11. That once piece to my Tie Silencer LEGO set.
– K-Sw1zzle
12. Time stolen by my last employers.
– town_klown
13. A personalized/signed copy of a book I was gifted from an author I met at a conference about my favorite president. I made the mistake of carrying it in a basic reusable shopping bag, and someone accidentally grabbed it at an event.
They never returned it, and it was really special to me because I met the author by chance (both searching for coke products in a Pepsi hotel) and she was really kind and surprised me with it through her assistant months later.
– MissingVermont
14. Back when I was about ten years old, I had a book of brain-teasers that I absolutely loved. While I’m sure I could find all of the same riddles online nowadays, at the time, that tiny compendium was like something akin to the tome of magic for me. I loved befuddling my friends with the scenarios between the pages, which led me one fateful Friday morning to bring the book to school with me.
Now, on the day in question, each student in the class was going to briefly present a shoe-box diorama that they’d made. I don’t recall what the theme of mine was, but I do remember storing my codex of conundrums inside of it, allegedly for safe-keeping. That turned out to be an unwise decision because I neglected to bring either of the items home with me that afternoon… and the following Monday, I discovered that they had vanished. (The operating theory was that the janitor had mistaken my diorama for a piece of garbage. Fortunately, my grade didn’t reflect that assessment.)
Here’s the thing, though: Although I was annoyed about my assignment having been thrown away, I had completely forgotten that I’d hidden my collection of riddles inside it. That detail didn’t occur to me until a few days later, as I was folding socks to be put away. The sudden realization hit me hard enough that I actually froze in place for a moment and the knowledge that my beloved book was gone indelibly burned itself into my psyche.
To this day, I can’t fold socks without remembering that book.
The good news is that I still remember the riddles… like this one:
There is a truck-driver going down a one-way street the wrong way.
A policeman sees the truck-driver, but does not stop him or give him a ticket.
Why not?
– RamsesThePigeon
15. My first wife and daughter. Stolen from me by a drunk driver in 1983.
– bananainmyminion
16. So much honestly… number one would probably be my OLD pokemon cards.
– randoml97
17. My children. My ex-wife stole them and ran away and the courts don’t seem to want to help.
– bellyandbeardman
18. My best friend and I invented a radio show called “The Insane Family” and we would do skits and record them on my talk boy.
The characters were an extended family living in the same house: Grandparents, parents, and 3 kids. Everybody was completely insane except for the teenage daughter, who was always dying of embarrassment. One of the grandparents was incontinent and had a terrible memory so a lot of the skits involved finding grandpa’s “potty chair” in weird places.
We were inspired by the Animaniacs and the Munsters, and probably a few other things. I’d really love to listen to that tape with my friend. I’m sure it would be hilarious and horrible.
– NeedsMoreTuba
19. My old GameBoy Color I lost in New York when I was six. I had very vivid memories of playing nothing but Game& Watch for hours. That and this weird book on how things worked, from ramps to binary, but it used mammoths. I just always liked reading it.
– Jaewol
20. For me, it’s a purple whale/dolphin plush I loved so much I cry now thinking about it.
– IronRabbit2006
Nothing from my former life deserve to be recovered. All my efforts are to get rid of it and stay out of radar for good with a chance for doing my own life. But coming from where I come requires much more than just “being left alone”.
17. My children. My ex-wife stole them and ran away and the courts don’t seem to want to help.
– bellyandbeardman
I feel your pain buddy, the system sucks 🙁
The drunk driving one was really sad. Poor fellow.
@14
He’s Walking.