Tuesday, 30 April 2002 | Found

Something unlikely happened: my camera was recovered at a pawn shop. Apparently the bored-sounding police officer actually wrote down the serial number I gave her over the phone last Tuesday. Despite the fact that whenever we spoke the police could never remember anything about my case, somebody put the number on the appropriate list, the pawn shop owner made the appropriate call, and I was notified. People did their jobs! Hm.

After work today, I drove to the police substation to pick up my camera. While I was waiting for the cop on my case to arrive, I sat on the curb and ate a scoop of ice cream. I never buy scoops of ice cream, and I'm rarely in a good mood when I am in the Wal-Mart parking lot and/or I'm about to interact with the police, but today was an exception.

Two officers arrived and one simply stated, "Lisa." "Yes," I answered, and that was all that was said until we had walked through the building to the sparsely decorated back room, where there were three metal desks and one man for each.

My officer didn't seem to have much of a sense of humor. While I was waiting for him to fill out some paper work, I found out the pawn shop did actually pay for the camera and doesn't get any money back until the case is tried in court. I reminded him about the $100 exchange with my vigilante father (which he had never heard about), and now my dad can look forward to sifting through mug shots in the coming week. The officer took a Polaroid picture of my camera, and I mumbled something about it being ironic, taking a picture of a camera, and he said seriously, "It's for court evidence." I asked if the guy who pawned my camera was in custody, and he answered, "Not yet."

And that was it. I have my camera back, though the Bubblesoap sticker has been scraped off the back and the camera case was missing. Oddly enough, my film was still inside it. I'm excited about getting the roll back—I wonder if the thief took any pictures with it? I mean, he answered the stolen cell phone, why wouldn't he make a self-portrait?

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