Empty three: player stolen from rec center

When my rec center membership was set up last December, and I was looking forward to starting after the first of the year, I bought an MP3 player so that I could listen to music while working out. It's been a real blessing. The TVs in the fitness room are usually turned to news channels, which is often the last thing I want after a day at the office. With the MP3 player, I could indulge my own eclectic tastes in music. Most of the tunes were ripped from my own CD collection, with a few purchased from legitimate download sites.

My normal routine is to go to the fitness room for a while and then cool off in the pool. So for convenience's sake, I set up in the pool locker room. At first, I was good about padlocking my locker, but one day I walked off without my padlock. In the middle of winter, there was hardly anyone at the pool at the time of day when I normally worked out. The people who were there were often swim club members or small children under adult supervision. I meant to replace the padlock but never got around to it.

But when school let out and the outdoor pool opened, everything changed. Suddenly, there were all sorts of unsupervised teens wandering around. One day last week, I returned from a brief swim to find that my MP3 player had been stolen.

No one was in the locker room before or after I went into the pool, and I was in the pool only 15 minutes or so. I actually think that someone watched me going into the locker room wearing the MP3 player, then waited until I was in the pool and went in looking for it. My shoes on the floor were a giveaway to the location of the occupied locker.

The woman at the front counter asked if I wanted to file a complaint, but there didn't seem like any use. I knew I'd never see that particular appliance again.

It's only a possession, and possessions can be replaced. In fact, I can get a new MP3 player with the same capacity as my old one for 2/3 of what I paid in December. But it's the feeling of being intruded upon that bothers me.

I also don't like the fact that I now look suspiciously at every single teenager in the rec center. I know that 99 out of 100 of them are good kids, but every one I see now I suspect of being a thief. I feel guilty about that; I don't like that about myself.

I have bought a new padlock, and now I remember to put my shoes in my locker with everything else while I'm in the pool. I'll probably get a new MP3 player in another week or two. Life goes on. It's just frustrating when things happen that remind you we live in a fallen world.

John I. Carney is city editor of the Times-Gazette and covers county government and other topics. His home page is lakeneuron.com.