In Which My iTouch is Stolen

Last week I went out after work with a fellow gringa ex-pat. Neither of us could bear the thought of a Saint Patrick’s Day without at least a sip of a frothy beverage. Plus it was a great excuse for some good, old-fashioned girl talk. We had a great time too…right up until my iTouch was stolen.

That’s right, my iTouch was stolen. Now those of you who know me know that I use my iTouch all the time. I listen two at least two podcasts a day, am currently reading two books through two separate applications, listen to music at work, track all of my to do’s, have all of my contacts, show pictures, talk to friends on skype, set timers for whatever recipe I’m trying, and have at least three repeating alarms set.

(Ok, I may have a problem)

Needless to say I was a bit distraught. But, miracle of miracles, the following afternoon a gentleman called saying he had found my iTouch! Hallelujah! I rejoiced for about 3 minutes, then started to wonder how he had happened to find my iTouch several metro stops away from where I had been and happened to be so kind as to call me to return it. My mother and my best friend doubled and tripled my apprehension with stories of kidnaps and worse. But I found a friend who was willing to go with me to recover the iTouch, in the nice gentleman’s office building, in the middle of the afternoon on a workday. All was well and right with the world…until…

The same gentleman called me again saying, “I was embarrassed to tell you this yesterday, but I didn’t find the iTouch, I bought off of someone in the street it thinking it was an iPhone. I paid US$200 for it, and of course I would be happy to give it back to you, but I hate to lose the money…”

As my Chilean colleague would say, “¡CUEK!”

Great. A shakedown.

Well there’s no way I was going to spend US$200 for my own iTouch when I could get a new one for that price. After a lot of back and forth, I told the not-so-gentle-man that I needed to see for myself what condition the device was in.

So my colleague and I went off to the location, passing by a police stand on the way. We stopped and told my story to the policeman, who reinforced that it is illegal to buy stolen goods in the street, illegal to keep a stolen item should you find it, and illegal to ask me for money for a stolen iTouch.

Of course we all realized that there was no way I could walk in with the policeman without the guy disappearing forever, along with my iTouch. So the policeman gave me his cell phone number and waited while I went to see Mr. Cunning with my iTouch.

Mr. Cunning gave me my iTouch to prove that it was in perfect condition (which it was). I thanked him and told him I wasn’t going to pay him $200 but as a thank you for returning it to me I wanted to give him something, and I gave him $20. He was happy until he realized how much it was, and then he said, “but this is so little”…to which I responded “but it’s my iTouch.” Period. He tripped over some words and then left.

TADAAA! I have my iTouch back!