Third time my wallet was stolen....

I have had my wallet stolen only three times in my entire life. First time was over 27 years ago. I had just started working and in the second month my dad insisted that I should ask my company to give my monthly salary as a cheque rather than cash. I had just arranged for this and I was carrying my monthly salary home that evening in cheque form. As usual travel to and fro to work was in Mumbai’s famous/infamous local trains which are packed like sardines in a tin during peak travel hours. I had squeezed into the ladies compartment and did not find a seat so was standing between two rows of seats and since there are no handholds there, put my office bag on the rack up there. Sometime in between Churchgate and Santacruz I got one of the 8 seats in those two rows and sat down, but did not take my bag off the rack, thinking that I would pick it up when I have to leave the train at my station. Big mistake….

I did not realize my wallet was stolen, till I got into the bus from Santacruz station to go to my house in Kalina. Opened my bag to take out change – 80 paise to pay the conductor and found no wallet. I searched desperately through my bag and had visions of asking the conductor to stop and let me off the bus to walk home as I had no money when to my relief I saw someone from my neighbourhood on the bus. I sheepily asked him if he could buy my ticket as my wallet was stolen – which he was kind enough to do so. Did not lose much money because it was towards month end and thankfully my monthly salary was a cheque, which I got reissued when I went back to work the next day. No bank ATM cards or credit cards in those days so that was not a hassle.

Second time my wallet was stolen I was carrying Aditya – he was about 1 ½ yrs old and I had his diaper bag on the other shoulder and we were traveling in a very crowded BEST bus. My wallet was in the outer pocket of the diaper bag. This time I had already paid for the bus ticket, so I did not notice my wallet was stolen till I returned home and emptied the diaper bag and found no wallet. Again did not lose much money, but I had two long distance train tickets to Kerala in my wallet. I went to the main railway station the next day and gave them my compartment and seat nos but I had to pay 10% of the face value of the tickets to have them reissued. Again no bank ATM cards or credit cards just some cash and coin change.

The third time my wallet was stolen happened this last Friday – 5th June of all the places in IKEA in Dusseldorf. I have been haunting IKEA these last two weeks after we moved into the new apartment. First to find some blinds to cover the bathroom windows and bedroom door, then to find curtains for all the rooms in the house. I had just finished over an hour’s discussion with the seamstress @ IKEA about the master bedroom curtains which had to be custom made through an interpreter as she spoke no English and I speak no German.

I next went to the curtains department and was walking around with my shopping cart purchasing rails to install the curtains in all the rooms. I had my notebook and pen in my hand, the huge IKEA blue bag and my handbag in the shopping cart. I was going through my notebook and ticking off room by room – 2nd bedroom – room width 312 cm, tracks come in only 140 cm length, hence 3 needed, hanging pieces for the tracks – 9 nos, checked them off the list, then on to bathroom, study room etc., My cart was getting filled up with the 140 cm tracks all standing @ 45 degree angle inside the shopping cart.

In between I was haunting the staff in curtains with questions like what kind of hooks would go on these rails, would the hanging pieces help to hang the rails from the ceiling. I must have been muttering to myself too working out the width of the rooms and dividing it up by 140 to see how many rails I needed per room. I think I must have spent almost an hour in this dept. Finally I was making my way to the cash counter with my loaded cart when I saw that my handbag wasn’t in the cart.

I rushed back to the curtains department and told the staff that my handbag was stolen at the same time desperately looking around to see if I could spot my bag. The staff first said they could not do anything but call the police – I told them to do that as my phone, car keys, driving license etc was in my handbag. One of them was kind enough to accompany me to my car in the parking lot and asked the house detectives to keep a watch on it. At the same time he was calling the police from his phone. We went back to Customer Service who helped me use their phone to call Anand and Aditya to get the spare keys of the car and come and collect me from IKEA. While I was making the calls they asked me to come to the Information Desk. The policeman and I got to the Information desk at the same time. They had found my handbag in the Bedding section on the 1st level. All the zippers were opened, I dumped my bag upside down and these were the items that were in the bag - my bag holder, my compact, eye pencil, chapstick, lipstick, comb and car keys.

I guess they only took the important things namely my wallet, coin purse and cell phone. The policeman gave me his notebook and asked me to list what items were taken – I started listing – Leather wallet with two Amex cards, one Visa card, bank ATM card, Delta Skymiles card, Library card, Metro store card, US driving license, about 50 Euro in cash and change, all the family wallet photos, ND leather coin purse and of course my Tmobile DASH.

The policeman and I walked back to Customer Service and he asked the IKEA staff if they had given me the numbers to cancel the cards, they scrambled around to get it for me. I tried calling the numbers from IKEA but the automated message was in German and the very first thing they ask is the card number which I could not remember at all, as all the cards I had were new. He said that I should go home as quickly as possible and call and cancel the cards. I called Aditya again and asked him to tell Anand not to come and pick me up as the policeman said that I was free to leave.

Got back home and started calling the various 1-800 nos to cancel the credit cards. Learnt something new about bank ATM/Debit cards in Germany. Anand and I always have a joint account and individual ATM cards. I got through to an English speaking customer service agent, he asked me to verify my name and bank account number and Bank Leizl number similar to a routing number and then proceeded to tell me that all cards under this account would be cancelled. I immediately protested and the customer service officer said that I could argue with him all I wanted but this was the procedure in Germany. Apparently the automated message in German told me that all cards under this account would be cancelled before I got to the Customer Service agent and since I don’t understand German all this went over my head.

Anand and Aditya were at that moment on their way to buy a frame for the washer/dryer which was delivered that morning to stand securely on top of each other and this store only accepted cash or ATM/Debit cards. I also had to go back to IKEA on the weekend and they only accepted cash or Debit card. The bank customer service officer said that the card cancellation would take effect within one hour. We could only get the cards reinstated at the bank when it opened on Monday but that would be too late for our weekend needs.

I immediately called Anand on his cell phone and asked him to go the nearest ATM and withdraw money that we would need for the weekend as he would not be able to use his Debit card after one hour. He did so and when the bank opened for business yesterday, we got his card re-instated. My cards will arrive in the mail in about 7 – 10 days time. I am glad I was not in the US as I would have many more cards to cancel such as Macy’s, Target, Kohl’s, TJ Maxx, Chase etc.,

Of all the things that were stolen I think I am going to miss my Tmobile DASH the most as I had over 400 contact details including wedding dates, birthdays etc and notes and for the last two months I had not synced it with the computer as the cables were in the sea shipment..I guess it was baptism by fire and I will remember to never leave my handbag in my shopping cart ever again