Monday, February 18, 2008

Man, what a day

The first email I checked this morning said "dear martha just to say i saw your t-shirts with your label in the one two three dollar shop in Queensgate thought you might like to check to check it out".

I waited patiently until a civilised hour to ring the sender, and she confirmed that they were really mine.

A month ago my shipment of 56 boxes of shirts arrived, minus one.

I called the coppers, and they said I'd need to go in to the station. I explained to the copper (rather fetching copper, actually), that I didn't care to go through a big rigmarole, I just wanted my shirts back thnx. He checked with his boss, and their advice was to go to the shop, and remove my stuff. Daring! Bold! And know what?

That is exactly what I did.

I felt very righteous actually, as soon as I saw the shirts on the shelf I realised that of course I could take them, they were my beautiful shirts, with my cute label in them. I picked them all up, strolled up to the counter, waited patiently for the guy in front of me to be served, and told the young chap "these are my shirts, they have been stolen, I am taking them back, I have told the police". I half wanted a tap on the shoulder from mall security as I left, so I could tell my story, but nobody stopped me. As fetching copper said, they knew it wasn't kosher, and probably half expect this sort of thing.

Absolutely no idea how the shop ended up with the shirts, but I suspect light fingers in a depot somewhere.

All that happened before 9.10am, and it has been a loooooooooooong day since.

Big thanks to the divine C, and her excellent detective daughters!

15 comments:

Joanna said...

We need to get you a superhero costume!

Martha Craig said...

I've started knitting one already

Robyn said...

Vigilante justice! I'm impressed. I hope the recovered t-shirts are in a sellable condition.

Amanda said...

how brave! Good for you. I will make a point of not patronizing that shop ever if receiving stolen goods is their thing

Mike Riversdale said...

You go girl!
Bloody cheeky sods ... has a very Bangkok/Mumbai/Birmingham feel about it but here on our very own doorstep ... sorry, starting to sound like "all-neighbour" being interviewed after a stabbing.

Still, on ya!

Anonymous said...

What a wild frontier justice sort of thing. You are very brave indeed!

PS.It was nice to see a celebrity like you along the waterfront!

PPS. That line was 2 hours long- you are so so glad you didn't wait in it. I think I get some sort of mothering award for that.

Bowties & Fireflies said...

lazza here, first time poster, long time reader/stalker/whatnot...

silly q, but did you get all of the shirts, or just the ones on the shelf?

that's seriously dodgey. i'd be more than slightly offended that they're selling them at that price as well!

just bank on the fact that karma is a bitch.

good luck. and rock on with your coolio shop/shirts.

llew said...

I've sent Sil & Paulie round to torc... I mean, talk to them.

Anonymous said...

Lucky it was a short queue ....
Those people will get their karma (the plastic fumes in that shop are enough to kill anyone)

Violet said...

but...but...isn't it illegal to sell stolen goods?! Why isn't the shop being prosecuted?

David said...

Good for you. But I'd go thru the rigmarole as well, otherwise it's just a probability thing for the crims who stole the stuff... once in a blue moon they have a tiny percentage of the stuff they stole recovered, but there isn't any other consequence so they might as well carry on.

Martha Craig said...

Thanks all for your comments!

Nup, no way am I going through any drama for this. The police are welcome to pursue it if they feel inclined, but I think it would be a long and rocky road full of people suffering lots of bad karma for being so naughty. This one I'll leave to the universe to take care of.

Anonymous said...

WOW! You are quite the bad-ass, Martha dear! I'm ridiculously impressed.

tash* said...

that's incredible! and what a good ending to that story...(another blog stalker here). Isn't it great when life works out in favour for the good guys. good on you for being so ballsy and claiming what was rightfully yours!

Martha Craig said...

Lara, quite right, I'm the bad-ass that reclaims my goods - watch out!

Tash, you're not so much a stalker as a supplier ;-)