How my DVD collection ended up in an evidence bag at the MP station

About two weeks ago I noticed that my DVD bag was missing from the van.

I have been letting the twins watch DVD's when we have to sit in the car for long periods waiting to pick up their older sisters.

(For an earlier post on my annoying car wait, click here.)  

(image from forensicssource.com)

One day I went to put a DVD back in the bag, and the bag wasn't there. I looked all around the car, and asked the kids if anyone had moved the bag, but it appeared to have vanished.

The only thing I could figure was that it had been stolen sometime when I'd left the van unlocked. I guess a bag of DVD's clearly visible through a window might be quite a tempatation. Assuming one didn't reaize that all the DVD's in question were for preschoolers...

Then I heard from one of my neighbors that the MP's (military police) had been asking around the neighborhood to see if anyone had lost a green bag with about twenty DVD's inside it. My bag was blue, but I figured the number of discs was about right, so I called the MP station.

I described my bag to the officer on the phone, and he said that an investigating officer would call me back. By the time they called I was out, and the office was closing, but they left a message that I could pick up my property from the evidence technician down at the MP station on Schofield Barracks.

Now Schofield is a little out of my way, so when the the evidence tech himself called me the next day, I wanted to make sure the bag was mine before I made the trip down there. Here's how that conversation went:

EvTech: I hear we've some of got your property to return.
Me:        Yes, I've lost a bag of DVD's.
EvTech: Well, can you idenitfy some of the DVD's?
Me:        They were kids' videos; I don't remember all the titles. Let me just describe the bag to you to make sure.
EvTech: These were in a green bag?
Me:        Well, I would have said blue, but I guess it could be a bluegreen. But anyways, the bag has a zipper at the top and black handles. And it has a giant chocolate stain on the side.
EvTech: Okay. Well, we weren't aware that stain was chocolate.
Me:        What?
EvTech: It might have been a biohazard, so the bag was destroyed.
Me:        Destroyed?
EvTech: The bag was found sitting by the side of the road in your neighborhood with a suspicious brown stain on it....
Me:        (laughing) A biohazard?!
EvTech: Anyways, we don't have the bag. But can you identify the DVD's?
Me:        Um, okay. It was just a bunch of kids' videos. There was "Ni Hao Kai Lan," "Barbie Island Princess," um....
EvTech: (helpfully) "Elmo?"
Me:        Yes! Elmo!
EvTech: Yep. It's your stuff, all right.
 
 So I made arrangements to pick up my DVD's from the evidence room. But I don't have a bag for them anymore.

I don't know how the bag got out by the side of the road, but I really think my first theory was correct. Someone stole the bag from my car, thinking, "Aw, sweet! Free DVD's!"

And the when they looked inside and realized all the DVD's were meant for four-year-olds, they abandoned it, thinking, "Dora the Explorer? Baby Einstein? Give me a break!"

My husband said, "You really need to start locking the car. Who knows what nice stuff they might have stolen and didn't throw out?"

It's a good thing we don't have any nice stuff....