thieveland

I took off a little early yesterday because I got sick, and I picked up the 3:40 rapid back to the west side.

As we get to the West Boulevard stop, I hear a scuffle behind me and this woman is yelling that someone stole her phone. The guy and his friends are already up the steps and out the door before anyone really responds. She's borrowing someone else's phone and keeps telling everyone that she has a plane to catch. I understand why she's frantic and demanding but she also looks like an easy target. Most of the kids are laughing as she gets off and the older people just look irritated that they had to wait.

I wonder how we all got so cold.

There's a kid behind me who I see every morning on my bus. He's on his phone telling someone about how he just got kicked out of school but it wasn't his fault and is smirking at the woman while saying to his friend "they're probably all the way down Madison by now. She's not gonna get her phone back." I know that he's right.

Me and the kid get off at the same stop. He's still laughing about the woman and saying she had it coming and that he knows who the guy was who stole her phone but he's not gonna snitch.

I'm thinking about both of them when I get to my car. I saw this whole situation go down and I didn't act at all because I honestly didn't know what to do. It's not like I have anything to say to her, and someone already let her use their phone, it's not like I'm going to chase this guy down West 98th.

I'm not really sure why I'm still thinking about this. I guess it was my lack of response that bothered me just I can't imagine what a logical response would be since I didn't even see who did it and only heard his description. I guess it's the next in any number of times I've seen something go down and either looked the other way or, in other situations, got out of the way as much as possible.

In some ways, this is common sense, but in others, it seems like this is the reason that things can get as bad as they are, when we don't do anything when we should because it's not convenient, not worth the trouble, or it doesn't seem to do any good.