I used to enjoy New Haven. Nearly everything about it from the artistic and educational to the homeless and student drunkenness was uniquely New Haven.
Until the end of 2012 that is ... I was in town for a haircut. It had snowed. Place was closed so I ate on Broadway for my holiday treat. So far, so good.
Then I was approached by a person with a tale of woe. No gas! A long way to travel! And no wallet? I trusted him enough to accept a phone and his number for $20. I contacted him within a day. No problem. Two days, no worries. Three days, yes I'd lost my $20.
How to find the owner of the phone? Charge it, call the phone companies. Finally reach the owners within a week or two. He described the con-artist. He reported the theft to the New Haven Police.
I reported this to the New Haven Tourism Department, the mayor's office, the tip line for the New Haven Police and the Yale Police Department. No one has responded. I doubt anyone has followed up on the original complaint.
I'd felt good helping someone during the holidays. I'd felt OK reporting a vagrant who caused grief to myself and a family I don't even know. I do not feel good that at least five to six people now know this story and am realizing they care very little for myself, for the original victim, even for the perpetrator who is almost certainly maintaining his facade because of his own suffering and building a larger list of Samaritans who'll wish they'd stopped caring for humanity just as the five to six people who no longer care, period.
Why in a town of such liberal actions and intentions is charity and good will so hard to find?
David Gademan
Merrimack, N.H.