returned
a conversation with my friend Amani yesterday inspired an idea for an altruistic service: a means for people who had taken something that didn’t belong to them to return the thing to the rightful owner, anonymously, through a third party (me). they would donate whatever they could afford to cover the shipping costs and any research time necessary on my part to track down the owner.
it would serve as an ethical and literal clearinghouse for those carrying guilt/bad karma/what have you associated with a theft, no questions asked. perhaps the thing in question isn’t around anymore, or was always somewhat intangible, and the person simply wants to send anonymous compensation to the affected party. for instance, a shoplifter who stole a candy bar for fun years before and now feels regret, or a rapscallion who committed vandalism and now wants to pay for the damage.
ideally, i would need to first make sure that i was legally immune in providing such a service. it makes sense to have rules on what i couldn’t accept - illegal drugs and body parts being some of the more obvious examples - and if everybody ends up sending me heavy or otherwise expensive objects to ship and never donates any money, the entire enterprise would quickly become impractical. i might do well to “vet” the objects first via email submissions before agreeing to accept them for return.
they wouldn’t necessarily have to be stolen things - i suppose they could be things that were borrowed and never returned. for instance, the so-called borrower is either too embarrassed to return them personally (such as a library book from 20 years ago) or can’t remember who or where they got them from (and for whatever reason is keen on getting them returned).
i’m imagining undramatic objects - things seemingly small and banal whose history is compelling. images of the things and their associated stories (however vague) would be told on the site. kinda like PostSecret, but directed towards a known party, or like Found, but “Returned”.
