A Letter To The Man Who Stole My Phone

Dear thief.

I apologize, I do not know your name and so I refer to you by occupation. You might not remember me, a few years ago I was sitting on the Paris metro train, right next to the door, doing what one does on a long train ride from central Paris to one of the city's suburbs - Playing Candy Crush.

My head was down, my eyes were fixated on the different colored patterns, my finger skilfully dragged each shape from left to right, top to bottom, trying to form a row and hear that sweet deep voice celebrating my success by announcing "tasty".

Minutes went by, people went in and out as they do on a busy afternoon in Paris. Suddenly, I've noticed a quick manly-hand, your hand, making its way towards me. In a blink of an eye, even less, my phone was forcibly yanked from my hands. What happened later seemed, at the time, like it was happening in slow motion although the whole thing took seconds.

My shocked gaze was fixated on you while you were squeezing yourself out the closing door. By the way, I was, and still am, super mad at you but I have to admit - that was an impressive move.

All that was left for me to do is to stand up, turn my head right, and watch you walk away as the train started moving. It was like a scene from an old love movie in which the two lovers say goodbye for the last time, knowing they will never see each other again. Only that in our little goodbye scene, I was sad, and you… You were absolutely happy.

I watched you. Walking away with pride. Stuffing my phone, MY phone, into your pocket. I saw your eyes, without a shred of regret, not even pretending to be sorry or feel my pain. You looked directly at me, and I saw, you were happy.

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A million thoughts rushed through my mind. I didn't think about the money, I didn't think about the emails, the work, or the way I finally managed to set-up my apps just the way I liked them. No. I was thinking about my wallpaper photo.

It was a picture of my baby daughter smiling. Her face light up every time I touched the screen. Her perfect smile and big green eyes sending a warm wave directly to my heart every time I looked at my phone. Now, she was looking at you. Now, she was smiling at you. Picturing you trying to force your way into unlocking my phone while looking at my daughter's smile literally made me sick.

I was standing in the middle of the train helpless. On a work trip in a foreign city, trying to save face in front of people I don't know, strangers offering me help in a language I don't speak. 

And then, out from the crowd came Valeria. She's local, spoke perfect English, and quickly realized that I had no clue what's going on. Valeria put her hand on my shoulder and said "we'll get off the next station, I'll let you use my phone so you could call whoever you need". I nodded my head in agreement. "Do you think we should report this to someone?", I asked. "Sure, we could do that", she answered in a comforting voice. 

At the next station, Valeria took me to the security guard and told him everything that happened. He was courteous, yet unimpressed, and gave us a piece of paper with the address of the local police station. You can sleep well at night, dear thief, the metro's security guard is definitely not on your trail.

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We left the station and Valeria handed me her phone. "Call whoever you need", she stressed, understanding that there were a few very long-distance calls ahead. I called my wife, I called my boss; Valeria was even so sensitive to walk a few steps aside and let me speak in privacy. 

"Right", Valeria said with purpose when I handed her the phone back, "now we need to get you a new phone". We started walking, not really sure where. Valeria didn't know the neighborhood, the whole incident made her get off the train on her way back home. She was roaming streets she was never in before, with a man she didn't know.  

She asked around for a local shop that sells phones. Unlike the impression Netflix's "Emily in Paris" might give its viewers, residents of Paris don't all speak English. Locals pointed in some directions, all of the shops were closed. It was Sunday afternoon, the worst possible time to look for anything to buy in Paris. 

Valeria and I must have passed through 7 different locations until we finally found the one open shop that sells cheap, old Nokia phones. "Someone just stole the guy's phone, give us a break", Valeria told the owner who eventually was willing to set me up with a sim-card and a working phone on the spot.

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We made sure the phone was working. I called my wife, I called my boss. Valeria once again took a few steps aside. "You OK?", she asked. "I am, thanks to you", I replied. I then reached for my wallet and took out whatever money I had left, it wasn't much. She refused. "There's no way I'm not giving you this", I said, literally trying to force the notes into her palm. In the three hours we spent together that day, I would say that half an hour was us just arguing about me wanting to give her money.

"I didn't help you for this", she said, "you were in need of help and I was someone who could help you". I knew, and I insisted, eventually she took the money. 

We parted ways, and later that evening she called to ask if I was OK.

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So dear thief, I wanted to tell you that you didn't win. 

When you looked at me with your unapologetic eyes, a different stranger looked at me with compassion. When you took from me, Valeria shared with me her own. When you brought evil to my day, it was soon changed with an act of kindness. 

My daughter is older now, I told her this story and I told her about you. I told her that there are bad people in the world, people who make us live in fear. But I also told her about Valeria, about the good people of this world, those who allow us always to have hope.

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By the way, if you don't mind me asking. A few months after our little incident, I saw a report about the French police catching a ring of cell-phone thieves operating at the Paris metro. Hundreds of phones were found. Was it you? It's just that the article didn't mention them finding a phone with a perfect app setup and a wallpaper of a perfect girl with a perfect smile.