Yesterday, I worked a shift at the Farmer's Market on behalf of a Community Board I'm on. I noticed the caricature artist was pretty slow, despite excellent overall traffic. However, as we were packing up to leave, I noticed he had a client.
Today, I was walking with my walking partner in the same area. We were on the other side of the street and noticed an odd-looking pile. On closer inspection, I recognized it as the artist's gear. His folding chair, easel, sketchbook, pastels, paints and other paraphernalia were strewn about. Some of it was in the gutter, which had a small amount of moisture in it, which, alas, sketchbook had soaked up. There was even a bag of food. I recognized it, because a few vendors had been passing out their leftovers among the other vendors at the end. I picked up the open chalk container and gathered all the strewn chalks into it. Then I picked up everything else and put it to rights as best I could. My friend called the people who operate the market, so hopefully, his things will be returned to him, assuming he's okay, which is not at all certain at this point. I hope he didn't get mugged. There's safety in numbers* and he was definitely not packing up when everyone else did.
*After a busy day, it's pretty obvious that a lot of vendors have piles of cash on them.