What’s in (or was in) My Wallet?

On Sunday, February 2, we enjoyed a performance by the Evanston Symphony Orchestra followed by an early dinner with good friends at a local favorite restaurant. What could possibly go wrong? I hung my shoulder bag over the back of my chair and covered it with my winter coat. I know. Never hang your purse on the back of a chair, making it easy for someone to steal the purse and run. But that’s not what happened.

The thief had been seated at the table behind me. Somehow, without me feeling a thing or our friends seated across the table noticing, he unzipped the main compartment of my purse, fished around for my small wallet, and ran out of the restaurant. This guy was a pro. The manager noticed him rushing out and followed him out of the door, but he gave her the finger and drove off before she was able to take a picture of his plates. By the time the police officer arrived (he was not impressed by the crime and doubted the thief would be found, even though the restaurant had him on its security camera) the thief made his way to Walgreens. He charged my credit card for $600 ($150 four times – gift cards?) and bought gas and incidentals at a Shell station. I won’t be responsible for these charges, but that was just the start of my misery.

Here’s what I think was in my wallet

1.     Mastercard

2.     Target card

3.     Driver’s license

4.     Medicare card

5.     BCBS supplement card

6.     United Healthcare RX card

7.     Good RX card

8.     Office Depot/Max discount card

9.     AAA card

10.  ARP card

11.  Library card

12.  Voter ID card

13.  Assorted appoint reminder cards and other junk I can’t remember

14.  Bank ATM card

15.  A blank check (just in case we needed to write one)

Items 1-6 were relatively easy (but time consuming) to replace. Items 7-14 were not really that important. Good RX is on my phone and Office Depot/Max has closed. AAA and ARP were happy to send me new cards. The library will issue me a new card, and I doubt the thief will use my old one to check out books. I think I get new voter ID cards frequently, but since I vote by mail, I probably don’t need one. No one can use my ATM card without the passcode, which even I don’t remember.

Before I get to number 14, the real nightmare, losing that credit card wasn’t too bad because most of my auto-debits are on Discover Card, which never leaves my house. At least I did one smart thing. But carrying a blank check in my wallet was incredibly dumb. The thief had my bank account number and my driver’s license. He could have cleaned us out. Although the chance of that happening was minimal, it wasn’t zero. That account had to be shut down.

The first step in doing this wasn’t that bad. The woman who helped us open our new account was very helpful. We had a few temporary checks and ordered new ones, which came very quickly. But unfortunately, the auto debits from that account included our condo HOA and health insurance payments. We had to contact Social Security, Medicare, Blue Cross, United Healthcare, all of which were very frustrating and time-consuming. We closed the bank account February 3, but many of those payments were deducted on the first of the month, resulting in scary emails/texts that our healthcare was in jeopardy and angry communication from our condo association that we were in arrears.

It took a week of frustrating “conversations” with the robot that answered our calls to these inquiries that ended with us screaming, “talk to agent” and being sent back where we started with the AI voice asking us to select a number from the menu that did not apply to our situation. Yes, we did use the websites when they were available and user friendly, but they often didn’t solve our problem. Social security connected us with agents who were clearly in another country without decent internet. The connection was so poor and the accents so difficult to understand that we gave up and called our local Social Security office to make an appointment, only to have the kind woman ask why we needed to come in when she could easily fix our problem on the phone. And she did.

1. I learned some powerful lessons from having my wallet stolen:

2. Only carry one credit card

3. Never carry a blank check or checkbook

4. Make a list or take photos of everything in your wallet

5. When you get your next driver’s license, if you are a senior you can also get a state ID for free. Even if it’s not free, it’s a good idea to get one because having photo ID is essential. And leave the state ID at home. 

6. I needed photo ID to get my new driver’s license. Luckily, I brought my passport to the DMV and also showed them a picture of my old license which I found on my phone.

So, what’s in my wallet now? Not very much. The new version with all of the essential cards replaced is pretty slim, and that’s how it will remain. Now, I just have to break the bad habit of hanging my purse over my chair in restaurants.