We want to help people, we really do. But sometimes our fear gets in the way. Helping an old lady cross the street or grabbing the bottom of a stroller at the top of the stairs for an over-burdened mother is pretty safe. We can do that. And we often do. But help a guy load a piece of furniture into a van? Never! And now, next time we see a wallet lying around, instead of picking it up and turning it in, we're going to leave it on the subway platform for the next fool to pick up, especially after what happened to this guy:
Straphanger Carlos Alayo ... picked up what he thought was a derelict wallet laying on a subway platform bench. He said he intended to find its owner and return it, but as he went to get on the G train, he said he was stopped by police.
The 32-year-old had been ensnared in Operation Lucky Bag, an initiative from the New York City Police Department to lay decoys -- shopping bags, purses, backpacks or wallets -- around the subway system under the watchful gaze of officers who wait to see what passersby will do.
The decoys often contain real credit cards issued under pseudonyms to the police department. Theft of a credit card is grand larceny, a felony that could lead to jail time.
What's the point of the real credit cards if the police are going to stop people before they even get a chance to go shopping? Where's their Christmas spirit?
[Via wnbc.com]