Karma is calling...

Ring Ring - Karma is calling.

This little story is going to haunt me for some time now until I can find a way to rectify it.
This past week I was on vacation. I went to the west coast to visit family and take in the sights and sounds of sunny California. I had an awesome time (as always). (One of the highlights was seeing a press conference with Arnold "The Governator" himself! It was a situation we just sort of lucked into by chance and it was pretty cool. I hope to post photos soon.)
But the story is this...
As I left California I had a connecting flight in Phoenix AZ. I arrived at PHX only to learn my flight had been delayed an hour. I didn't let it bother me at all, and took the time to eat my sandwich (that my sis made for me with some extra surprise goodies) at the little kids table that happened to have some old Popeye cartoons playing. (it was funny actually, here I am sitting on these little stools meant for kids eating my lunch and watching cartoons, and behind me was another TV with a story I was hearing in the background of how a man was recently shot... I conciously made the effort to tune it out, and enjoyed my Popeye.)
After lunch, I wandered over to my gate, and sat down to wait. As I approached my seat, I looked down and saw that someone had dropped a $1. Cool! I asked the guy sitting one chair away, if he lost a $1 - the expresion on his face was priceless. It was as if I wanted to come up with a story about how it was his, but his mind just froze so he said "no". I asked the other guy on the other side of me, if it was his, and he just said no. Woohoo!
But then... As I was sitting there, I noticed a small black object under the chair across from me. It looked like it might be a cell phone but I wasn't entirely sure. I wasn't ready yet to get down on my hands and knees to go reaching for a piece of plastic trash like off of some luggage or something. Just as I was getting up the nerve to crawling for it, this young guy walks in front of me and sits down. Ugh, I really don't want to ask this guy to move now, just so I can crawl under his chair. I sit patiently and wait for him to get up. The more I look at it, the more I'm convinced it's a cell phone. The kid across from me was a strange one. He was dressed in a skull shirt, had a big skull metal belt buckle on (that he was mighty proud of cause he was polishing it and meticulously tucking in his shirt so it was visible.) He had on some Skull "Van" Sneakers and carried around two drumsticks covered in electrical tape. The kid also had a heavy brow which gave him a neanderthal look, with messy blonde hair. He proceeded to start taking stuff out of his small duffle bag. mostly clothes. He seemed oblivious that I was watching him closely, or for that matter, that there were even other people around him (it was very crowded for some reason). This kid fascinated me, and disgusted me at the same time. As he was dumping his clothes on the floor, he picked up a pair of underwear (presumably his!) and smelled them! Who does this? Sure, I might have picked up a shirt that I had laying on my floor when I was a teen to smell the pits to see if it was dirty or clean, but underwear? No way. He repacked his bag, then proceeded to really dig his finger into his nostril like there was no tomorrow. Not just once either. I was thinking to myself, does this kid have any social skills at all?!
He then bends over to pick up more of the clothes when he lets out a 'gasp' and grabs the cell phone! I was like a deer in headlights! What do I do now? Do I confront this mentally unstable guy? I watch him, in the hopes that he'll do the right thing and turn it into the desk for "lost and found". He starts looking all around. Then once he's sure no one is looking he opens the phone and starts pushing buttons (didn't make a call). I still didn't know what to do, and then realized I had let too much time slip by to say anything. I SO wanted to just say to him "I saw that, and hope you'll do the right thing and return the phone." But I didn't.
Shortly later, he picked his stuff up, and walked over to the wall near his gate and sat down and started playing with his drum sticks. I thought maybe he was drumming along to the music playing on his ipod... then I realized, he didn't have any headphones in. He was just "air drumming" like crazy.
Eventually, they announced that the flight he was waiting for was transfered to a different gate and he got up and left.
I so wanted to tell someone, but chickened out for fear of getting involved.
All I could imagine was how some innocent person was going to have all sorts of problems with their lost phone. Possible billing issues if the kid decided to run up the phone bill, or worse yet, get all the contact information out of the phone. I felt really bad for not doing the right thing, and acting faster when I saw it.
I fear now that someday that karma train will come around and get me back for this. As I was sitting in the airport wondering how it would hit me (ie: would I lose my phone now too?!), I thought - wait a second... if I believe in Karma, then that means the person who lost their cell phone must have also done something wrong! So the karma train was gettin back at HIM and not ME! :)
I know I still should have acted sooner or said something, and this will haunt me for a long time now.