Shortly after Christmas I hit up the sweet sales at Old Navy and got myself some $12 jeans. When I got home I put them on and lo and behold found some sort of weird rock in my pocket. I wondered the pants were made that a rock would end up in the pocket. Then I thought, “Maybe this is one of those million dollar giveaways where whoever buys pants with a rock in the pocket wins?!” After checking the O.N. site I found out that there was no such giveaway.

A few days later I was in Barnes and Noble with the family and every detector I walked through beeped as if I were loaded down with stolen self-help books. Which I wasn’t. Barnes and Noble has detectors all over the place; in the children’s section, music section, and of course by the doors. At each section I had to walk over to the counter and make a bad joke about the weight loss book I was trying to steal. Leaving the family at Barnes and Noble I sauntered across the parking lot to see if there were any sweet sales at Circuit City (which I just found out yesterday is going out of business, nationwide). Upon entering the store I heard the ear piercing theft detector go off and drew the stares of everyone at the store. I again walked over to the counter and cracked a bad joke about trying to return something I’d stolen earlier. On my way out, it beeped again and I just started running. At both stores the clerks said it was probably my cell phone. This was news to me because I’ve had it over a year and never had this problem.

Yesterday morning after taking a shower and putting my $12 Old Navy pants on, I noticed a weird tag on the inside of my pants I’d never seen before. The tag simply said, “Remove this tag before washing or wearing.” The tag was placed in a pretty inconspicuous spot below the pocket, about mid thigh, inside the pants, which is why I’d never noticed it. I cut the tag off, wondering if wearing the pants for the last month with the tag on had caused permanent damage to my leg. It looked like an ordinary tag to me, no chemical pouch or anything. Than I noticed it - a micro chip looking thingy embedded in the fabric of the tag and most likely the reason of my theft detection embarrassment.

As I pondered the marvel of technology I couldn’t help but go back to the rock and wonder what purpose it had. I may never know, but I will definitely check my pants from now on.