH SHIT. I immediately e-mailed the sellers of the DVD (I bought them through the Amazon Marketplace, but it was too late, they had been shipped.

So the next 2 weeks, I went to the postal depot by my old apartment, hoping that they had ended up there, and I was beginning to worry. I had also been by my old building and it wasn’t being kept up. The place has gone to hell. I knocked on my old door a few times, but there wasn’t an answer, so I felt more despair that my $50 purchase was never going to be in my hands.

I considered calling my credit card company, but I wasn’t ready to write the DVD’s off yet. Also, this was my fault. Sure one of the sellers was an asshole about it, but the second was being very helpful, and even offered to cancel my order and send me a new one, but I didn’t want to stick that guy with lost product. It wasn’t fair to him so I kept trying. I tended to visit the postal depot more than my old place because I thought that the letter carrier would just forward them there, but that didn’t happen.

So last Thursday, I went to my old place and I looked into my mailbox and say that something was inside. I was excited and angry at the same time. At least one of my DVD’s was in my mailbox, and I couldn’t get to them. I knocked at my old door again, and again, there was no answered. Feeling defeated, I went home.

All day Friday, all I could think about was my old mailbox. I spent part of my workday looking at websites on how to pick a lock. All I needed were paperclips, according to the website, and I had lots of them. I was at work after all, in an office setting, so I took some and bent them as instructed. I watch the Youtube video over and over again, and saw how “easy” it was. I thought to myself, I was ready.

After work I went to my old place and looked inside the mailbox. The package was still there. Perhaps, the person who lived in my old place was on vacation. Perhaps it was vacant. I wouldn’t be surprised, because the place had turned into a real dump. The current landlord wasn’t taking good care of the place, and the For Sale sign in front to the building also told a story or two. The guys who took my home away probably got screwed themselves. Too bad for them, I thought, not meaning it, considering that I almost had to sue the guy to get my damage deposit back.

So I started to “try” to pick the lock and I realized that a), I’m no locksmith, and b) sometimes Youtube sucks. I felt defeated. My DVD’s were in the mailbox and I couldn’t get them. Then I started to examine the other boxes and thought that I would have to come back later that night with some tools to break the lock. They were my DVD’s and I wanted them, I thought. I didn’t know who the landlord was (the old ones had moved out, I tried to get a hold of them the first day), so they couldn’t help me. I then looked at the locks themselves and the doors and I saw that a couple of them had been forced open. So I slowly pulled on the door from the top of the mailbox, and the corner came out, I slipped a couple of fingers inside and pulled. Dammit, a 12 year old could have forced the thing open. I could have opened it yesterday, if I had decided to be a criminal then. With the mailbox opened, I noticed 2 letter and 2 small packages. The letters were Enmax (electricity) bills in someone’s name, and the two packages were both addressed to me. I grabbed them and put them in my bag and got the hell out of there.

Only at the end of the street, did I stop and look over the packages. They were addressed to me, and I quickly opened them. The second season of Jericho and Birds of Prey: The complete series were now mine. I only had to break into a stupid mailbox to do it. Though I’m sure that my life of crime is over.

My 2 Bytes

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