Uncovering Heros of Grand Rapids
by: Brandon Campbell and Malaysia Horton
Dashing hero
My partner and i set up our watch by pretending to be average everyday civilians. we sat down at a Panera Bread outside table and ate a small sandwich talk for a bit and got up causally dropping the coin purse on the ground and walking off. Soon enough a woman in bright pink with shades on ran up from the behind said you dropped this ma'am and continued on running as we shouted our gratitude.
Business professional
My colleague and i set up base downtown at Rosa Parks Circle and sat down with out pseudo soft drinks and talked up a storm. We calmly got up said out "goodbyes" leaving the phone on the table. We both go our separate ways, just before we take about 6 steps away a red haired man in a blue suit runs up to my partner and is in a complete panic stating " Ma'am you literally just dropped your phone on the table and had i not have swiped it someone else would have." We then tell the man about our experiment and he completely rants about how much this is not funny and how much of a sick prank this is then he storms off muttering curse words.
Cop on wheels
Me and my partner set up camp downtown at the big O cafe. We both again staged a fake conversation got up and left the phone on the table and continued to walk up Monroe. As we were walking away a downtown security guard on a segway stopped us. The cop lady stopped us and tried to discipline us for irresponsibly leaving our phones downtown when so many phones have come up stolen or missing. We tried to explain that this was a part of a social experiment for wmcat newsroom, but she became upset because she as the gentlemen before us thought we were pranking people. She then proceeded on in her rant about how irresponsible kids are these days and almost tried to give us a ticket for disrupting the public peace.
To conclude
All in all we believe society wants to help. Whether it be a polite gesture as seen with our dashing hero or with a bit more emotion such as anger and irritation with our business professional and cop on wheels. People genuinely want do the right thing of returning lost or stolen property. We may not have our grasp on those who decide on doing the wrong thing and swipe people's belongings but luckily in our big small town we have those every day hero's who will help no matter how they feel about it, be it happy to help or mad they had to interfere people will still intervene.