Sharon Vander Meer

Do not, under any circumstances, leave your purse or wallet in the car, or anything else of value. Never, ever.

A friend and I were out of town on Sunday. She parked in a parking lot and when I got out of the car, I left my purse and a bag containing my snow boots, a travel mug and my iPad in her locked vehicle. When we returned about an hour later, someone had broken the window on the passenger side, grabbed my purse and bag, and rifled through her glove compartment. Fortunately she had been wise enough not to leave anything of value in the car. We immediately called law enforcement and I got on the phone and reported the theft to the credit card companies and my bank.

For me, as unsettling as all that was, it doesn’t hold a candle to the aggravation and inconvenience of having to replace everything including keys, driver’s license, credit cards and multiple other items.

The most aggravating is dealing with a credit card company that assures me we won’t be responsible for the fraudulent charges on the cards. And yet, today rather large charges at two businesses have appeared on two of the cards, charges I was assured were never approved by the businesses involved. THEN WHY ARE THEY ON MY CARDS?!

I am left with the assurance that all will be well in the end. I must trust and not get bent out of shape. I WILL trust and not get bent out of shape. Much.

Interestingly I reacted rather well on the day the incident happened. It’s the aftermath of getting everything back to normal and being a tad worried that my paper identity may be stolen. What I must not do is let this incident steal my real identity, the one that steams through troubles and keeps on going; the one that doesn’t let anything get me down; the one who realizes that everyone who is irritating the hell out of me right now is just doing their jobs.

The most crushing loss was a pen my brother and his girlfriend gave me for my birthday the year he died. It was engraved with my name. The pen is an irreplaceable personal treasure. When it hit me that it was gone, I almost wept. Up until then I was pretty stoic about the whole thing. Well, I’m still pretty stoic about it all. Getting angry changes nothing. I’m sorry there are people in this world so desperate or heartless or just plain mean that they take from others. I pray for their restoration to wellness of spirit.

When I was getting my driver’s license replaced, the clerk said a couple of women had been in the week before on the same errand. Their purses were stolen at Walmart, one inside the store the other in the parking lot. The inside theft was from the victim’s cart. She did what I often do, left the bag where babies usually sit, and someone ran by and grabbed it. The woman outside had a similar set up. She was unloading her cart into the trunk of her car, and unwittingly left her bag vulnerable to the purse-snatcher.

I guess my point is that this kind of thing can happen to anybody at any time. It’s important to make taking your property as difficult as possible. Don’t leave your purse in the car and don’t leave it in the cart. Carry it with you or put it out of sight where thieves won’t be tempted to take it.

In conclusion, I will appreciate a little prayer of thanks that neither my friend nor I encountered the thief, so there was no risk of us getting hurt, and a second little prayer that I don’t let my real identity be stolen. I refuse to be an irritated worrywart.