Watch stolen and re-acquired after coincidental re-discovery

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In South Carolina, in the early 70's, as a teenager, I made a leather watchband that, by the late 70's, bore a watch given to me by my girlfriend while I was in college. Within a few years, both the band and the watch's face had identifiable scrapes and scratches that I knew intimately. By this point, the watch was kept in my car on a dashboard shelf in plain sight. In the spring of 1980, I finished college and relocated to Warner Robins, Georgia for my first engineering job, taking an apartment in a complex along a street that skirted several complexes. My car, a modest VW Rabbit, was normally kept unlocked overnight in front of the apartment as I never kept anything of real value in the car. The watch was still being kept in the car, and still visible on the dash. Its value was sentimental, not monetary, really, and I wasn't worried about it. Having played a lot of basketball in the gym in college, I looked for and eventually discovered a court a mile or so away from my apartment, on which a good game of ball could be found most days, and I began showing up to play. Notably, I was the only white person in sight during these games, let alone on the court, but the guys treated me well when it was clear that I was just looking for a good game and had found it with them. Relations were cordial. I only remained in Warner Robins a year and nine months or so and my memory of the exact timing is hazy now, but the tale holds. Sometime after I had found this court to play ball on, I think, I emerged from my apartment one morning to drive to work and noticed first, the car door was slightly ajar, and secondly, the watch was gone. Disappointed at losing a keepsake, I drove to work and over the coming weeks let it go, chalking it up to being unwise about locking the car. Later, a couple months seems right, I was at the court playing ball and lo and behold, there was my watch on the wrist of the guy I was guarding. I confronted him, saying it was mine. He said he borrowed from his aunt. I had him cover it and then I accurately described the scratches and scrapes on the band and watch. He was quite surprised but, I think, convinced that it had been mine. We rode to his aunt's apartment, which was in the complex next to mine. Her boyfriend, who was not home, had bought it for her and she had loaned it to her nephew. Her boyfriend had bought it from a guy known to be a bit on the shady side; they weren't at all surprised at my claim that it had been in my car and was stolen. Later that day, or the next day, I came back and met her and her boyfriend and gave them what he had paid for it and all was well. They were very nice about the whole thing. Thus, I got my watch and band back after it was stolen months before.
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Date submitted:Wed, 24 Feb 2016 16:02:05 +0000Coincidence ID:8450