50 years later, thief returns stolen saw

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maverick06

Minister of Fire
Sep 27, 2008
827
media, pa
I saw this news article and simply had to share it, pretty neat:

http://www.cantonrep.com/news/x794473685/50-years-later-thief-returns-stolen-saw

LAKE TWP. — Mel Yoder didn’t know what to make of the box that recently showed up outside his home.

The package — cardboard held together with tape — had his name repeatedly scrawled across the sides.

“I thought about calling the police to open it but I didn’t. ... I didn’t know if there was a snake in there or a bomb or what.”

It turns out that the package was dropped off by a snake of sorts, a thief who long ago stole Yoder’s circular saw. It took five decades for the guilt-ridden party to return it.

A puzzled Yoder, 85, looked inside the box and recognized his old Porter-Cable circular saw right away. It’s now too old and rusty to work but it finally made its way home.

Yoder, a retired contractor, remembers that it was taken out of his truck when he stopped for coffee at The Pantry restaurant in Hartville. He figures it was 1959 or 1960.

The loss hurt but he never bothered to file a police report; he just moved on.

Flash forward to last month when the box appeared at his Midway Street NW residence.

Yoder figures the person who took it must know him, since Yoder didn’t live on Midway 50 years ago when the tool disappeared.

Yoder wants the thief to know he doesn’t hold a grudge.

“If he contacts me, I’ll tell him I forgive him.”

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What's worse is that the fool couldn't even be bothered to take care of it! Dummy.
 
Most likely the person who stole it did not return it. After 50 years, that person probably recently died and a family member (who maybe was a witness to it being stolen) returned it. If a thief can live with what he did for 50 years (and most likely that wasn't the only crime he committed in those years) he could live with himself a few more and would never return it.

My guess; a living relative returned it out of guilt for what their dad/husband/etc did, instead of throwing it in the landfill.
 
quads said:
Most likely the person who stole it did not return it. After 50 years, that person probably recently died and a family member (who maybe was a witness to it being stolen) returned it. If a thief can live with what he did for 50 years (and most likely that wasn't the only crime he committed in those years) he could live with himself a few more and would never return it.

My guess; a living relative returned it out of guilt for what their dad/husband/etc did, instead of throwing it in the landfill.

I suspect you're right . . . considering that the thief knew the guy and could have returned the saw at any time.
 
Read Poe's "Cask of Amontillado." According to him, no one can go to the grave with a guilty conscience.
 
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