Michael Goodman (right) apologised to his victim Claude Soffel (Picture: Facebook)

A man has apologised to a person he mugged more than 30 years ago after finding him on Facebook.

Michael Goodman was looking at a post about a bagel shop in New York when he recognised Claude Soffel’s name.

He had taken a bus pass from him outside the city’s Museum of Natural History in the 1970s.

Michael Goodman (left) stole a bus pass from Claude Soffel in their younger days (Picture: Facebook)

Goodman, now in his 50s, was arrested immediately after the incident but has felt guilty ever since.


‘I have never forgotten the incident or your name (it has sort of haunted me a bit throughout my life),’ he wrote in a message to Mr Soffel on the Facebook thread.



‘Then here I am on [Facebook] reading about my favorite bagel store in the world closing down…. my brain was blown!

Better late than never: The apology was posted on an open Facebook thread (Picture: Facebook)

‘Finally I can say ~ I’M VERY SORRY that you had to go through that crap that day long ago, I wish it had never happened but it did.’

Mr Goodman faced an intense ten-hour wait for a reply, but the man he had mugged more than three decades ago did eventually get back to him.

‘Michael A. Goodman, clearly your [sic] a “bigger man” today. wow. Memory is a funny thing, I recognize your name now, as well. So, apology accepted,’ Mr Soffel wrote.