Mine was stolen from my purse, unzipped when I got out my checkbook to make a purchase, by the boyfriend of the cashier, who was hanging around waiting for her to take her lunch break.
To my surprise, although the police took a report on the phone, they did virtually nothing to attempt to recover it. Although they didn't say it in so many words, I was clearly to consider getting anything back a lost cause.
The thief managed to charge about $1800 on my two credit cards in 80 minutes, before an alert clerk at Victoria's Secret noticed that not only did he not look like a ________ (my real name, obviously female), but that the signature wasn't even close. She faked a problem with the card and called the police, then me. The thief and his girlfriend took off. She never returned to work.
Luckily I had an annual ritual (done the week of my birthday) where I empty my wallet onto a copier and photocopy all my credit cards, then turn them all over and copy the backs, too. So I knew which cards were gone and how to cancel them. It still took half a day, though.
The credit card companies did not hold me liable for any of the charges. (Whew!) The replacement driver's license took a long time, but I had replacement credit cards, library card, and health insurance cards within ten days. I lost frequent-shopper cards where they punch a hole for every purchase and you finally get a freebie, and my blood donor card, some other stuff of that sort.
All in all, quite the hassle even though the loss was fairly small financially. (I think I had about $40.) I found out later that if I had reported it to the police of my town rather than the police of the town where the theft occurred, I'd probably have had more vigorous attempts to identify and prosecute the thief, including seizing video surveillance tapes at the mall where the guy and the girlfriend did their shopping.
Maryn, older and a tiny bit wiser
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