Would you like to pay an extra .25 cents for a locker?

A week ago from yesterday, on the 8th of February to be exact, I was scheduled to watch my co-worker's kids for the night. It was really cold and snowy and his in-law's flight got canceled so I found out they no longer needed me to babysit. Joe Heeb was supposed to go visit people from the ward with the Elder's Quorum Presidency and because it was cold and snowy, he also found out he no longer needed to. So naturally when Joe and I don't have anything to do, we make something happen.

I asked him what he wanted to do and he suggested sledding, swimming, or going to see a movie. I thought for a minute and decided swimming would be wonderful because I could sit in a hot tub and warm up since I was freezing all day long. Also, I missed swimming since it is normally a summer activity for me. We invited others and nobody else wanted to come but some were still thinking about it.

We went to the Westminster Rec Center and payed. I got a locker to put my things in and Joe did not. I said, "Joe, you're not getting a locker?" Joe replied, "No. I just set my stuff in another locker and it's always fine. I feel like I'll have to get something stolen for me to start getting lockers." Unfortunately, we found out that these lockers did not allow you to do this so he just sat his stuff under a bench. You had to have a key just to open them. Joe and I went and swam, sat in the hot tub and played tag with his water torpedo with this kid Lalo who followed us around the whole time. Periodically, Joe would leave and check his phone to make sure nobody had called him who wanted to come. We were ready to leave and Joe came back and said, "My stuff is gone..." Knowing Joe and the comment he said earlier about getting his things stolen I just laughed and figured he was kidding. He said that he was serious and I started to panic just a little bit.

We looked all over for his things and even asked the staff to help. In his backpack were the following items: his clothes, his cell phone, his wallet, and his keys (containing the only set of keys to his new car.) I immediately though, is his car still here? We kept calling Joe's phone over and over while I went outside to look for his car. I went row by row and started to freak out when I didn't see it. Luckily, it was still where he left it, phew! I went back to Joe and told him the good news. We left a description of the items with the front desk and went out to my car. PS Joe still had on his swim trunks and was wearing his towel. Reminder: It was SUPER cold outside which was mainly the reason I wanted to go swimming in the first place and he was wet still so I gave him my hoodie.

After much deliberation, we decided to call a tow truck just in case the theft came back for the car. We sat in my car with the heat on high for about an hour with Joe still soaking wet. He got a Book Of Mormon out of the glove box and said, "Wouldn't it be cool if I opened to a verse that was applicable?" He did, and it didn't work. He tried several times and then just went to the Bible dictionary under lost. He read about how things were lost because the people did not repent so we kept saying "repent" randomly while we were waiting.


 Eventually the tow truck came and I took Joe home after. It has now been a week since this and Joe has just about replaced everything he lost and it's been about a $500 mistake. Moral of the story? Don't go swimming in winter! haha, just kidding. When faced with paying for a .25 cent locker or risking your stuff, just spend the quarter! It's not worth it to go through all that unless you want to learn a "valuable" lesson. Oh and I've found that sucky situations are a whole lot better with friends. They're almost funny....