The kindness of strangers

Thursday night I was subjected to a cruel prank, one I did not become awear of until Friday afternoon. I was the latest victim of the bin swipers. That in itself is not that big a deal. It was annoying, and pointless, but I knew where my bin had gone (the river) and they had at least been considerate enough to give me the lid, which they left on my letterbox. No, the bin I could deal with. They took it before bin day, so now all my rubbish is around the river banks, and my bin was wet and broken (and I really didn't want to go swimming to go get it). But that wasn't all they did. They put a syringe in my mail box. A used one, with the uncovered needle facing where I'd put my hand.

Now, I went to the cops, as you do, then the council, who violated their own rules to remove it for me. Then I went to warn my neighbours about syringes. All in all, it was a crappy afternoon. But then one of my neighbours did something very nice for me.

He went swimming and reclaimed my bin for me. He and his 2 friends, both in suits, went down to the river and grabbed the bin, while also taking down another bin to clean up some of the rubbish on the river bank.

While a stranger may have done this to me in the first place, a neighbour who knows nothing more than my name and a council which in reality didn't have to do anything for me fixed this crime. Just when you loose faith in humanity, people prove you wrong.