Honesty is the Best Policy: Chattanooga filled with Great People
Categories: Chattanooga Community Events, Flavors of Chattanooga, Things to Do in Chattanooga
By David Israel, Business Manager - Andy Hodes & The Scenic City Team
This week as I was deciding on what tips to share with you, our audience, I was reminded of an incident that happen to my wife and I this weekend, and it just reinforces why we moved to Chattanooga.
Last Thursday we were heading down to South Florida on Allegiant Air (non stop from Chattanooga to Ft. Lauderdale); $49 each way, I highly recommend it. Anyway we arrived at the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport and we boarded the plane on time; then my wife noticed that her diamond tennis bracelet was not on her wrist. She started to freak out and wanted to get off the plane. If you have ever tried to get off a plane once you have boarded, it is impossible unless you are dragged off by the FAA or are deatlhy ill. So, we filed a report on a napkin with the airline and the airport. The entire flight down my wife was, well lets say she was crying. It wasn’t the cost of the bracelet, but the fact that I had designed it and given it to her on our 5th Wedding Anniversary ten years ago.
When we got into Ft. Lauderdale, I called Andy who drive into long term parking to make a visual check of my van, just in case it fallen off her wrist in our vehicle. No luck!
We made the best of our weekend, it was actually my birthday, and we were going to visit our parents and family. We stayed in Boynton Beach, in one of hundreds of Adult communities in the area. All these houses right next to each other, nicely manicured lawns and a guard gate. Actually, we had some nice strolls through the neighborhood at night to get our daily exercise. When you go visiting family in Florida there is always lots of food involved, so we had to work it off.
My visit was shorter than my wife’s. I got up at 5:00am on Sunday morning to catch an 8:45am flight from Fort Lauderdale back to Chattanooga. Once we landed, I felt like I had returned home. I immediately went to the Airport Police Office to pick up a copy of our report for my insurance company. After getting the report I went down to baggage claim, no bags left, so I had to go to the ticket counter to pick up my bag. This trip was certainly getting the best of me, but everything worked out and I was home in less than 15 minutes. I slept most of the afternoon on Sunday and got up Monday morning to get back into my routine.
Well, life was about to change for the better. At 9:28am I received a call from the Chattanooga Airport Police that a women had found the bracelet and was on the same flight as we were on. The officer gave me her name and cell phone number and told me she would be in South Florida for 3 months, I immediately called her, after taking a deep breath. Sharon was actually on our flight and had to board early as we did because she had her granddaughter with her. She goes down to spend time working with her sons in their business. I asked if she would like to FedEx the bracelet back to me and she told me that one of her sons would drop off the bracelet wherever my wife was. I was amazed that someone would be so honest and understand that someone else was actually suffering. She had told me a story of her daughter loosing her ring and how devastated she was and that she didn’t want to see anyone suffer like that.
So, the moral of this story. There are still honest people in this world. We sometimes forget that with all the hustle and
bustle in the world, and the price of gas climbing, and a war going on, that we still have morals and we are for the most part honest people. Would you keep the bracelet or would you have tried to return it to it’s rightful owner? I would hope that we would all answer correctly.
All’s well that ends well - and in Chattanooga it ends well!
This entry was posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 9:14 am and is filed under Chattanooga Community Events, Flavors of Chattanooga, Things to Do in Chattanooga. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
David, What a great story. I do think many people would turn in the bracelet; however, not everyone would. I’m so happy that your wife got it back. I’m also glad you didn’t have to buy her a new tennis bracelet for YOUR birthday!
David,
Something similar happened to us just last week and I know my turn will be coming soon - that is, my turn to do a good deed. Thanks for the reminder of why there really is never a substitute for doing the right, personally or professionally.
Michael