Unfiltered Story #214232

Every year my church has an annual parking lot sale to help men who are tight on on money in the church be able to attend retreats while the excess proceeds goes to other causes. I’m a female in my early twenties and have been volunteering every year since I was seventeen. For one week we collect, price and sort donated items people bring to us and every regular volunteer knows the in and outs of when we find something we like. I’m a huge gamer nerd but I don’t play much since it’s only been me and my mom for almost fifteen years and money was and still is tight so I only had old consoles. [gaming system #1] is what I grew up with but my 2 broke and my 1 was stolen so I get excited whenever someone donated their gaming systems. We’ve just had our sale and I had sorted and priced a [3rd version of gaming system #1] and a [gaming system #2] earlier in the week. And all regular volunteers know how much I want a system after being without for so long. Considering new games I have been wanting to play, I decided to get [system #2] for a change and workers get fifteen minute early access to items before the public. I had immediately gone to electronics to get it.

Me: *digging and digging but can’t find either station. Only computers, VCRs and similar* [leader of the event]! Do you know where the game stations are?

Leader: Should be there because nobody else has been over there yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone stole them despite the security efforts.

My mom comes up with me as I nervously dig in the electronics. Soon an older man approaches the pile and I’ve never seen him before.

Man: what are you looking for?

Mom: she saw [system #1] during the week of sorting and is trying to find it.

Me: the [system #1] is nice but I’d rather have the [system #2] that’s here too.

Man: my wife actually stashed the [sytem #1] for us so they should be together.

We watch as he digs in a spot I haven’t got to yet and sure enough he pulls out [system #1] and puts it in his little shopping box. I’m excited again because they were there the whole time and since they were buried deep into the pile, I still watch as he pulls out the [system #2] thinking he’s being nice and getting it out for me while he’s already so far into the pile. He climbs out and brushes the dust off of it only to turn away from mom and I to put it in HIS box. Both of us are slack jawed as he scoops up the box and turns back to us.

Man: *with a smile and a shrug* oh well.

We watch him walk off to the rest of the lot and later on my mom tells me she saw him hoarding any and all possible collectibles he could find including [Sci-Fi saga] and [very well known military action figure] toys and wasn’t sure if she ever saw him actually paying before leaving. I was devastated the rest of day.