I was reading in Sunday's NYTimes this nice article about a couple leaving their digital camera in a NYC taxi cab only to have it returned by a kind New Yorker when I was reminded of my own similar tale of good fortune in New York City!
A few hours later I walked by this situation and thought perhaps this purse would also have a happy ending, in its owner's arms, but was just taking a detour, hanging out on a car window?
My story went like this:
It was about four years ago. I was visiting friends in NYC while living in Tokyo. At the end of a long, fun, blurry night I must have dropped my Frada (Fake Prada) purse. The next morning, I was busy kicking my own ass for being such an idiot and feeling just a wee bit under the weather. Naturally I didn't think I would ever see the purse nor its contents ever again. A few minutes later the phone rang at my friend's house and it was my dad calling from Shanghai to ask, "Andrea~have you lost your purse~?" I momentarily thought, "Does daddy know everything I do? Is daddy god?" After mustering up a confused, "yeah~" I discovered that a nice man named Raymond had my purse and wanted to return it to me. It turns out he had picked up the purse on his way home to his apt he shares with his partner. The following morning, his partner woke up alarmed to find a purse in their bedroom so stood over the hungover Raymond while gripping the purse and gingerly asked if there was anything Raymond needed to tell him. There certainly wasn't, except his confusion at why he chose to pick up (what he thought was) a fabulous Prada purse while stumbling home drunk. Nevertheless, after using up all my makeup (J/K!) they began to search for the purse's rightful owner. They found my Merril Lynch Japan - Marketing Associate business card and my California drivers license so using my California address they found the corresponding phone number which landed a conversation with my grandmother, lone rancher atop a mountain near Yosemite. I can only imagine the conversation went something like this:
Raymond: Hi, do you know an Andrea Harner?
Grandma (in a super high-pitched voice-she was runner up for Minnie Mouse's voice-no joke): Why, I certainly do! She's my granddaughter!
Raymond: Well, I have her purse and I'd like to give it back to her.
Grandma: She's in Japan!
Raymond: I think she's in New York...
Grandma: I didn't know she was in New York! Why do you have her purse?
Raymond: It was laying in the gutter in the East Village.
Grandma: Oh dear.
The rest of the story is that my dad gave me Raymon'd info which was given to him by my grandma and then I met Raymond at the bar One & One on First St. & First Ave. where I bought him a bottle of wine and we toasted to friendly New Yorkers!
So it's true people, you can get drunk and drop your purse whereever you'd like and you are certain to get it back...no worries!! Try it sometime!
