Before I get into recounting the incident that happened today, let me tell you a little about my experience that connects to the story I am about to tell you.

Several years ago I signed up to take a Civil Service exam that involves investigative duties. I got to the test location well before the test so that I could relax and not have a case of the jitters. Soon after settling into my seat a wave of people scheduled to take the exam came rushing into the room to take the empty seats. I soon found myself in a room that was filled with test takers well before the test was scheduled to begin; I guess these test takers were no stranger to the Civil Service process because they tried to calm their nervousness just like me.

When the Proctor arrived the remaining seats filled up quite rapidly. The Proctor instructed the exam takers the rules of the exam, then rang the bell starting the test. The test was scheduled to run for three hours, but people started handing the Proctor the test paper about halfway through the allotted time. I began questioning myself because I was having, for me, a difficult time answering the questions, particularly the questions that tested my deductive reasoning ability. I needed the entire 3 hours and I still didn’t answer all of the questions, yet I was the only one in the room. I started to follow some of the others in handing in my test because I did not want to be the only one left in the room. My stubbornness kept me glued to the seat struggling to finish what proved to be an exercise in futility because several weeks later when my results arrived in the mail I had failed, failed miserably.

Now to my experience today, coming out of the Supermarket I usually shop at, I pushed my cart to my parking spot and started emptying the few items I purchased. I usually have plastic bags in my truck rather than have to buy bags

The handful of items included Fresh Harvest Extra Virgin Olive Oil, which I thought I had placed in a bag and placed in my truck, but when I got home and started emptying my shopping cart I load my bags in. I noticed the bottle of Olive Oil was missing. I looked in my cupboards to check for the bottle but it wasn’t there. I put on my jacket, went out to my car opened the truck, moved everything that might have my oil, but no dice.

I started to backtrack to see if I could recreate the events. As I recalled the events, I recall having the bottle of oil because the story that is, sometimes, attached to the items explaining its history blew away in a sudden gust of wind. I knew that there was no mistake at the cashier when I realized that I left the market with the oil.

I had the bottle at the truck of my car. While packaging my groceries my attention was diverted and that had to be the time I lost track of my Olive Oil.

My attention to detail is a trait that I take pride in, I nurture the minds ability to concentrate and isolate background noise and activities that escape most people. Some call the ability paranormal. My discipline and recall of the fine print is a skill that I bring with me and use often. The sequence of events happened so fast that the person(s) that purloined my oil had to have targeted me. The person(s) had to be in their twenties or early thirties and male because they were walking fast and they had to be average height. I say male(2) because I recall hearing the sound of a few words and after stealing my oil, laughter and we were in a parking lot, no hollow sound that being between tall building would create. The above is the story I wanted to tell you about. keep reading because the takeaway follows.

I wrote this commentary for several reasons, (1) I want the folks responsible for the loss of my package to hear this account. (2) I believe I was targeted by people who know of me because they reached into the bottom of my cart to get the bottle and they thought their timing was the cat’s meow. (3) I want to continually practice the skill that I value and I want others to be aware of how acutely hone my ability is.