Perhaps there is still some decency in the world or at least a little bit of empathy among thieves at some point in time.
This story comes from Texas, but it may as well be almost anywhere that Amazon delivers because it has become all too common. The teenage thieves had apparently been following a delivery truck, waiting for big drop offs where the residents were not home to receive the packages, then going up and stealing them. I'm quite certain that this happens all over the place because it has become so common that it doesn't normally make the news anymore.
When someone has a change of heart though, that is newsworthy.
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I live in a high-rise building and every time I come in the front entrance there are a load of packages just sitting in the lobby unattended. I don't think the Amazon or whoever else it might be delivery people even make an effort to try to contact the people who the packages are intended for. It would be very easy for anyone who lives in that building, or even people who don't, to simply pick these things up and walk off with them. Thankfully, as far as I know this hasn't yet happened.
In this situation the teenage girl that was doing the stealing was caught on a door cam, but was wearing a disguise of sorts. I'm thinking that when she saw that the deliveries were not I-phones or any sort of valuable electronics but rather, were toys meant for very young children, that the guilt must have eaten her up inside because about a week later, the girl returned to the scene of the crime and returned all that she took.
The thief was caught by police anyway but after apologizing to the family that were the victims, they decided to not press charges claiming "The level of courage in that, I have to respect. I’ve been a young man before. I’ve made foolish decisions. I think we all have. I believe grace is something given when not deserved, and we have to give it."
That's kind of a touching story in my mind and it is nice to see that there are still some decent people out there. Hopefully this little wake up call to the 19 year old girl will be one that she decides to not do stuff like this anymore. It remains unclear whether or not the police are charging the woman with a crime anyway. I don't know how the law works in Texas.
I did a lot of dumb crap when I was a teenager and a lot of this was at the expense of people I didn't know. I recall damaging mailboxes and even setting off fireworks that were places inside of fruit and eggs on people's magazines and other mail. It was stupid, accomplished nothing other than to annoy people, and I feel really terrible about that today. I think most people probably go through a stupid phase like this and as I was able to recover and go down a different path that wasn't petty-crime oriented, I hope that this teenager can do the same.
I don't think this girl is dumb, I think this girl is probably just headed down the wrong path but because of her empathy, she can still be rescued from this sort of life before it becomes something more extreme. I hope that she doesn't suffer any sort of jail time for this because in a way, she sort of turned herself in. Apparently the footage on the door cam during the theft wasn't good enough for the police to actually find her, but it was on the return trip that she didn't put as much effort into concealing her identity. Had she not done the right thing and returned the gifts, she never would have gotten caught.
