Partner: “Hey, guess what?”
Me: “What?”
Partner: “Found this at the pub the other night”, and hands me a flash drive.
Me: “Kiff, what’s on it?”
Partner: “No idea, was hoping you could tell me?”
Me: “Ermm…okay”, I said wrestling with the idea of being in possession of footage of the 2nd shooter from the grassy knoll.
Partner: “If it’s crap, I want it back…”
Me: “Cool beans”, I replied and shoved the mysterious flash drive in my pocket.
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Dating the image I emailed her to prove I had it...
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So, later that evening I got around to checking it out. I plugged it in the Mac and opened it up, what I found was not what I expected and was somewhat let down by the lack of porn and incriminating photo’s – I’m kidding – I really and truly didn’t snoop around as much as I normally do. What I did find was that this flash seemed to contain highly professional and personal information and then it clicked (excuse the pun)…I had to return it.
I felt compelled, driven and passionate to find the owner of the flash drive. I’m not sure what came over me and to be honest, I’m sure that there is some rule that goes as follows: “Finders keepers, losers weepers”…or something like that – or – “you keep what you kill”…either way, I could have very easily formatted the drive and comfortably had an extra 4G’s of portable goodness – BUT I didn’t.
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Call me intrusive and stalker-ish here but I needed to at least go through some of the documents to try and find some contact details of whomever owns the flash drive. I eventually stumbled upon a file labeled, “Cover Letters and CV” – BINGO – or – BAZINGA – which ever floats your boat, page after page I scanned and cover letter after cover letter I read until success. It seemed as though I had stumbled upon a cellphone number – not sure which network – but I immediately dialed it – the conversation went as follows:
FD Chickie: “Hello ____ speaking…”
Me: “Hi there ____, you don’t know me, but I have your flash drive."
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***SILENCE***FOR WHAT SEEMED LIKE MINUTES***She must have been freaked out***
Me: “Yaaah…I know, random, but here’s the story, a friend of mine picked up your flash drive” – giving her a visual description of the drive – “and handed it to me to check out.”
FD Chickie: “Oh…f*ck, are you serious?”
Me: “Umm…no…this is Darren ‘Wackhead’ Simpson” – is what I wanted to say – “Yes, I’m serious, I apologise for going through your material but I needed to get some kind of personal details because the info no here seemed to valuable to let go.”
FD Chickie: “Sorry, what’s your name again?”
Me: “Oh yes, my name is David…sorry…forgot to introduce myself, that must have been a little creepy!”
FD Chickie: “No, not at all, I don’t know what to say…”
Me: “A thank you would suffice” – lol – No, didn’t say that – “It’s totally cool dude, let’s meet up so I can return it to you!”
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An Act of Random Kindness
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And so we did…randomly walking into the middle of Sandton Square and calling a woman I had never met and handing her back what I thought was more important than “scoring a free flash drive”.
She hugged me, handed me a mini-box of Lindt chocolates to say thank you – I know, sweet right? – we exchanged a couple of awkward “okay’s” and “really’s” and then said our good-byes. This might seem like the most random thing you’ll ever read from me but the truth of the matter is, this series of events, actions and decisions means more to me than I think I can ever explain.
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ARK
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I am completely and utterly selfless at heart – you wouldn’t believe it meeting me because of the douchey and crass exterior I portray – but the truth is I am. I love, love bringing joy and happiness to others before my own and I’m not saying that this was a selfless act, but the fact that I could help someone and give a stranger that much joy meant the world to me.
My Act of Random Kindness.
Shared.
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