The MLP Arena
TCB => Trader & Shipping Support => Topic started by: enchantress41580 on January 20, 2012, 07:29:38 PM
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http://mylittleponycollector.blogspot.com/2012/01/while-on-vacation-i-received-following.html
saw this on a blog, heartbreaking:
The Search for Meghan's Ponies While on vacation, I received the following message from a mother who is trying to locate her daughter's (who is now an adult) pony collection. It is a sad story and if this were my brother we'd be having some words. Anyway, thought I'd pass it along via blog post.
>Dear Summer,
I am writing to let you know about something awful that happened to my daughter. She is 30 now, but played with her beloved My Little Ponies when she was a child in the 80s for hundreds of hours. They have been stored safely in a box in her room for years while she has been teaching overseas.
At Christmas, her brother came home, supposedly to help me clean out the garage, as my health is not good. I told him and my daughter told him that her My Little Pony collection was NOT to be touched, but he was in a very angry mood. He not only threw out my entire DVD collection and about half my CD's, he ripped the box of My Little Ponies, anywhere from 50 to 100 of them; I can't remember, from my hands, saying he just talked to his sister in Finland and she didn't want them anymore. I instantly called her in Finland and she practically had a nervous breakdown. I ran out and he had taken my car and was gone. I assumed he donated them to Goodwill, like he did the DVDs, but they have been very good and very honest with me, giving me back about 60 of my DVDs they hadn't sold yet, and they told me they hadn't received any My Little Pony donations, and indeed, there were none for sale in their store.I then went tearing back home, thinking my son put the pony box in the Bagster, and sure enough he did, but as I drove up, I saw a woman grab them and drive off with them.
She came back day after day and I asked her for my daughter's collection back, but she says she doesn't know what I was talking about. I finally told her if she returned I would call the police.
This woman was driving an expensive car and dressed expensively, so it is my belief she is going to try and sell this collection, perhaps on ebay, maybe through private channels. If we could recover even three or four, it would go a love way toward healing my daughter's heart.
My daughter always wrote her initials, MES for Meghan Elizabeth Smith, in permanent marker on the bottom of one hoof, and the pony's name on another hoof, so that is how they can be identified as hers. Can you help me spread the word among the My Little Pony collecting community, and if anyone runs across a pony with the initials "MES," written on the hoof, could I be notified so I can buy it back for her? She is just brokenhearted and in tears at the thought that her most beloved childhood toys were taken from her, and I am brokenhearted not only for that, but also for the cruel and heartless and dishonest behavior of her brother.
My son got the garage clean alright, but in the process I lost priceless family heirlooms and thousands of dollars in antique lace and pearl buttons. (I used to design and make doll clothes.) To see these wealthy women dumpster diving in my poor little neighborhood just made me sick. I would chase them off and and bring as much as I could back inside, but they just parked around the corner, and the moment I went inside they were back stealing whatever they could grab from the dumpster. It was pretty horrifying.
But the thing that is killing me the most is my beloved daughter losing her carefully preserved My Little Pony collection after all these years, for no reason other than the meanness of her brother, I will never understand it.
Can you help me spread the word and maybe, if my prayers are answered, and with the help of the good people of the My Little Pony world, we can get her at least a few of her ponies back.
Thank you,
Pat Smith
writing as Fat Cat on Blogger
If you see ponies for sale with the seller's zip code of
77380 0r 77381, they are likely from my daughter's collection and I
would appreciate knowing about it so I can approach the seller and
get them back, either through the goodness of their hearts or by
paying for them.
Who knows? The mother lives in Texas. Maybe a few of her ponies may find their way into the hands of collectors and back to Meghan.
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:( that's horrible!!!! i hope she finds her ponies!!!!
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To the woman who pretended she didn't take the things out of the dumpster: may all the suffering you have knowingly visited upon others be returned to you, by your own actions.
....I'm not a very good person. But at least I admit it!
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I hate to be the devils advocate here but this seems... A little far-fetched?
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This is such a sad story!
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How sad.
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I hate to be the devils advocate here but this seems... A little far-fetched?
Agreed. And I'm always put on guard by over-usage of phrases like "heart-sick" and "heart broken" in these types of stories. Like they're trying too hard
Who knows though- maybe something like this did happen. If it actually did, I hope the chick is able to get some of her collection back.
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I hope she gets her collection back. Thats just so sad.
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I originally read this yesterday and just re-read it now... why did the woman return day after day? Surely you wouldn't want to do that if you had just stolen someones stuff, right?
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Its hard to know if this is true or not TBH :yikes:
if it is true then its an awful story and I hope that the ponies get returned to their rightful owner...
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I originally read this yesterday and just re-read it now... why did the woman return day after day? Surely you wouldn't want to do that if you had just stolen someones stuff, right?
Actually, the woman is probably a dumpster diver. My neighbor back in Colorado did this almost professionally. We lived a couple blocks away from Loretta Heights Tokyo University. The majority of the students who attended were from Japan. It was much cheaper for them to take their folded clothes, computers, movies, bunk beds, TV's, everything, and throw it away and re-buy it in Japan after graduating. My neighbor would make thousands off the stuff he pulled from the dumpster. My Baby Tic Tac Toe was actually rescued from there!
The mother in this story/letter said that the ponies were placed in a dumpster. That sounds to me like it may have been near an apartment complex. Apartment dumpsters are great for dumpster divers because of the high resident turnover and people throwing perfectly good stuff away rather than moving it.
Although the sorrowfulness of this situation is being played up, I believe she's honest. After all, she was VERY specific about the markings on the ponies. If you were trying to scam someone, then you wouldn't be so detailed about how to identify the ponies. She also didn't provide descriptions of the ponies and try to find "replacements;" she wants the actual ponies with the initials on the foot and not something close.
Also, while what the son/brother did is despicable, I think we should take it easy on him. We don't know the whole story and have only heard one side. What if he's bipolar and went off his meds? What if the mother is a hoarder and he reached his limit and tried to get space by just getting rid of everything? While it is possible for his mother to take criminal action against him, it's highly unlikely. When I worked at the bank, people would file reports against family members who stole money from their accounts (forged signatures, etc), but would never press charges when the time came. I saw this time and again, so I don't think any legal action will be taken against the son. I just hope he gets the help he potentially needs and that the ponies are found.
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OMG! I would be like beating him half to death for that!!!! :mad:
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I hate to be the devils advocate here but this seems... A little far-fetched?
Yeah....I dont want to seem mean but I can see where you are coming from Loa...if I am 100% honest the first time I read this I assumed it was a con of some kind. If its true it is a horrible thing to have happened but isnt the main culprit on this her own son rather than someone who "dumpster dives"? If its true and someone was picking them up in order to sell on I would think at least one or two should work their way into the community and back to this person - so I guess we will know one day.
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I originally read this yesterday and just re-read it now... why did the woman return day after day? Surely you wouldn't want to do that if you had just stolen someones stuff, right?
Actually, the woman is probably a dumpster diver. My neighbor back in Colorado did this almost professionally. We lived a couple blocks away from Loretta Heights Tokyo University. The majority of the students who attended were from Japan. It was much cheaper for them to take their folded clothes, computers, movies, bunk beds, TV's, everything, and throw it away and re-buy it in Japan after graduating. My neighbor would make thousands off the stuff he pulled from the dumpster. My Baby Tic Tac Toe was actually rescued from there!
The mother in this story/letter said that the ponies were placed in a dumpster. That sounds to me like it may have been near an apartment complex. Apartment dumpsters are great for dumpster divers because of the high resident turnover and people throwing perfectly good stuff away rather than moving it.
Although the sorrowfulness of this situation is being played up, I believe she's honest. After all, she was VERY specific about the markings on the ponies. If you were trying to scam someone, then you wouldn't be so detailed about how to identify the ponies. She also didn't provide descriptions of the ponies and try to find "replacements;" she wants the actual ponies with the initials on the foot and not something close.
Also, while what the son/brother did is despicable, I think we should take it easy on him. We don't know the whole story and have only heard one side. What if he's bipolar and went off his meds? What if the mother is a hoarder and he reached his limit and tried to get space by just getting rid of everything? While it is possible for his mother to take criminal action against him, it's highly unlikely. When I worked at the bank, people would file reports against family members who stole money from their accounts (forged signatures, etc), but would never press charges when the time came. I saw this time and again, so I don't think any legal action will be taken against the son. I just hope he gets the help he potentially needs and that the ponies are found.
I completely agree with you. And 'stolen stuff' because of dumpster diving is not 'really stealing', if it's in the garbage usually is because you no longer want/need the things.
I hope the ponies are found, giving the details on how to recognize them.
And even if the son did something that completely gets on my nerves, I kind of understand him if her mom is a hoarder or there are just a lot of stuff and is 'easier' to just throw away everything (I know I'm tempted to do so with my father's closet, it's full of papers 30+ years old he just keeps! With an aunt is similar... but it's with clothes and it's a headache to enter her room and have to search something due to all the clothes no longer used and just stored @_@).
I believe time will only tell what really happened and if the ponies are found.
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The story seems believable because she's asking for specific ponies with initials written on the bottom, nothing else. Otherwise, the story does seem a bit dramatic and made up.
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That is awful! She should try trading posts or craiges list in her area as well. I'll keep an eye open just in case. I worked at a goodwill for a number of years. You would be amazed how often things like this happen. We got a lot of divorces come through where people would rather give their spouses stuff away than lose it in court. It is just awful. I hope they are recovered. The story does say she is an older lady in poor health, maybe she got a little confused too.
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I'm mindful of another thing.
If the person who removed the ponies does attempt to sell them, everyone in the community will rip them a new bottom hole - based on one very dramatic story.
We don't know the full story, so I would ask people to keep as open minded about this as possible.
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I'm with you Loa...
It crossed my mind that maybe the mother sold them without her daughter knowing and the daughter was upset with her and now she's trying to get them back to make amends... But who knows... Lets just focus on helping to retrieve them rather than putting a whole load of blame on someone when we will never know the full story. I hope she manages to find some of them... x
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If this is true I want to punch the brother in the face.
With a cricket bat.
That is all :)
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I don't think she'd be offering to buy/pay for the ponies if she were scamming or something. Plus the specific initials AND pony name on the hooves isn't exactly something that you would see on a whole lot of ponies.
I hope I'm not being offensive to anyone debating that side of things. I just wanted to point out my thoughts on it. I have had people in my family (my own mother) trash things I cared about, throw them out or sell them without telling me or giving me a choice. Once she sold my favorite blanket without telling me and I about had a cow! She took $300 from me without asking and had a huge yard sale of all MY stuff to "pay me back". She sold all my beloved books, dresses, old toys, etc. The blanket was seriously THE last straw, it was my "feel good" blanket that I always cuddle in when I'm having a hard time. And I even found the person who bought it and I bought it back lol. Stuff like this does happen, people do have unstable or just plain hurtful relatives and people do try to get their stuff back! I'd imagine the mother's "last straw" was her daughter's ponies.
I just don't think it's that far fetched, and she's willing to pay either way. Although I would say it's safest to definitely charge her and not just give ponies for free, if you're worried she's lying. There's not much harm she can do with a lie if she still pays in full for the items in question.
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Agreed!
I don't think she'd be offering to buy/pay for the ponies if she were scamming or something. Plus the specific initials AND pony name on the hooves isn't exactly something that you would see on a whole lot of ponies.
I hope I'm not being offensive to anyone debating that side of things. I just wanted to point out my thoughts on it. I have had people in my family (my own mother) trash things I cared about, throw them out or sell them without telling me or giving me a choice. Once she sold my favorite blanket without telling me and I about had a cow! She took $300 from me without asking and had a huge yard sale of all MY stuff to "pay me back". She sold all my beloved books, dresses, old toys, etc. The blanket was seriously THE last straw, it was my "feel good" blanket that I always cuddle in when I'm having a hard time. And I even found the person who bought it and I bought it back lol. Stuff like this does happen, people do have unstable or just plain hurtful relatives and people do try to get their stuff back! I'd imagine the mother's "last straw" was her daughter's ponies.
I just don't think it's that far fetched, and she's willing to pay either way. Although I would say it's safest to definitely charge her and not just give ponies for free, if you're worried she's lying. There's not much harm she can do with a lie if she still pays in full for the items in question.
Post Merge: February 08, 2012, 10:02:04 AM
If this is true I want to punch the brother in the face.
With a cricket bat.
That is all :)
^^ this
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I'm mindful of another thing.
If the person who removed the ponies does attempt to sell them, everyone in the community will rip them a new bottom hole - based on one very dramatic story.
We don't know the full story, so I would ask people to keep as open minded about this as possible.
True and I agree ^^ :awake:
lets just hope the ponies are found and returned safely