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Senior Moments

Category: General / Topics: Crime, Justice, Punishment Trouble

Innocence

by Dan Seagren

Posted: October 22, 2006

Sally, a beautician well loved by her customers, discovered that an injury prevented one of her clients from going to the beauty parlor.…

Sally, a beautician well loved by her customers, discovered that an injury prevented one of her clients from going to the beauty parlor. The beautician, showing empathy, offered to go to her home to style her hair.

She arrived, greeted her warmly, styled her hair and when finished, her client asked her to go into the next room where she had an envelope in a drawer with money in it. Along with the beautician in the house was a cleaning woman and a neighbor. The client said there was $650.00 in the envelope and told the beautician to take what she was owed. Sally retrieved the money taking a ten dollar bill and two fives and went her way.

Later that afternoon, the client called her at work and said that there was only $150.00 left in the envelope. The beautician was crushed, realizing that she was being accused of stealing the money. Besides, there were two witnesses. The cleaning lady was wearing latex gloves which if guilty there would be no finger prints other than those of the beautician.  Soon police arrived at the parlor and demanded to speak privately to the beautician.

Sally knew she was innocent but was beginning to realize that she was going to have a difficult time proving her innocence. She had to dismiss her customers and go with the police to the station. Meanwhile, her customers, some in the midst of a procedure, were puzzled and began to wonder what was going on. Sally's impeccable reputation was in danger as rumors emerged which could have dire consequences.

The police were not the friendliest sort, making it miserable for Sally which also fed the rumor mill of her customers. And all because she did someone a favor. The moral of the story: because of the despicable nature of some human beings, never do anyone a favor? Hardly. Our senior moment here is obvious: sooner or later, we are likely to become the victim of a con artist, a deception, an unfounded accusation, a subtle insinuation.

Any of us could be victimized by a stranger, a close friend, colleague, client, neighbor or a trusted consultant. It could be by someone we trusted explicitly or someone we never knew before. It could happen over the phone, on a computer (spams are so often scams); in person in ways often more subtle than blatant.

Sally had to submit her fingerprints which of course matched those in the envelope. She discovered it was her word against that of her client. The neighbor was also a suspect but the cleaning lady was her alibi. Poor Sally. Accused of stealing almost $500, she would find it difficult if not impossible to prove herself innocent. Hiring a lawyer could cost a fortune (for her). Besides, who could prove that amount was in the envelope? Why did her client mention the sizable sum in the presence of the other two women?

Still, shouldn't Sally be innocent until proved guilty? When instructed to retrieve the money, she obliged. Even so, there was no proof of the amount in the envelope nor that Sally took more than her share. She was guilty by association but should be innocent until proved guilty.

Unfortunately, we are all going to have senior moments when we are accused, blackmailed, conned or victimized by a stranger or a friend, or worse, a relative. Actually, we can't live in dread of this happening but we can hope and pray that it will not happen.

Meanwhile, be cautious but not callous.



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Dan Seagren is an active retiree whose writings reflect his life as a Pastor, author of several books, and service as a Chaplain in a Covenant Retirement Community.

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Posted: October 22, 2006   Accessed 107 times

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