Seven Lessons From Getting My Purse Stolen

Sometimes, things don't work out the way you planned. When life hands you a curve ball (and your wallet and keys are stolen), this is what I've learned.

Image courtesy of Larry Jacobsen via Flickr.

Last night, in my safe little Peoria town, in my homey little basement bar, among my old friends and trusted bartender, my purse was stolen. A man came to watch my friends play darts, and decided to grab my purse, which was hanging off of the chair I was sitting on. This was definitely not the guy's first theft, as he did so without me feeling or noticing a thing until I went to close my tab.

So as to keep this story short, my purse was found in an alley garbage can a few blocks away without my wallet and keys. Today, I worked from home so that I could get things done while waiting on hold with every call that needed to be made. Throughout this experience, this is what I have learned and am passing on to you:

1. Keep your phone on your person.
Whenever you go out, people say it's rude to have your phone out or visible. Just leave it in your pocket. Just leave it in your bag. Well, I had my phone in my hand since I was texting and snapping the fun time we were having being reunited after summer. If I had left that phone in my bag, I would have lost that, too, making the entire process much more difficult.

2. Have a trustworthy person on your bank accounts with you.
My mom is on all of my bank accounts. These are my accounts–my money, my passwords, my notifications. Her name is on the account, though, in case of an emergency. In this situation, I was able to call my mom immediately and have her cancel my cards. I tried to cancel one of them on my own, but my mind was going a million miles a minute, so I couldn't remember passwords and usernames. It was so, so helpful to have her make those calls so that I could focus on other things.

3. Keep minimal cash on you.
Don't get me wrong, I see a great benefit to having cash on you. In this case, though, I only lost about $40. Since the rest of my money is on my cards, this robber is only getting away with that cash.

4. Having a permanent address different than your current address can be a good thing.
In the year that I've lived in Peoria, I've considered switching everything to my Peoria address. In this case, I am so glad I didn't. Since the robber has my keys AND my wallet (with my state ID in it–thankfully not my driver's license!), he could have looked at the address on my card and gone to that address to ransack it. Because nothing in my bag said my current address, though, this helped me feel safer going to bed that night. For the record, the locks are officially changed now, so the key he has leads to nothing. :)

5. Calling people is such a timesaver.
I'm a Millennial. I don't love talking to people on the phone. I'd rather fill out an online request. In this scenario, though, going out of my comfort zone got my processes moving at a fast pace. I needed to go to a bank branch that could print me a new debit card on the spot. My bank didn't offer clear answers to what branches do that on their website, though. I called the bank and had them direct me to which branch could meet my needs. This could have taken hours of driving and asking to figure this out. Calling the emergency line to my apartment also got me unlocked quickly. In fact, making calls instead of going through online portal after online portal made correspondence relatively fast and simple.

6. Store spare keys safely and strategically.
This is something I've always just done, and it served its purpose last night. It's easy to keep your spare key in that location: the spare house key is in the house; the spare car key is in the car. In the case of last night, though, having that mindset would have backfired on me. Since I choose to store my keys in locations outside of what is being secured (house, car, etc.), I had quick access to my backups, allowing me to easily get into my apartment and car.

7. Have good friends.
I am so #blessed for my wonderful friends. This robber was sneaky to get my purse and then get out the door past my (seven-ten) friends. When we realized it was stolen, though, they all jumped to my aid. They searched garbage cans, informed the bar staff and people in the bar and restaurant area, went looking for the robber, called the cops to get a report filed, looked up numbers for me to call to get the processes moving, drove me around to various locations, and sat outside my car until I arrived to ensure that it was safe. I could not be more thankful to have such wonderful people in my life.

While getting your wallet and keys stolen is a bit of a pain, I realize that this could have been so much worse. I am thankful to have the amazing support system that I do, and that while things need to be replaced, they are just things. No one was hurt or endangered, and that is what I can be most appreciative for. As a strong believer in karma, I know the bad juju this person is trying to spread will meet up with him in the near future. Until then, I'll be here waiting 3-5 business days for my new cards to arrive. :)