Identity Kept
We live in the information age. A time where you can find out pretty much anything you want on the internet. With that has come the fear in the hearts of all of identity theft; those two dirty words that if they ever happen to you mean months of clean-up afterwards. Because of identity theft, we've become a people who are inward and not as trusting. People who panic and shred every last receipt or trace of our names on our mail.
When you do something like lose your wallet, your system is now trained to go into fight or flight mode. You drive with an unusual lead foot to the scene of the losing, hoping and praying the entire ride that it's still there with all of its contents inside. While you do this, your spouse is there with the other copies of all of your cards calling the credit card companies to place holds and cancel cards. We're a people trained to protect our identity, our very being. No one can be trusted out there.
You whip into a parking spot and run inside. Your spouse gets out and starts checking around where you were parked before, looking in bushes and checking for the 5th time under the driver's seat to make sure you didn't drop it. It's there, on the floor where you were just 60 minutes before that you find your wallet. You open it up to find all of your contents inside, all of your cards and your account numbers and cash. It's been kicked to the side out of the view of most of the people who will walk in, out of sight in the hopes you'll come back to find it.
For a brief moment, you and your spouse have a sigh of relief. In a moment of clarity you realize and remember that the majority of people in the world are honest people like yourself who have no use or want for someone else's wallet. That most people are just like you; afraid of their identity getting stolen and thusly protect others from having that happen to them too. You realize these things... and then you and your spouse get right back in your car and continue to not trust anyone, knowing that the next time a wallet is lost or stolen the same panic will set in again.
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4 comments:
Oh my Danielle I get what you are saying. We shred every last bit of our mail and I am terrified of losing my wallet or identity theft.
Realizing you had lost your wallet must have given you a right start. Glad you got it back with all its content. Have a great week.
I once lost my entire purse while Ben and I were running errands. It was at Shoney's, but he and I had been just about everywhere in Antioch that day, so I was pretty certain it was gone forever. I had been keeping my ID and bank card in my pocket that day, so all that was lost..well, not really all, since it was important...was my SS card and all my pictures.
The waitress that found it was named Audrey, and she saved my wallet from being tossed in the garbage. She kept my SS card, the pictures, and the change in the purse in an envelope with my name on it.
The first day of my Orientation at the Olive Garden I sat next to a really nice girl who told me her name was Audrey. She was training to be a server, and had just left Shoney's.
The next day she handed me an envelope with all my lost things in it and said, "I'm really sorry, but I couldn't save the whole purse."
I bought her lunch that day and we talked about fate.
I'm happy your wallet was there, and I'm happy you're standing up against our paranoid soceity with a nice message of honesty! Big ups to people like Audrey, and all those people who let your wallet alone.
Confession:
It was not Danielle's wallet that was dropped on the ATM floor. It was mine.
As careful as we are (and trust me, I'm borderline paranoid schitzophrenic about this stuff), sometimes we just goof. This was one of those times.
We still canceled all of our cards, just in case someone copied the numbers down.
The interesting thing is that even though it's refreshing to see that no one took anything (not even the cash), I'm still paranoid enough to ultra-protect us from the chance that someone copied down the numbers.
Go figure. All in all, we were very lucky.
I am SO glad you guys found it! Shannon told me what happened and when you didn't show up at the party while we were there, we worried that something might have happened to it! Thank goodness! :)
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