An old friend goes missing, and you receive her phone in the mail...

[jacktannery]

... and you hear there's a crime spree happening in the city she's in. ... you receive a package -- postmarked before the crime spree started ...

Am I the only person who thinks this is odd? I have never heard of a crime spree happening in a city outside of my own country. And in particular, if I had heard of one (say, New York in the 80s was supposed to be quite dangerous I believe; Cape Town nowadays) I certainly would never have heard the exact date that the 'crime spree' started on - has anyone else ever seen an article in a newspaper saying 'Crime Spree in Tokyo starts 22nd March 2012'?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Depends on how much global news you pay attention to. This morning, I (in the USA) was watching a thing about an epidemic of cell phone thefts in the USA...and how such crimes were in decline in the UK, Australia, etc.

And I'm always catching the news about the kidnappings/murders for $$$ AND the drug gang vs police or tourist killings in Central & South America.

 

[Cergorach]

Well, that totally depends on:
#1. Do I figure out who this phone is from or do I just return to sender due to a wrong delivery (didn't order a phone).
#2. Do I remember this 'old friend' at all.
#3. Do I care for this 'old friend', yeah I know, it's harsh.
#4. Do I have contact information for this 'old friend', besides maybe a return address.
#5. After I fail to contact said 'old friend', do I figure out that something might be seriously amiss? I don't watch the news, don't read the newspaper, and don't listen to the radio. If there's been a major airplane crash, I tend to only figure this out weeks, if not months later when someone is talking about this in casual conversation and I don't know what they're talking about. Now, I might stumble on this information while doing a related Internet search...
#6. So after I figured out what's going on and who's it probably happening to, how much do I care. Hint: Extra effort will be put in if it involves an unmarried hot female friend I had a crush on.

Depending on who it is and how good my memory/deductive ability is anything can happen, ranging from dropping the package off at the post office with return to sender stamped on it, me having a new smartphone, it being dumped at sea, or me going hunting in a crime spree filled hostile city for a (hot) 'old friend'... ;-)

 

[RangerWickett]

#5. After I fail to contact said 'old friend', do I figure out that something might be seriously amiss? I don't watch the news, don't read the newspaper, and don't listen to the radio. If there's been a major airplane crash, I tend to only figure this out weeks, if not months later when someone is talking about this in casual conversation and I don't know what they're talking about. Now, I might stumble on this information while doing a related Internet search...

Off topic, seriously my friend, read the news. Knowledge is power, and if nothing else you'll get inspiration for gaming.

 

[FireLance]

Curious how people would react to this scenario. An old friend has been living overseas, and you hear there's a crime spree happening in the city she's in. So you call to check on her, but it goes to voicemail. You email her, and get no response. Then, three days later, you receive a package -- postmarked before the crime spree started -- that contains her smartphone.

What do you do?

First of all, I'd wonder how I knew it was *her* smartphone.

 

[Cergorach]

Off topic, seriously my friend, read the news. Knowledge is power, and if nothing else you'll get inspiration for gaming.

Knowledge might be power, but kind of expensive when so darned depressing, rape, murder, accidents, war, decease, hunger, layoffs, etc. The only news I do follow is Tech news, as it's kind of my job, besides that, gaming news ;-)

It's also astonishing how few things of truly importance you miss when sticking your head in the sand. Do I really care that a plane crashed, not really (of course horrible in it's own right), because it doesn't directly impact my personal or business life. The economy is bad, that's been going on for years, but on an individual basis doesn't really impact me either as a freelance IT guy.

I prefer to get inspiration from fictional situations, movies, series, books, comics, (computer) games, etc. 2 Hours of watching John Carter (of Mars) gave me way more inspiration then two months of relatively depressing news.