Thief knew not to mess with Sister Lynn
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It is a line -- well, actually a command -- that the petite nun has used on many a student in nearly 50 years in Catholic schools:
"You need to give me what you have."
Usually, that yields some contraband gum or rubber bands for Sister Lynn Rettinger, the 5-foot-3 principal of Sacred Heart Elementary School in Shadyside.
This time, it yielded a wallet a stranger stole from a parked car.
"I said to him, 'You need to give me what you have.' That's what I say to children if I know they have something they shouldn't. I say, 'You need to give me what's in your pocket.'
"He gave it to me, and then he apologized," she said.
She said the man said, 'I'm sorry," and then just walked away.
"He didn't even run," she said.
Sister Lynn was wearing white slacks and a blue jacket. She didn't think the man would have noticed her Sisters of Charity pin.
"I just don't know why he gave it to me. I'm a little person. I'm not very intimidating," she said.
The episode began at 2:05 p.m. Tuesday when preschool teacher Donna Caligiuri was hanging items in her room, a corner location overlooking Walnut and Emerson streets, said Sister Lynn.
Ms. Caligiuri noticed a man who walked down Walnut, in the direction opposite the business district, and turned left onto Emerson. He spotted an open window on an unlocked car, reached in and grabbed a fat wallet out of a purse. The wallet belonged to the mother of a Sacred Heart student who had gone into the building.
Ms. Caligiuri rushed to the front door, yelled at the man -- "You took something out of that car. What did you take out of that car?" -- and yelled for Sister Lynn.
Sister Lynn stood on the top of four steps outside the school while Ms. Caligiuri held the door open.
Sister Lynn issued her command, and the man stepped forward and gave her the wallet.
"I thought that was so easy. I did not chase him," she said.
Ms. Caligiuri returned the wallet to the mother. "The mother was so shocked and so grateful," said Sister Lynn. "She checked it right away, and everything was there."
What's the key to delivering the line so it gets results?
First of all, Sister Lynn does her homework. She knows she has good reason to suspect there is something.
"You want to be pretty darn sure he has it. You don't want to make a fool of yourself," she said.
In this case, Ms. Caligiuri provided the detective work.
Sister Lynn doesn't ask whether students have something.
"That forces them into a lie. ... I don't want to do that."
With the statement, she said, "If you say it firmly enough, they think, 'She really does know what I have.' "
She added, "Nine out of 10 times, it works."
First Published May 27, 2010 12:00 am
