To Catch a Thief

It never ceases to amaze me sometimes how dumb some people are. My god, I think I'm too smart for my own good.

Case in point:

1. Summer '07, an isomething goes missing from our house. I suspect a neighborhood *reformed* hoodlum, but not until he shows up with a new Nano in a different color and shows the playlist to me.

~Stikes me funny how he has some, no a lot of songs that were on our stolen stuff.
~Songs I got at my days interning at the local NPR affiliate.
~We're talking things a 22 year old hip-hop head thizzle dancer would know of, let alone even like!
~And as for my hip-hop and rap, he had all of the cd's I had on the pod and maybe a handfull more. It's hard for me to think with all the choices out there the he and I (38 years old) have exactly the same taste in music. So similar that he has every rap album I own, but nothing more on his pod.
~The kid doesn't even have a J.O.B.

2. I have no proof, so I let it go.

3. On 9/4/07 this kid has made friends with our family by now by default because he's dating the sister of my kid's best friend. He brings over a back-up of all his songs to load onto my iTunes to show me what he's got.

4. Again, I see the blaring proof that there are TOO many coincidences. TOO many obscure songs. And how does he have that dang Boyz II Men 3-song promo CD I got at the 1997 Kube•93FM birthday party that Missy Elliott gave me. I kinda think this is the clincher, n'est pas?

5. He moves away, get's a job, but we still see him around from time to time because his girly's little brother is my son's friend.

3. It's now freshly in the dawn of Spring '08. The guy comes over after working a night shift and asks to use the bathroom. My son's stuff is still in there plugged into the speakers from his shower.

4. We notice that evening the gadget is gone.

great.

5. I decide enough is enough! We've had 2 personal electronic devices, a GT BMX, a PSP, and god knows what else stolen so far since Summer.

6. Doesn't take long to cross-reference all the songs that were uploaded from our sticky fingered friend to the duplicates in my library. A little bit of simple sleuthery and I've got him!

~I open the source files for all the songs he uploaded and match them up with the duplicates' source files. MP3 hold data files they don't hold songs. Each file shows me the first time it was loaded into my computer and when it was last modified. iTunes tracks the day they are imported into your iTunes library.
~Everything that was loaded into iTunes on 9/4/07 shows the exact same back end information (creation date) that is already on my computer.
~To ice the cake, all the 2Pac albums I own were duplicated in his files. I have about 12 discs of Pac at least. I loaded them all into my library on 10/21/07. His 2Pac was loaded into a library the very same day!

*Well whaddaya know, they all match.

So I call him up and gracefully ask him to return the one that was just stolen. I explain that I have evidence and I'll turn it over to the police if he does not return it in 24 hours. No questions asked, no gossip around the neighborhood, just do the right thing. It's a guaranteed arrest on the first one and pretty mitigating on the second one. That's two counts of theft son, and you have the chance to return ONE! Better take the offer and keep these 2 counts of theft off your record.


So. I just got a call from the guy saying it's impossible for one to take music off an mp3 and put it onto a new one. But to be the bigger man, he's going to replace it on Friday with the exact same kind. **For the sake of peace he'll do it.

But wait...
This is the best part
He says it might not be a new one, but he'll get the exact same kind on Friday to replace the one he SWEARS he didn't steal.

What do you want to bet the replacement one has the same serial number as the one that was stolen?