A few years back when I was a church planting resident at Austin Stone, a series of unfortunate events occurred on a day in March 2015. It was a Tuesday afternoon, which is the time we would all gather for staff meeting. I parked my Prius in my usual spot and attended the meeting.
It was a perfectly normal day. You could practically hear Mr. Rogers singing in the cool breeze, “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.”
Except it wasn’t.
Unfortunate Event #1: I forgot to lock my car.
After staff meeting, I bustled out to my car to speed off to an event I was helping out with later that night. As soon as I got in my car, I could tell something didn’t feel right. I noticed that there was trash littered throughout my car. My heart sank. I realized someone had been in my car.
Unfortunate Event #2: I left my backpack in my car. The contents of said backpack included:
-Macbook Air
-Amazon kindle
-My favorite Bible
-Headphones
I frantically searched throughout the car. It didn’t take long before I realized my backpack had been stolen. I got out of my car and began looking around outside. I noticed some of the contents from my car laying in the grass. Most notable was the CD for Green Day’s ‘American Idiot’ album. I sure felt like an American idiot.
Unfortunate Event #3: Holly was taking classes online for nursing school. All of her documents were on that laptop.
Unfortunate Event #4: I had to call my wife and tell her that our laptop had been stolen.
Not a fun day.
I called the police and filed a report. They sent out a fingerprint specialist to gather prints from my car. They told me in most cases, stolen laptops usually don’t turn up. I felt deflated.
I had to go to a church event that night. I can’t remember any of it. I was probably miserable to be around. I imagine people approaching me and asking,
“Hey Mark, how’s your day been?”
“TERRIBLE! MY LAPTOP WAS STOLEN!”
I remember getting home that night, feeling like a failure. I sat down on the couch, ready to soak in my misery.
Then my phone started buzzing.
I was getting text messages…from myself. I felt like Dwight from the Office receiving messages from future Dwight.
Then I remembered that I had iMessage set up on my laptop. I was getting text messages from a police officer from my computer…
“Hello? Is this the owner of a Macbook computer? Call me at this number ____.”
I called the number. I spoke to a police officer who was at a hospital near my house. He asked me to give a description of my laptop, so I did. He told me to come to the hospital to fetch it like an obedient golden retriever.
I remember driving to the hospital feeling extremely confused. How the heck did my laptop end up at a hospital? I met the officer near an info desk and he gave me my laptop. Just like that. But I was still missing stuff. I asked the officer if there was any chance they had recovered my other items.
“Follow me,” he said.
He then took me into a back room to a suitcase which was filled with women’s clothing. But buried beneath the clothes I found my kindle and my headphones. Just hours before, these same items were stowed safely in my backpack. Now they were in a random woman’s suitcase. It was a surreal experience. My Bible was never found.
I then asked the officer, “What happened here?”
He said they got a call about a girl who had overdosed. They found the suitcase in a hotel room where she had passed out. That was all the information I got. And just like that, I got in my car and drove home with most of my stolen contents recovered.
My wife and I even discovered a joint in the laptop sleeve. We didn’t smoke it, mom.
The next day I woke up and decided to look through my internet history. Sure enough, I could see every single site that this girl had visited during her brief ownership of my laptop. Most of the sites she visited were porn sites. But she did log onto Facebook. And she didn’t log off.
I then discovered who this person was who stole my laptop. And it didn’t take me long to figure out this person was broken. Her mom had posted on her FB wall asking where she was. It was also evident she was in a custody battle with her son. I logged off. I got the picture.
I did reach out to her mom and told her what happened. I never heard back from her mom. I also called the police and asked them if the internet history would be useful to them. They said they had the information they needed.
Then I sat and pondered about whether or not I should reach out to this girl directly–the girl who stole my laptop.
What would I say to her?
“Hey! Nice try! Don’t do drugs!”
No, not that.
“I hope you learn from this and never make the same mistake again.”
No, too much judgment.
So I prayed about it. I sensed that if I was going to say anything to her, it needed to be infused with grace, love, and compassion. About a month after the theft occurred, I sent her this message:
Hey _______,
My name is Mark Dodd and I work at a church in Austin, TX. A little over a month ago, my car was parked outside a building called For the City Center and my backpack was stolen. If you were the person who stole my backpack, I forgive you 100%. I don’t hold that against you. I have been praying for you and care about you, even though we have never met. Thanks!
I pressed send on April 11, 2015.
Days went by, then weeks. I kept wondering if she would respond. It felt suspenseful. Months went by. Then a year. I started to forget about it. 2 years went by.
Then on July 25, 2017, I received the following message:
“Hey wow this is crazy I just read your message after all those years thanks for praying for me it helped a lot since then i went to rehab got custody of my son got a job and moved back home and got my own place.”
I remember sitting in a coffee shop when I got that message. I couldn’t hold back tears that welled up in my eyes instantly.
I responded, “That’s awesome! Thank you for reaching out.”
Then she said, “I’m so sorry.”
The girl who stole my laptop was APOLOGIZING TO ME.
I responded, “I forgive you and I am so glad to hear you are doing well.”
Her response, “Aww thanks.”
And that was it. I haven’t heard from her since. I don’t know where home is for her. I don’t know what she is doing with her life. But I know it takes a lot of courage to apologize to someone you have wronged. That’s the decision she made. I’m proud of her for that.
I don’t know if I have ever been so excited to say, “I forgive you” to someone. When we speak words of forgiveness to one another, we release the burden of guilt and wrongdoing. And now I look back on that day in March and it’s not so unfortunate after all.
Mr Rogers was right. It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.
Dodd Squad 