Syndetic near returns of an almost periodic observable ($R_{\epsilon }=\{n\ge 1:\Vert U^{n}f-f{\Vert }_2<\epsilon \}$)

If the forward orbit of $f$ under an isometry $U$ is totally bounded, choose a finite net whose centers are $U^{n_j}f$ and let $M={\max }_j{n}_j$. For every sufficiently large $n$, some center is within $\epsilon$ of $U^{n}f$, so cancellation gives $n-n_j\in R_{\epsilon }$. Thus $R_{\epsilon }$ is a syndetic set. Telescoping also gives $\Vert U^{kn}f-f{\Vert }_2\le k\Vert U^{n}f-f{\Vert }_2$.