So someone stole my wallet at church today.....

[mnrose]

Ack. Not sure what to think. I 100% had my wallet in my purse when I went into the church today (not my church, but my friends....I went there for a sewing circle). I put my purse on the kitchen counter, where it sat from 10:30 to 3:30. I was in the kitchen for the majority of the day (90 percent or more), and when I was out, it was for a matter of minutes. I was cutting out patterns on the long kitchen counters.

I left the church, picked up my daughter from dance (didn't leave the car....did a drive through and grab), and drove home. We picked up my son and went to dinner. Ate dinner. Check comes. I ask if they take Amex (which I had in my back pocket....long story, but that's how I KNOW I had my wallet this morning...before I went to the church, my daughter and I were at a doctor's appointment, paid for parking with the card which I retrieved from the wallet in my purse, put the wallet back, paid, then threw the card in the cup holder in the car rather than take the time to put it back in the purse). Anyway, at the restaurant, they don't take Amex. I reach in my purse to get my Visa from my wallet, and it's GONE. The whole wallet. Sigh. The wallet isn't anywhere in my car (tore it apart....not hard because my car is CLEAN, not a junky car so there's very little place for it to "hide."). And, the ONLY place the purse was that day was on the kitchen counter in the church, on my shoulder, in the back seat of the car of the bench seat in the restaurant (it was a booth). ETA: The good news is that I have 50 squirreled away in a secret compartment (not obvious) in the purse and I used that to pay for dinner....it's my emergency stash which I now have to replace. At least I had SOMETHING to pay with! LOL!

I'm so upset! My friend is going back to her church tonight to see if maybe it "fell out" somewhere, but that seems like a long shot. It's a heavy wallet and tends to sink to the bottom of my (large) purse. I always have to "dig" for it so chances that it "fell out" seem remote. I hate to think anyone in a church would take it! Seems so unlikely.

There was only about 40 bucks in the purse, plus my driver's license, visa card, bank card and insurance cards (health and prescription drugs). I've canceled the cards, and will go to get a duplicate license tomorrow. The money is irrelevant to me...obviously, if someone took it, they need it more than I do.

Am I missing anything about the consequences of this?

 

[low-key]

Its always one of the Deacons kids

 

[MIGrandma]

Ack. Not sure what to think. I 100% had my wallet in my purse when I went into the church today (not my church, but my friends....I went there for a sewing circle). I put my purse on the kitchen counter, where it sat from 10:30 to 3:30. I was in the kitchen for the majority of the day (90 percent or more), and when I was out, it was for a matter of minutes. I was cutting out patterns on the long kitchen counters.

I left the church, picked up my daughter from dance (didn't leave the car....did a drive through and grab), and drove home. We picked up my son and went to dinner. Ate dinner. Check comes. I ask if they take Amex (which I had in my back pocket....long story, but that's how I KNOW I had my wallet this morning...before I went to the church, my daughter and I were at a doctor's appointment, paid for parking with the card which I retrieved from the wallet in my purse, put the wallet back, paid, then threw the card in the cup holder in the car rather than take the time to put it back in the purse). Anyway, at the restaurant, they don't take Amex. I reach in my purse to get my Visa from my wallet, and it's GONE. The whole wallet. Sigh. The wallet isn't anywhere in my car (tore it apart....not hard because my car is CLEAN, not a junky car so there's very little place for it to "hide."). And, the ONLY place the purse was that day was on the kitchen counter in the church, on my shoulder, in the back seat of the car of the bench seat in the restaurant (it was a booth). ETA: The good news is that I have 50 squirreled away in a secret compartment (not obvious) in the purse and I used that to pay for dinner....it's my emergency stash which I now have to replace. At least I had SOMETHING to pay with! LOL!

I'm so upset! My friend is going back to her church tonight to see if maybe it "fell out" somewhere, but that seems like a long shot. It's a heavy wallet and tends to sink to the bottom of my (large) purse. I always have to "dig" for it so chances that it "fell out" seem remote. I hate to think anyone in a church would take it! Seems so unlikely.

There was only about 40 bucks in the purse, plus my driver's license, visa card, bank card and insurance cards (health and prescription drugs). I've canceled the cards, and will go to get a duplicate license tomorrow. The money is irrelevant to me...obviously, if someone took it, they need it more than I do.

Am I missing anything about the consequences of this?

There are thieves everywhere, even in a church.

I hope you get your wallet back.

I had $10 stolen out of my purse at our church once. We had a potluck dinner and I left my purse on the shelf above the coat closet area. Later discovered the money missing and I immediately thought of one boy at our church who was a "troublemaker." Of course I couldn't prove he took it so never said anything. A few weeks later I was on a school field trip with my DD and one of the other mothers sat across from me and said she "wanted to apologize for her DD taking money out of my purse at the church potluck" and she handed me back a ten dollar bill. I was flabbergasted as I never would have suspected the girl in a million years. I do think the mother should have had her daughter apologize though. But I was glad to know the truth.

 

[minkydog]

Keep an eye on your credit report for the next several months. Consider whether you need to file a police report. I had my wallet lifted at work one time. I only had about $2 in cash, but I had 2 credit cards, insurance card, library card and license in there. I wasn't going to file a police report but at the encouragement of my boss, I did.

Well, the police found my wallet! It was in, a stolen car which had been abandoned. My wallet and several purses were in the trunk. Of course, all the money was gone, but I did get my license back (not the credit cards or other cards.) In some small part, my police report put them on the trail of a couple of petty thieves that had been working parking lots and businesses in the area. It put my whole hospital on alert against similar thefts.

They caught one of the guys pretty quickly. He was wearing hospital property scrubs that he had stolen from my hospital. I recognized his picture immediately and he was charged.

 

[Lionqueen2]

A year ago, I had a friend 'lose' a ring in church while she was attending church with a friend. She never got it back. It was a diamond, emerald, and sapphire ring in the shape of a bird that had great sentimental value to her.

She reached into her purse for money for the collection and heard a slight clink sound. After church, she noticed that the ring she wore on her pinky was gone and the sound she heard was probably the ring. She returned to the church and hunted for it. She asked if someone had turned it in and the priest even asked the congregation if anyone found this unique ring, but the ring was never returned.

 

[MSSANDRA]

Sadly the scariest part of churches is that people just assume that everything, and everyone is safe. It happens....all the time. It could have been taken by a church member, a visitor such as yourself, or someone from the outside. Unless outside doors are all kept locked (unlikely), people wonder in all the time. I work at a church and not a day goes by that some one off the street does not come in asking for help, or directions, or something. Even if you were in the kitchen, if it was busy, easy for someone to grab and go. I hope you are wrong and you find it somewhere, but I would go ahead and file a report just in case.

 

[manning]

I hope your SSN wasn't anywhere in your wallet.

Contact one of the credit bureaus and place a 90 day fraud alert. They will pass it on to the other two. An alert has to be renewed every 90 days

I did that once plus put a freeze on my credit report.

Once I got a call from a quick loan company regarding my application for a loan. Huh?

They had my SSN and my wife's name. The only way the two could have been connected was when I was admitted to the hospital. My wife did the paperwork. We figure someone was lifting info there.

Accredit freeze stays in place until you release it. One nice thing about it is we don't get calls anymore for unsolicited credit card offers. I understand the first thing they do is check your credit rating.

 

[spacemountainmom]

Sadly the scariest part of churches is that people just assume that everything, and everyone is safe. It happens....all the time. It could have been taken by a church member, a visitor such as yourself, or someone from the outside. Unless outside doors are all kept locked (unlikely), people wonder in all the time. I work at a church and not a day goes by that some one off the street does not come in asking for help, or directions, or something. Even if you were in the kitchen, if it was busy, easy for someone to grab and go. I hope you are wrong and you find it somewhere, but I would go ahead and file a report just in case.

So true!

I spent 10 years of my life as an underwriter for a company that specialized in Church insurance. I cannot tell you how many claims were processed for stolen items and I left that job 15 years ago.

Churches are like Disney; people assume that no one would commit a criminal act in a sacred or happy place. Trust me, it happens and it happens often.

Please file a police report immediately and contact the Church's administration so they can report it to their insurance carrier.

 

[Andtototoo]

I worked in a large-ish church for a few years. I cannot tell you the number of thefts we had. Including from my locked office -- it was someone we had trusted with a key.

The simple truth is that churchgoers are just as likely to be alcoholics and drug addicts and kleptomaniacs as the person on the street. Addicts will steal from anyone to get their next fix. We had a cop tell us once that he thought the number of addicts was actual higher in churches than other public places because addicts will go there for help/support and then find it easy pickings should they fail. Then there are the people who come to church knowing that others will think it's a safe place and not guard their valuables, so it's therefore a good place to "pick".

And don't think it's just down on their luck folks who are the thieves. Don't think they "need the money more than I do". One of our biggest thieves was also one of our richest members. She felt that she "gave so much she was entitled to take what she wanted".

Please file a police report and please file a written complaint with the church board. The church board needs to know this happened. Believe me, it took me years to convince our board to rekey the building even though we had evidence that people with keys were stealing from us -- so any further proof was a big help in convincing them that we needed realism rather than wishful thinking when it came to security.

 

[PlainJane]

People assume churches are safe and it makes them an easy target. I remember a few years ago the pastor of a church I attended for a couple years asked that people not leave valuables in their cars. His wife's brand new computer had been stolen out of the backseat.

Two different colleges I attended (one of which was a Christian school) had to remind people to lock their doors and not leave anything they don't want stolen in their cars. I don't think the schools thought it was someone affiliated with the school. I mean, it would be an ideal place for a thief, remote parking lots, lots of cars in one place.

I know, I've thought many a time in big churches that communion day would be the perfect time for a thief to drop by, women just leave their purses in a room of hundreds if not thousands of people, when they'll be completely out of view.

There's no way to know if it was a person off the street, a kid, or an adult that's just putting on a good face for the congregation.

 

[Robinrs]

Did you find it yet?