I’ve been so out-of-touch with the outside world since the Breaking Bad Marathon that this morning was the first I learned Carrie Fisher had passed away. Last I heard, she was recovering in hospital, so her passing was a complete surprise as I’m still processing George Michael having left this plane of expression.
Once out and about, I picked up mail then headed to the market.
I always boot up PokémonGo and check the area upon arriving at a location. Thus it was, I heard a little squeaky sound which I recognized immediately as Pikachu inside Ralphs.
As I was holding my phone up, tracking it in the market, preparing to capture, I guess the person behind me could see my screen because, all of a sudden, I heard a woman’s voice exclaim, “OH! You’ve caught Pikachu! And it’s the one with the hat!”
I turned, and there was a woman wearing a Pikachu shirt.
“Yes, he’s over by the baked goods,” I replied.
She was so excited and said, “Let me see if I can catch him too.”
This was news to me. I didn’t realize that if a player locates and captures a pokémon, a nearby player can also capture that same pokémon. So I stood by to watch, as she said it took her months -- and a long trip out-of-the-area before she ran across her first and only Pikachu and that she’s never seen one with the hat before.
Her first try at capture went bad … “Oh, he broke free” she says.
“You know”, said I, “I don’t take any chances when I run across Pikachu. I pull out all my best game tools. First I throw a razz berry to keep him in place, then I use a Big Ball rather than a Pokéball.”
She followed my advice, had a successful capture, and was literally walking on air saying, “This game brings people together.”
I agreed, asked about the shirt – which she said was a Christmas present from her husband, congratulated her on her capture and went on my way, but not before hearing her an isle away, calling her husband on the cell, excitedly saying something about having captured Pikachu with the hat.
After picking up coffee at Starbucks, just as I reached the car door, I spotted something on the ground which, upon closer inspection, was someone’s Visa Debit Card.
Must have dropped it after leaving the ATM.
My first instinct was to drive to the nearest Wells Fargo to turn the card in, but I’d already been gone too long from Breaking Bad, and decided to call into Customer Service instead.
They immediately cancelled the card and told me to toss it in the trash.
I wasn’t comfortable with that. Someone might find it, try to use it and, just in case this turns into one of those "No good deed goes unpunished" things, where something happens like the owner of the card is not notified it's been reported found and cancelled, she instead returns to the ATM and asks Starbucks to run their video, the video shows me picking it up, and I then end up accused of something.
Sounds far fetched, but having been on the receiving end of good deeds going bad in the past, it's not as far fetched as it seems, so I'm playing it safe.
I've reported the card and, when Breaking Bad ends on Friday, I’ll be making a run by the bank for cash anyway, so I'll give them the card and let them take care of the rest.
See you end of the week, when the Marathon is over.
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