He took the time to write a heartfelt message, saying it's haunted him.
If you believe in life coming full circle then Claude Soffel's story will only reinforce it.
It was the 70s and Soffel was a teenage boy growing up in the city.
"A rougher time for sure," said Claude Soffel, a Sag Harbor resident.
One day he was approached by a much larger boy.
"I wanted to run but it was too late he had me cornered," Soffel said.
That boy, now a grown man, was Michael Goodman.
"He took my pass, he took my bus pass. He didn't get more than two steps and a big dude in an overcoat grabbed him by the back of the neck," Soffel said.
Now fast forward almost 40 years later.
Soffel recently commented on a group page on Facebook.
When he checked the site a little later, he was surprised at what he saw.
"Claude Soffel you may not remember this," the poster wrote.
It was a post from Goodman.
"I am very sorry. I wish it had never happened but it did. I was trying to impress some guy who didn't believe I was in a gang," Goodman wrote.
Soffel was stunned.
But it wasn't hard for him to come up with the words to respond.
He now works as a life coach for men.
Soffel wrote, "Michael Goodman, clearly you are a bigger man today, so let's us now jointly put his where it belongs, behind us."
Michael Goodman now lives in Hawaii. He and Soffel have exchanged a number of private messages on Facebook.
They both have agreed they think it's important to tell their story.
"If there's somebody out there who has a wrong they want to right perhaps I, in this moment in time, gave them hope, you can be received," Soffel said.
And possibly forgiven.
