Very long story short, a customer at work loses her purse. I help look for a bit and someone in her group mentions the trash. I don't know if she was suggesting that they be looked in, but it made me think that looking in the trash for a ditched bag minus funds could be a bright idea. So I head to the men's room.

I check both baskets and I'm about to leave when a kid says, "Psst, know how that girl is looking for her handbag? Yeah, there is a guy in one of the stalls and I think he has it. I can't see between the cracks though." So I get on my cell -- hoping I don't get busted for having my cell on me -- and call the front desk. The receptionist starts with her half-hour greeting, I interrupt less than gracefully and tell her to get a manager to the bathroom, immediately.

I'm somewhat sure the guy in the stall heard me even though I was trying to keep it down. He leaves the stall about twenty seconds after I hang up, still no manager in sight. The kid who tipped me off looks in the stall and shouts out "yeah, it's him, it's here!" I walk up beside the kid and say, "sir, I'm going to have to ask you to stay here for a minute." I'm VERY mindful of the fact that detaining him could result in a lawsuit so I choose my words VERY carefully. He actually stays and then offers "I just found that bag..." He was one seriously incompetent thief because if he (a) kept walking and (b) never said anything about the bag, the police would have had zilch.

End o drama. The bag is found, everything is inside, everyone is happy. The girl is even a little apologetic about getting the guy in trouble because "he just found a bag, what is he going to do?" I replied, "bring it to lost and found?!" I found it very odd that anyone would be apologetic about catching a thief. Granted, he didn't pluck it from her fingers but absconding with something you know darned well isn't yours (and someone is likely going bonkers looking for) is not that far removed.

End o drama. I checked with the AGM to make sure I didn't use any inappropriate language in "detaining" the guy and he just looked at me funny as if to say "please, give me a break."

My day was actually good with the single important exception of not getting to see my baby. The guests were nice, we weren't too busy, got to learn a bit more about my co-workers, Ted only spoke one sentence to me and it wasn't hostile and I provided an assist on a theft. Oh, and I found the Ben Liebrand mix I was looking for (2002).