Lost and Found

For the first time last week, I lost my wallet. Like, completely gone, no clue where it could have gone, vanished. I definitely had it on Thursday evening, when I opened my wallet for the LIRR conductor; I handed him the ticket to click, replaced the ticket, then stowed away(?) my wallet in my purse. Dave picked me up from the station in his car; we drove home and picked up Maddie from Joy (our nanny). Then we went out to dinner, but Dave paid, so I didn't need to look for my wallet. We stopped by Stephen's house after dinner to say hi and pick up some tools, but I think I left my purse in the car. At any rate, when the LIRR conductor came by to click my ticket on Friday morning, there was no wallet in my purse. It wasn't at home, it wasn't in the car, it wasn't at the restaurant, it wasn't at Stephen's, it wasn't at the LIRR Lost and Found yet. I had no idea what had happened to it: had I left it behind on the train? Did it fall out of my purse? Did someone reach into my purse and take it? Did I leave it at the restaurant and someone picked it up? A good Samaritan surely would have emailed me by then—my work email is very easy to find by Googling my name.

Fortunately, I had my work ID and a separate credit card squirreled away elsewhere in my purse. But by the time I got to work on Friday morning, I was in full panic mode. Call the credit card companies! Order a new debit card! Order a new driver's license! And most importantly (I guess?): cancel your New York Public Library card so a thief doesn't check out books under your name and then never return them!!!

By Friday evening, I was resigned to the loss. At least most things were replaceable, and as long as no one stole my identity using the information from my driver's license, I would only be out the cost of the cash ($140), my LIRR tickets ($200), my Metrocard ($50), the cost of the wallet itself, and something of sentimental value: my credit card-sized periodic table that says "Proud to be a Chemist" on the back. Don't ask me why I'm still carrying this card from high school. The answer is: I don't know.

Then, a minor miracle! On Saturday afternoon, we received a mysterious visit from...the mailman! He handed me my wallet, saying "My supervisor told me to give this to you." Everything was still there, minus the cash, and my driver's license. I asked the mailman, "Wow, this is amazing! But do you know what happened to my driver's license?" He called the supervisor, who said that it had fallen out and that she had it, and he went back to the post office, picked it up, and brought it back to me! Apparently someone had just put the wallet in a mailbox, and it was taken to the post office, and the post office returned it to me! I didn't even know they could do that. There are still some mysteries: why didn't they just return the driver's license with the wallet, since they knew they went together? Why was everything in the wallet so...damp? And when truly did I lose the wallet?

I suppose I'll never know. Just count me grateful that someone only wanted the cash and didn't want anything else to do with me. S/he took only the cash, and left me the hundreds in public transportation cards! So the only cost was really $140, a day of stress/anxiety, and the $20 for the new driver's license. I'll take it! And be more careful with my wallet from now on...