So I am Now a Statistics

About 1,000 wallets and purses get stolen every 2 minutes in the U.S according to www.answers.com.  Well, my wallet was one of them yesterday.

Sometime between going to work in the morning and coming out from the gym during lunch yesterday, my wallet was stolen.  My car was broken into before and things stolen before, but never anything as personal as my wallet.  And just to think, someone actually reached into my bag to take out the wallet.  Ugh!!

At about the same time that I discovered my wallet missing, I started getting fraud alerts from credit card companies and my bank.  Thanks to modern technology, credit card companies and banks know that certain transactions just don't make sense on my accounts.  $600 at Armani.  $400 at Victoria Secrets.  $400 at Timberland.  $400 at Walgreens.  Hello?

When I saw these fraudulent transactions popping up on my online accounts, I wondered what were the thieves thinking, or maybe they weren't thinking at all.  How could they boldly and shamelessly use somebody else's credit card/money like it was theirs?  Oh I forgot, criminal minds.

When did it happen?  How did it happen?  It didn't really matter because the end result was the same.  Someone tried to go on a shopping spree on my dime.

Of course, I took all the steps to contain damage.  Top concern is the loss of my driver license.  My poor little driver license is out there somewhere.  Is it being tossed?  Is it in somebody's pocket?  Is someone trying to be me?

Losing my wallet is one thing (and I did my share of that).  Having it stolen is quite another because the latter comes with a criminal intent.  It is out of my control (ok, so maybe I could have safeguard it better), and I feel sad and violated.  Angry is not even the right word to describe how I feel.  I am very sadden to have experienced the ugly side of us humans.

Oh, I do want to note that I have also experienced the best side of humans - I had my lost wallet returned to me more than 5 times.  I have found and  returned lost items to others as well.  Isn't that the right thing to do??  Why can't there be more of the good stuff?  Why can't there be more considerations for others?  Thieves, do you really get a great joy from stealing other people's stuff?

So, yesterday was a sucky day for me.  I joined the stolen wallet victims club.