found items

one time i was driving on a mtn highway and a guy pulled out too fast in front of me and spilled most of his pickup load of lumber.

some of us stopped and helped him get it back in the truck; he offered to let us have some wood in thanks, which we declined.

someone suggested later that the wood might have been stolen; i think they were probably right.
consider:
* generally lumber would be going *up* that road, not coming down
* it was specialty lumber (ie, not just plain old doug fir -- it was purple, like cedar or purple heart wood or something)
* he didn't have it tied down
* he was in a hurry
* he offered to give away valuable lumber
...so basically i guess i helped a guy get away with theft.

this morning at 6am i was driving Camila to work and saw a bunch of boxes of bottled water had fallen off a truck and were all over the road.
after i dropped her, i went back and pulled them all out of the way of traffic. while i was doing so, a couple other people showed up, including a guy in a beverage truck, who started throwing them in his truck. i and others assumed they had fallen *off* his truck, but he never actually said so, and upon further consideration i think he was just taking advantage of the situation.
i took a couple of bottles and he just waved and smiled as i drove away.

so anyway, that story was even more boring than the lumber one. sorry about that...