Elementary my dear Watson! A tale of a good samaritan in Cork

I must share something that happened to me today, because it is great to hear some good news when the media is full of doom and gloom!

I went into town to get last minute materials for tomorrow's Scrap N Yap. When I got home, I noticed that I was missing one of my shopping bags - as usual, the most important one! I knew exactly what was in it - ink jet cartridges so I could print out the class for tomorrow, and my Christmas pictures, which I had just got developed, again for tomorrow's class. I knew there was nothing else in the bag, except my shopping list, so I thought there was  no way that a finder could possible identify me. I phoned every shop that I had visited, but of course, none of them had found my bag.

Just when I was about to give up, the phone rang, and the caller asked if I had a cat called Elton. Guess what - he had found my bag, and examined it carefully for any clues that would lead him to the owner. The first clue he found was my shopping list, which was written on the back of an email I got from Nespresso UK. The email had my Nespresso membership number, and also the number of Nespresso in the UK. Using his mobile phone, the good samaritan rang Nespresso in England, and they agreed to contact me and pass on the finder's details. Fair dues to them, Nespresso did phone me later in the evening, and pass on the message.

However, the Cork Sherlock Holmes looked for even more clues. Guess what -one of my Christmas photos was a close up of my cat, Elton, wearing his identity tag. The finder was able to read my phone number from that, hence his phone call to me, informing me he had my bag.

The Good Samaritan was Christy O'Driscoll, a worker with Cork City Council, who found my bag on the street when he was on rounds in the city. Christy informed me that some months ago, he found and returned a bag containing 2.5 k euro, which was a credit union loan which a woman had taken out for Christmas. All I can say is that we are all lucky that Cork City Council has such honest and astute workers. I wish that guys like him ran the banks in Ireland! Thanks, Christy - and take a bow for your marvellous detective work