They got something even better in return.
“Ever since moving into my apartment, my now-husband and I like to do laundry at obscene times like 2 or 3 am. We like that the laundry room is deserted, we don’t have to wait on elevators so much, and we liked how we didn’t really have to wait around for our clothes. Spoiler alert: we don’t do laundry in the dead of night anymore.
One night, my now-husband and I were doing laundry at around 2 or 3 am as was usual for us. While we aren’t super chatty with our fellow neighbors, we talk occasionally to some of them. One such neighbor, a middle-aged, humpbacked woman I’ll name Quasi for the purposes of this story, had popped down into the laundry room with us. We were friendly; she said o, we said hi back. We made small talk for a bit as we finished loading things into the washer and then set a timer on our phones and left.
When we returned a bit earlier to see how our clothes were doing, we found one of the washers with our undergarments and delicates open. A basket that belonged to Quasi was in front of it, and my pajamas were in it. My now-husband and I shoot each other a look and we check the basket further. We found sheets that belonged to us, as well as other items of clothing. We were both livid. We put our (undergarments and delicates) stuff in the dryer, my husband went upstairs to hang the rest of the wet clothes up to dry while I waited in the laundry room.
Quasi returned and she sifted through her basket and bent to get it. At this point, I had no sympathy nor neighborly feelings anymore. I saw her wallet fall to the ground and she did her thing. I wondered what else in there was stolen, but I said nothing and texted my husband what was going on. Quasi leaves… and her wallet was still on the ground. My husband had returned and I pointed it out. My husband picks up the wallet and shoves it in his jacket pocket. I thought he was probably going to drop it into the rental office mailbox, but instead, we grabbed our dryer-clothes and went upstairs to home. We debated what we should do with the wallet; we were both upset that our clothes were about to be stolen and noted we had some stuff go missing.
Over the course of talking, we rationalized the decision we made next: we went through the wallet. We found maybe $150 to $200 in cash in the wallet. My husband took it all out and pocketed it. He and I decided to go get McDonald’s at that point, so we went downstairs to leave. As we did, Quasi asked us if we saw her wallet and my husband flatly answered “no.”
As she continued her search, he slid the wallet into the mailbox and we kept walking. I felt slightly bad about taking the money, but honestly, she was probably stealing from us and other residents.
A couple of years later, a note on the bulletin board went up saying a lace tablecloth that was an heirloom was missing and the owner pleaded for its return… I could only assume the Laundry Thief struck again, and now I don’t feel bad anymore.”
