Protect Thyself

Every time we haul the whole gang out to go shopping, we ask ourselves why we do these crazy things. This was doubly true today, as in the chaos of trying to herd hungry girls out of Target my purse was left in the shopping cart in the front of the store. We rushed back as soon as I noticed it was missing, but in the five minutes we'd been gone, someone had already picked it up. About half an hour later, I received a call from the store, saying my purse had been found on the floor in the lingerie department.
"Did you have a wallet in there?" asked the clerk. "There wasn't one in the purse when security picked it up."

The sound of my primal scream is echoing in my head.

Here's what I did:

1. The first thing I did was to call the police department to file a report.

2. While I was waiting for an officer to call me back, I canceled my credit cards. Darwin and I share all but one of our cards, so unfortunately neither of us will have an active credit card for the next five days -- except the replacement card for an old unused account that's been sitting around for about six months waiting to be activated. Inertia pays off!

3. Darwin went back to Target and talked to the head of security there. They pulled up our receipt to see at what time and on what aisle we'd checked out, so they knew what security camera footage to review.

4. I pulled copies of the credit card bills so that when the officer called back, I could give him the numbers. I also gave him the name of the Target security guard. Unfortunately, I didn't know my driver's license number

5. Since my social security card was in my wallet (word to the wise: don't carry your social security card in your wallet. You also don't need to carry your eight-year-old passport registered to your maiden name. Just sayin'.), I contacted one of the major credit bureaus and put a fraud alert on my account. In the case of a fraud alert the three credit bureaus -- Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion -- communicate with one another, so you only need to call one. The alert will stay on my report for ninety days.

6. On Monday morning I'll go down to the DMV to deal with getting a new license. I'll also go down to the post office, just in case anyone tries to use my address for... well, whatever. Fortunately, our mail box opens with a key, and my keys were recovered safely with my purse.

At least my gym membership card wasn't in my wallet, which would have done me worlds of good if I hadn't showed up five minutes after it closed. The primal scream echoes on in my head...