A Good Samaritan

To the Editor:

Will marvels never cease? I had the misfortune while on a recent vacation trip, during which I visited Athens, Greece, to become the victim of a pickpocket. One moment I had my wallet, the next it was gone, a real professional job. I felt nothing at all. No bump, no push, no touch. Fortunately, I had most of my travel money elsewhere, but all my papers and old but dear photographs, not to mention my driver’s license and social security card were lost — or so I thought.

After returning home I checked my telephone messages and had the surprise of my life. A voice identifying itself as Dr Peter Liarakos assured me that my wallet had been found on the street by him. The money was gone, of course, but everything else was there, and he would return it from the island of Crete which he planned to visit the next day. He left a phone number which I called and a Dr Liarakos answered. He spoke excellent English. On my comment to his English, he told me he was a Canadian living in Montreal. When I offered to pay for the cost of mailing my wallet, he graciously declined. Two weeks later I received my wallet in the mail.

All my identification papers and those photographs dear to me were there and united with me once again. And to my pleasure, the thief had missed a very special dollar note which I had kept for more than 70 years. It was the first dollar earned by myself, then a teenager working for 30 cents an hour in a sweat shop. The thief had not recognized it as a dollar bill because it was nearly a hundred years old and looked nothing on the green side like a modern dollar bill.

I wrote a thank you note to Dr Liarakos, and hope we shall meet so I can thank him in person. He was indeed my own personal good Samaritan.

Oscar Berendsohn

34 Apple Blossom Lane, Newtown                            August 25, 2011