Home invasion robber returns cash to victim after running into him at a video poker lounge
Talk about a bizarre reunion.
A robber and his victim have a bizarre reunion.
An unusual story out of Australia shows that even though someone may be a hardened criminal, they may still have feelings of remorse. It also shows that even their victims can forgive and forget if they don’t take things too personally.
The Daily Mail reports that Christopher Howard Gordon, 35, knocked on the door of a home in the Victorian town of Traralgon in Australia last March, holding a fake gun. When a man opened the door, Gordon demanded that he be allowed in the home and that the owner give him cash.
The man led him into a room where his daughter and partner slept. After seeing the sleeping child, Gordon was startled and immediately fled the home after receiving a box of cash.
The next night, Gordon went out to a video poker lounge 40 minutes from where he had robbed the man. In a bizarre coincidence, Gordon and the victim were there simultaneously. Instead of fleeing the scene, Gordon apologized to the man telling him that he was given the wrong information from an acquaintance. He had no idea that children would be present, and just wanted some “cash and weed.”
The victim accepted the apology, and the two sat beside each other playing poker, with Gordon handing the victim the cash that he had stolen. At the night's end, Gordon asked the victim for a ride home, and he obliged.
When Gordon appeared in court for sentencing, the judge noted that his actions showed remorse for his crimes. "You and the victim sat near each other on the slot machines while you intermittently handed the victim $150 to $200," Judge Arushan Pillay said, according to ABC Australia.
"When the venue closed at midnight, you asked the victim for a lift home, who eventually agreed to this. I consider that your words and actions to the victim demonstrate a level of immediate remorse,” the judge added.
Gordon was granted time served and released from jail.
So, will the fact that Gordon experienced remorse for his crimes deter him from robbing someone else? The most recent research, albeit from nine years ago, shows that remorse plays a big role in determining recidivism rates, but there’s a difference between whether people feel guilt or shame for their actions.
“When people feel guilt about a specific behavior, they experience tension, remorse, and regret,” the researchers wrote in a 2014 article published by Psychological Science. “Research has shown that this sense of tension and regret typically motivates reparative action — confessing, apologizing, or somehow repairing the damage done.”
Researchers found that criminals who feel a sense of guilt are less likely to commit another crime than those who feel shame. Those who felt shame were more likely to feel defensive, blame others and return to their old ways.
The question is, did Gorgon feel guilt or shame for his actions? He blamed his acquaintance for sending him to the wrong address but accepted responsibility for his actions by paying the man back. Time will tell if Gordon learns from this episode and gets his life back on track.
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An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
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Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.