Heres one that will make you feel better. About 10 years back, a good friend of mines little 15 year old brother left his surf bag at a popular surf area in Jamestown. This bag was very identifiable, as his brother was also a very good artist, and had drawn all over the German Army Navy Surplus bag he had made, with PVC inserts to hold his lures. He had a few shelf type swimmers, pencil poppers...but also had a danny plug that had belonged to his grandfather, who had died recently. The only thing he was upset about was the danny plug, nothing else. he posted ads in the paper, checked the local bait shops, spread the word basically. His name was clearly on the bag in several places, and his freshwater license was also in there.....whomever found it would have known where to send it.
A very well known "sharpie" that had heard the story and even commented on how disgusting an act it was to take a surf bag and use it, how unlucky it would be to use stolen gear, etc., etc......Well, that local sharpie hooked into a very large, 40 plus pound surf caught fish a mere week after the "loss" of the bag, but slipped while attempting to get it on the rocks, snapping his ankle. His cries for help were answered about 2 hours later, when another fisherman heard him, and came to his aid....
The fish had been gaffed, and had gotten trapped in a small tide pool, unable to escape. The nice gent who helped him out of the rocks, and sent his fishing partner to get help while he stayed with this "sharpie", also pulled this fellas fish up on the rocks. In the excitment and pain of the moment, the sharpie asked the gent to get his trophy to his truck, while he got carted off in the ambulance. The nice gent even agreed to get his gear stowed in his pickup, and would lock the door for him before he and his pal left for the night....
Before heading out to their rocks, they scooped up this sharpies gear, but noticed the plug he had been using was embedded rather deeply in the fishs maw, and a prong from a treble had snagged an eyelet. Doing the right thing, they reached in, cut out the lure....
YOU GUESSED IT....THE DANNY PLUG IN QUESTION!!!!
THis a-hole was was banished from any and all baitshops, and was also "dealt" with by my boy and his cousin, matching his broken leg with a few other broken parts....dude moved a year later, never to be heard from again. Oh yeah, the gents even gave this guy back his fish...completely filleted, and layed nicely under his drivers seat.
Sometimes it takes a while, but Karma always gets ya!!