That was the subject line from a piece of spam I got this morning, and I found it oddly appropriate.
My wallet got stolen over the weekend.
Well, to be more specific, every single form of payment was stolen over the weekend. My wallet is just fine. And in an either oddly considerate/completely ignorant move, all of my id is intact.
Monday afternoon I went to Costco with my Sister-in-law and nephew Micah. Micah and I were having a great old time (he’s at such a fun age, constant gibber gabber and outrageous stories), Sister in law had already gone through the checkout and was on her way to the car when the cashier finished ringing me up. I opened up my wallet and every single one of my cards was gone. I initially thought that they must have fallen out in another purse or something because all my id’s were there, my insurance card was there, just all my cards in the middle pocket were gone. So after the two hours of shopping that Costco always takes, I had to leave everything there and go home with nothing to straighten everything out.
I actually wasn’t panicked at first, I was more embarrassed that I couldn’t pay for my groceries, until I remembered when it could have happened. Saturday I went to a youth conference for the teenagers at church. There were a couple of speakers, a dinner, and then a dance. I had my purse with me the whole time, until the dance. My girls talked me into staying and partying with them for awhile, and I didn’t want to stay too long, so instead of checking my bag into the coat room, I just stuffed it under a chair thinking, “we’re at a mormon youth dance, and I’ll only leave it here for a few minutes, it’ll be fine.”
Yeah, it wasn’t fine.
One of my girls even made a joke about how I was being too trusting. I guess I should’ve listened to her.
The thief was actually fairly smart, because if they had taken my whole wallet, I would’ve noticed on my way to the car, and I could have gone back in, made a stink, and they could’ve been discovered. But by just taking my cards, I had no idea for a couple of days.
Still, as frustrating as it’s been to cancel all my plans for two days since I have no means of paying for anything and our nearest bank branch is 45 minutes away (credit unions, they’re worth the trouble), to spend two days on the phone with all my credit agencies, I got off so easy.
They only charged a total of $200 onto my debit card. And nothing on my rewards visa, my discover card, my american express, my old navy card, my victoria secret card (don’t ask), etc. etc. etc.; I still have all my id, which is really the true pain in the butt part of getting your wallet stolen; and all I have to do to recoup my money is to fill out some fraud paperwork. I might not even have to file a police report. They didn’t even use up all the money we had in our checking account, so Bear can still use his card just fine.
Plus, once again my OCD has come in super handy, and to contact all my credit card people I just had to open the file I’ve created on my computer filled with all the information I recorded for just such a moment. I have all my cards listed with the account numbers, expiration dates, and agency contact numbers. Isn’t it funny how the condition that makes me crazy, totally kept me sane?
All in all, the hardest part of this whole process has been the fact that since I couldn’t finish my shopping, I’ve had to go without Coke for TWO WHOLE DAYS! Those jerks.