Well THAT was close!

I staged this pic, but this is
where the wallet was.
Without the flash from the camera,
it was almost invisible.

On Tuesday evening as I unlocked my car door after work, I glanced down and saw my wallet lying on the dirty, wet concrete floor. It had lain there all day, after evidently falling out of my purse when I got out of the car in the morning, my hands full.

The wallet was soggy and dirty, but untouched. Credit cards, identification, all were in their usual pockets.

I thanked my lucky stars as I contemplated the tedious task of replacing the contents. 

I've been through the hassle three times before, once when my purse was "picked" while I was a student with a measly $20 to my name visiting Versailles (the summer I was a missionary in France). (It occurs to me that mentioning the trip to Versailles really undermines the idea that it was a mission, but we really did work hard.) 

Fortunately, our "foster parents" for the summer had only given us a small amount of the cash we had deposited with them. (They also kept all the passports in a safe.) But that lost $20 was hard for me to swallow. My Social Insurance Number was also in the wallet. I know better than to carry that around with me now.


Then a second time when I was a new mother with only a single credit card. In that case, we got a phone call saying that the wallet was in our mailbox. Unfortunately, we had already called to cancel the card, so it was too late: it caused real problems when we tried to rent a car a few weeks later!

Almost a decade later my wallet was lifted from my purse just after I visited an ATM. At the time, I was at the hospital waiting for Katie to have her tonsillectomy. Again, the wallet was returned to me, this time by mail. But, again, the damage was done; I'd already gone to the trouble of replacing all my cards and ID. (I actually mailed the envelope to the police, suggesting that they might be able to get fingerprints off it. Hah! I live in eternal hope.)

So, today I am relieved that I do not have to go through that tribulation again.

But I do wonder why the thieves returned my stolen wallets? Is it just that they could tell how broke I was by the meagre contents? Were they just forging ID?

Glad to have it safe at home.