Right before Officer and I were married we were working in different states. Since his job was less conducive for relocating, I moved to him to start our life. This required a job hunt as my previous employer was unable to relocate my position.
One particular interview I had, Officer escorted me to because we had a flight to catch afterwards. He was very unhappy with the location of the offices. To him, the area was one of the worst in our city (second only to his area). However, the interview went wonderful, the people were delightful and I ended up taking the job. He thoroughly lectured me on being safe, not staying after dark, and not being a victim. If that's not asking for it, I'm not sure what is!
Our company is comfortable, kind, and trusting. We are the "leave-your-door-unlocked" type of people. And in this instance, I mean that literally. Even though we had key cards for our doors, we left them turned off during working hours. Anyone could come or go as they please. It is the mentalilty of "we have nothing to worry about" - But, as you all know, I'm the worst case scenario girl, so I carry mace AND a stun gun every where I go - so maybe I was still worried. Can't be the victim, right?
Well, the stars finally aligned. I could probably write three pages about the events leading up to and following that day, but I will try to be concise.
I had been in a minor accident a week before, and although Officer and I debated it, we decided to get the damage fixed (win!). The repair went long and I ended up with a rental longer than expected. Then, a department store recently had a big sale and I traded my massive, couldn't-pass-as-a-carry-on purse in for a much smaller, more manageable across-the-body style. This limited my load to my stun gun, sunglasses, small wallet and phone. Yeah, even my big honkin' key set couldn't fit in there.
It was the day before my birthday which falls in the colder months, but the day looked nice so I opted not to wear a coat, however, once I felt the chilly morning air, I debated to go back in and grab one. Against my better judgement I did not go back...
When I arrived at work, I was so excited to get a closer than normal spot! I bounced in and hung my purse on my coat hanger. It was something new I had started when I carried the smaller purse because my jacket would hide it (remember how I decided not to wear a jacket that day?). Then, I commenced to working the day away. I typically play cards at lunch because Officer isn't one for games, and I need my fix. And the majority of my coworkers stay at their desk for lunch. It's not looking like a ghost town in our offices people, we have lots of warm bodies all around! During our game, a coworker stopped by and said someone suspicious had been lurking around and they hid everyone's purses.
I guess I should take a moment for a side note. I work in a building with a bank at the bottom and several companies, including a temp agency, in the remaining floors. We see a LOT of foot traffic. Granted, our company doesn't see many visitors, but we are on the second floor and technically our bathroom is "public" because it is in an atrium shared by the building.
Well, another coworker of mine called during the game and asked me what my purse looked like. My initial thought was, "gosh, look at all these people looking out for me, she wants to come hide my purse, too". So I gave her a description of it and she said something like, that's what I thought and I'm coming to talk to you. Lump.
Yes, my purse had been stolen and ditched in the men's bathroom. Luckily, the sweet cleaning lady was going in to clean and saw it in there. GASP. My sister had graciously just bought me RayBan sunglasses for my birthday. Are they still there? Check. What about my stun gun stocking stuffer from Officer? Check. Gosh, all the perp took was my wallet. And I'm lucky because it was the small one! Minimal damage, easy recovery. I immediately called and cancelled the cards he had already been using.
A few weeks before, a friend was telling me about how a perp had stolen her wallet, but just took the money and left the wallet in the yard. Since I wasn't keen on the idea that the perp had my address, I wanted to go look to see if I could find it. I'm out stomping the yard around my building with some of my friends, shocked at my good fortune that only my wallet was missing. I decided to look back through my purse one last time to confirm. And at this point, I had Officer on the phone with me. OMG.
Remember how I said my keys wouldn't fit in my purse? Remember how I said we had a rental? Well, THAT key fit in my purse. But I wasn't used to seeing keys in my purse OR seeing that key at all. And it was gone. And so was my car...
To be continued...
No comments:
Post a Comment