Whilst serving in Germany in 2003, I flew to back to England for a friend’s wedding, during an exceptionally busy period at work. On landing back at Paderborn airport, I was tired and became distracted by a chance meeting with a colleague. As a result, I left a box containing my ‘mess wellies’ (formal dress boots) behind at the airport. As soon as I realised my error, I retraced my steps but could find no sign of my boots, despite the box being clearly marked with my details.
I later spoke to the airport’s left luggage office, which allowed me to put up signs offering a financial reward for the return of my kit. Some weeks later, after exhausting all possible avenues, I was forced to conclude that someone had walked off with my expensive and lovingly polished boots. It was with a very heavy heart that I ordered a new pair of boots at considerable expense. No less annoyingly, I then had to carry out the laborious work of ‘bulling’ the boots from scratch, which meant putting in hours of work to bring the bare leather up to a highly polished shine using beeswax, boot polish and a lot of elbow grease.
In March 2004, some six months after I became separated from my boots, I was still feeling frustrated about the incident. It was incredibly annoying to think that whilst my boots were of considerable value to me, they would be of no practical use to whoever had taken them! Seized with the sheer injustice of it all, I decided to pray. In fervent prayer, I called upon God to place a burden of guilt upon the person who had stolen my boots, such that they would be unable to rest until they had returned them to me.
A few days later, I received a call from a very nervous and embarrassed-sounding German, who confessed that he had my boots in his possession and was eager to return them! He sounded very guilty on the phone, repeatedly insisting, ‘I am not a thief! I am not a thief!’ It turned out that he was a security guard at Paderborn Airport. He had discovered my abandoned boots but was only now responding to the signs that I had posted around the airport at least five months previously. He explained that he was an avid collector of military equipment and in place of the monetary reward that I had offered, asked for an item of military equipment.
He agreed to leave my boots at our unit’s guardroom, and I left him a book on military history as a reward. I was pleased to find that my boots were in good condition and was able to sell my spare pair to a colleague. I never met the security guard who sheepishly returned my boots, but I hope that he was able to sleep soundly afterwards!
*Photo credit: https://www.pexels.com/@markus-winkler-1430818