Stolen Purse

Last year, my computer was hacked and I had to contact Equifax, cancel credit cards and get a new checking account and change my email address and password. It took time and it was a real pain.

This year, the day before Thanksgiving, while helping my daughter prepare the turkey dinners for an abused shelter for women, one of the abused women not only picked up her free dinner for four but stole my purse as well! The woman was the only person to come into my daughter’s catering kitchen to pick up her food while I was working there.

When I was ready to go home around 9pm, my purse was missing, and so were the only set of keys that I had for my car. This would be the beginning of my holiday nightmare. I lost a new, expensive leather purse, $40 in gift cards, $70 in cash. My keys and house key was gone. I called to cancel my credit card and found that it already had been used for gas. I was able to find out the time and the area. This was within 45 minutes after my purse was taken.

I had to do some damage control…like, cancel my debit card, file a police report, and call Equifax to put out a 90 day fraud alert, and wait in the parking lot until 2 am for the Triple AAA tow truck that would be delayed until 4:30 am. This call was cancelled and my son drove me home.

I would have to wait until Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, to cancel one other credit card, go to the bank and sit there for 1-1/2 hour to close an account, open a new one, call the Social Security office to have the monthly checks directly deposited into the new account, and get a bank check to pay for an important bill, and not be charged a late fee. Next on my list was to call my health care provider for new medical insurance cards. Then to Triple AAA for a new membership card and to the DMV for a new drivers license. After this I had to call the Ford Dealer for a start up key to get the car into neutral and have it towed to the dealership where they would cut two new keys and make a new remote. Later the battery died and had to be replaced along with some broken lights and a torn back windshield wiper and a few other problems.

The cost added up and I was out $1,000. I still need to change the locks on my house. I spent a lot of time on the phone, waiting in a parking lot and replacing the things that were stolen from me.

The biggest insult was that I had donated some money toward the food that I was preparing for the shelter. In the end, I would have to borrow money from my children until I had my new debit card and new credit, which will take 5 to 7 days.

To the big loser who stole my purse and identity – I hope it was worth it? I will have been inconvenienced a lot but you will still be you, a loser, for the rest of your life.