This morning, I noticed an olive-green ball cap hanging from the latch on my neighbor’s mailbox (see photo). Because a ball cap can be part of the standard uniform worn by Kitsap County sheriff’s deputies, it made me wonder how the cap and its owner got separated and also hope nothing serious happened in the process.
I don’t have many interactions with Kitsap County deputies, but with some simple detective work, I was able to find out that they sometimes wear ball caps—there are several photos of deputies wearing them on the sheriff’s Facebook page.
So how did the ball cap end up on the mailbox? The simplest explanation is probably this: someone found it and hung it somewhere visible, hoping the owner would recognize it. I happen to know a deputy lives nearby—during my bike rides, I often see a sheriff’s SUV parked on a neighborhood side street, always facing outward as if ready to respond quickly. There’s a good chance the cap belongs to them.
Still, there’s no guarantee the person who found it knew that or where the deputy lives. So quite possibly the cap finder left it on a mailbox that sits along Rocky Point Road, making it a more visible spot than most and a reasonable place to leave a found item.
The cap finder’s actions might get it reunited with its owner, or they might backfire with the cap ending up as someone else’s souvenir.
If it’s still there in a few days, I will walk it over to the deputy’s residence.
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