Reply #42: This happened the day the Super Bowl was last held in San Diego (2003)

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We live in the hills right above Qualcomm Stadium. When the Super Bowl was held here in 1998, they had a fly-over of the B-2 bomber, and according to my neighbor, they flew the plane right over our houses on the approach to the stadium. My neighbor said it seemed like it was just 100 feet above the tops of the houses. (Plus 2 fighter planes either before or after it.) But we weren't at home for that game, we were at a friend's house in another neighborhood. So, when the Super Bowl came again in 2003, I figured they might do the same thing, right after the national anthem.

The Dixie Chicks sang the national anthem, and just as they finished I went out front to look for the planes. No planes at all, but there was a man standing at the front gate, dripping wet with water. It was a warm sunny day (about 85 degrees). He was wearing my Mom's light blue slacks, and had a large green bath towel over his shoulders, which was our towel. That was all he was wearing. I said to him, "can I help you?" and he said he was looking for his dog in the canyon behind our house. I said, "That's our towel, isn't it?" and he mumbled something like, "Oh, I just want to buy a pair of shorts from you." I said, "Where did you come from?" and he said, "I came from the canyon... I was just looking for my dog in the canyon." He had long straggly hair, he seemed to be about 40 or 45, and I thought it was very strange that he was wearing my Mom's slacks and had our towel around him.

I said, "Well, where do you live?" and he couldn't answer that. He repeated again that he wanted to buy a pair of shorts from me. By this time my Mom had come out the front door and she was staring at him. I turned around and said, "I'm going to get him a pair of shorts." I went into the house and found an old pair of swimming trunks that I never used any more. I don't know what my Mom said to him during that minute or two. I came back out and handed the shorts to him, and he went into the neighbor's yard, took off the slacks and put the shorts on and handed me the slacks. He had nothing else to wear. He was barefoot and had no wallet, keys or anything else. I asked him for the towel and he handed it to me, and said, "Thanks."

He started to walk away and I said, "So are you OK? Where are you going?" and he just waved goodbye. We went back in and sat down to watch the Super Bowl, but had a weird feeling about it. My Mom thought he might have been an escaped prisoner, because they sometimes change their clothes while they are on the run. At a commercial break I went into the backyard to look for other clothing. I couldn't find any, but the whole back patio was wet. Apparently he had come up from the canyon completely nude, and hosed himself off with our hose, then put on my Mom's slacks which were hanging on the line in the backyard. And helped himself to our towel. My Mom was still convinced he was an escaped prisoner, but I thought he was either on drugs or mentally unbalanced.

Later that day, as I was emptying the trash, I opened the trash can and there was a pair of shorts in there, which were not mine. I took them out, and in the pockets was $23 in cash and a printout from Mapquest, giving directions from another house in our neighborhood, across the canyon, to an address in Carlsbad, California, about 20 miles away. Apparently he was going to walk the whole way. My Mom wanted me to turn the money and shorts into the police substation, and the next day I went there but they were closed. So I just kept the money and shorts. After all, the guy had told me he wanted to buy a pair of shorts from me, and effectively that's what he did. I wore the shorts many times, but my Mom always made fun of me when I had them on. They finally wore out so I threw them away. The thing is, if I hadn't gone out to the front of the house to look for the B-2 flyover, we would have never seen the guy, and we would have only wondered who stole the slacks and towel, and wondered how the shorts got into the trash.