I wish my jeans had zippers on the back pockets. If they did, I wouldn't have experienced what I recently experienced. Or perhaps things would have been different if I were more of a girly-girl. If I were a girly-girl, I assume that I'd have a handbag in which to hold all of my things.
Alas. None of my jeans have zippers, nor do I own a handbag or purse.
On Friday, I lost my phone wallet.
Like always, I popped my phone wallet into my back pocket and set off on my 3km walk to pick my son up from school. When I got to the school and prepared to sit down to wait for the bell, it was gone. For the first time in my life, my phone wallet slipped up and out of my back pocket and vanished into the nothingness.
Naturally I freaked out. All of my ID is in that thing, my phone is in there, everything. But somehow I kept my head. I went straight to the school office and pulled my son out of class 15 minutes early and we immediately retraced my steps.
Nothing on the footpath, in the grass, on the road. Nothing.
People passed us by and I would quickly accost them, probably sounding and looking crazy. I was powerwalking so was red-faced and breathless. I'm a self-contained person so my words don't come out straight at the best of times, and this is basically what I sounded like on this particular adventure: "I KNOW YOU WALK THIS WAY TOO. I SEE YOU EVERY DAY. HAVE YOU SEEN A PINK WALLET ON THE GROUND???????"
Crazy. 😅
By this time I was hoping that by some tiny chance I had just left the thing at home. We burst through the front door and my partner was sitting in the loungeroom. My first words, instead of hello, were, "IS MY PHONE ON MY DESK!?!??!?!?!?!!?"
It wasn't.
My phone was a Google Pixel 5. Google. GOOGLE! So I raced to the laptop and zoomed to the Google Find My Device page to see where the hell it was. It was last seen a block from the school. And it had been turned off. Someone had found it. AND TURNED IT OFF.
That was not a good sign. I couldn't call it and make contact with whoever found it. If I found a phone, the first thing I do would NOT be to turn the fucking thing off. So obviously whoever found it was a person who had no intention of finding its owner.
Now that I had that information in mind, I zoomed to my bank account and immediately cancelled my cards and ordered new ones with new numbers. My money was safe, at least.
Then I contacted the police and filed a report. Because someone had the audacity to turn my phone off, the police noted my property as stolen rather than lost.
Then I contacted my phone company and thrust my police report number into their faces and pleaded my case for a new phone and contract. Which will be delivered some time this week. I still have to pay off my now-stolen phone too. Ugh.
With my new phone sorted, I logged back into Google's Find My Device and set my phone to WIPE EVERYTHING the moment it was turned back on. Take that, suckers.
Unfortunately, in my phone wallet was my Australian ID which has my Date of Birth on it. Unfortunately, in my phone wallet was also my healthcare card which has my address on it. Whoever has my stuff literally has enough ID of mine to commit identity theft.
There is only one thing left to do, and that's to contact one of the credit rating places and get a ban on my credit report. But I don't want to do that until my new phone is in my hands, on the off-chance I won't be able to activate it. So, basically, I'm sitting here, hoping beyond hope, that they don't try to get anything in my name immediately whilst I'm sitting here, twiddling my thumbs, waiting for my new phone.
At least I have my police report information, dated from Friday, so if anything does happen I have proof that someone of nefarious intent is to blame.
But still. I am a person of high anxiety and nervousness at the best of times, to the extent that I probably should have anti-anxiety medication... and now this has happened. And I'm honestly surprised I haven't fallen to my knees, rocking back and forth in tears just yet.
This happens to people all the time, and I'm sure not all of them get their identity stolen. Douchebags probably pick up the phone wallets, try to hock the phone at a pawn broker (whom of which must actually report all phones given to them, so, HAH!!) and try the bank cards, and when the bank cards don't work, probably dump the lot in a bin and run away.
I try to tell myself that anyway.
Not everyone is smart enough to commit fraud.
May things all work out.
Thank you for reading my ramble-rant. ❤️