Now, I Steal Canes From Old People

[Ironclad Alibi]

I can just imagine the suck in a situation like this:

- Elderly person with a felony record forgets their cane.
- Comes back, goes through the lost-and-found, and mistakenly picks the wrong cane.
- Goes someplace with a metal detector, the cane triggers it.
- Security does a "wand" sweep, finds that the cane tripped the detector, and has a gun inside.
- Police show up, elderly person winds up facing charges of carrying a concealed weapon, and felon in possession of a firearm.

Having had one alternate scenario posted, here is another.

The cane/gun owner mistakenly picked up the ordinary cane. Later, when he is a situation where the gun is needed, he doesn't have it and suffers accordingly.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Having had one alternate scenario posted, here is another.

The cane/gun owner mistakenly picked up the ordinary cane. Later, when he is a situation where the gun is needed, he doesn't have it and suffers accordingly.

Perhaps. And perhaps not.

In the above scenario, he could use the cane like a club. Or, if it has a curved handle, use that part to wrap around the assailant's neck and sling him/her into a wall to knock the person unconscious in order to make a getaway.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Lol, that guy is lucky he didn't leave his cane at the garden centre where I used to work. XD Manager had a system; if an item was left behind by a customer, it would be kept in a cupboard for a week. After a week, credit cards would be cut up, cash donated to charity, misc stuff (ie bus passes, receipts, glasses and other random rubbish) thrown away and stuff like umbrellas, canes, items of clothing, kid's toys etc donated to the Oxfam shop. XD It was a good system cuz it meant that we didn't end up with a metric ton of clutter, but resulted in quite a few SCs as people returned to the store, usually at least a month after leaving their item behind, to find that it had been cut up/donated to charity/thrown away/given to Oxfam. Cue fireworks. XD

[registerrodeo]

Our residents leave their canes, walkers, and in a puzzling one from this week a wheelchair, everywhere and then can't find them. Feeble as they are, the manage to hobble around without them. The fun part is when they start blaming each other and trying to take back what is theirs (and isn't because we make sure each one is labeled!).

My last retail job, when I left we had a collection of canes also.

[greek_jester]

Lol, that guy is lucky he didn't leave his cane at the garden centre where I used to work. XD Manager had a system; if an item was left behind by a customer, it would be kept in a cupboard for a week. After a week, credit cards would be cut up, cash donated to charity, misc stuff (ie bus passes, receipts, glasses and other random rubbish) thrown away and stuff like umbrellas, canes, items of clothing, kid's toys etc donated to the Oxfam shop. XD It was a good system cuz it meant that we didn't end up with a metric ton of clutter, but resulted in quite a few SCs as people returned to the store, usually at least a month after leaving their item behind, to find that it had been cut up/donated to charity/thrown away/given to Oxfam. Cue fireworks. XD

What I don't get is, if you know where you must of left the item, why not phone the shop to see if it's been picked up? That way if they can't get back within a week (perhaps they depend on lifts or don't have the money to get a taxi until their next payday) it can be put safely aside with a label ready for collection by a mutually agreed date.

[XCashier]

It would be helpful if they would put a label on their canes. "If found, please call Fred Oldman at (555) 555-5555" or something like that. I don't know why they don't do that.

[wolfie]

It would be helpful if they would put a label on their canes. "If found, please call Fred Oldman at (555) 555-5555" or something like that. I don't know why they don't do that.

They probably have that label on their cellphone - with the number to call being their cellphone number.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

They probably have that label on their cellphone - with the number to call being their cellphone number.

IF they even know their cellphone number, that is.

Half the customers I'd ask for phone numbers wouldn't know theirs - and I'd get several variations of the old standby "Well, I don't know. I don't call myself."

[sms001]

"Well, I don't know. I don't call myself."

I have to give this one a little more forbearance since the advent of cellphones though. Used to be, there were plenty of occasions to "call yourself" - when there were other people at your house to contact. Also, memorizing any phone numbers is pretty old school now. I've flubbed my prefix a time or two myself. 'course, instead of a flippant and worn out excuse, I apologize and dig out my phone and verify it.

[Shalom]

Our residents leave their canes, walkers, and in a puzzling one from this week a wheelchair, everywhere and then can't find them.

When I was a kid, I had this conversation with my mother about her grandmother, who passed away around 1982:

"I was speaking to Grandma today. She lost her teeth."
"What, all of them at once?"
"Well yeah, she has false teeth, she took them out and put them down somewhere, and now she can't remember where."

I don't think you call it Alzheimer's (Old Timer's?) when the patient is 97, it's just senile dementia by then.

[Twinblade]

I have actually done that before. Leaving without my cane. I use one because I have occasional balance issues related to a spinal injury I have. I carry and use my cane most days but only honestly need it maybe once in a day. So it frequently is hanging in the basket or leaning against a shelf. My brother used one for a while after a car wreck but forgot it in an airport bathroom. And on the question of whether some of the canes left behind has a sword or gun in them... the one my brother lost at the airport and my every day cane are both sword canes.

[Kit-Ginevra]

From where I used to work at the ol'charity shop-it just so happened that we'd had in a small selection of walking sticks.
Enter customer with remarkably decrepit looking stick,woodworm holes galore.
Me:We do have some new sticks in if you'd like to have a look at them
Cust:I don't need a new stick,this one's fine,nothing wrong with it. *bangs it on floor to emphasize point.stick cracks into many pieces,customer left holding spiky handle piece and gazing at pile of chunks,splinters and several dazed woodworm on the floor*
Me:Shall we have a lot at those new sticks that we very fortunately happen to have available?

[XCashier]

Enter customer with remarkably decrepit looking stick,woodworm holes galore.

Yuck! I thought wood canes and walking sticks were treated to keep out termites and other bugs?

[AccountingDrone]

Yuck! I thought canes were treated to keep out termites and other bugs?

Well, my old cane is aluminum, and my regular use crutches are also aluminum


Mine fold like this but are purple =)