You've been hit by a smooth criminal

My wallet was stolen last night—right out of my purse.

This comes almost exactly a year after I found out my credit card number was stolen (even though I still had my card) and someone had charged $900 in cell phones in Canada. And it comes nearly 9 months after I discovered that someone had gotten ahold of my social security number and filed taxes under my name. Both incidents took me months and months of phone calls, legal documents and stress to resolve. 

So I'm sure you can guess how much this latest incident thrills me. Because not only was my credit card in my wallet, but so was my debit card and $8 (thank goodness). The real crime? My driver's license was in there, too...so now I have to go to the DMV and wait in a loooong line again. I am so mad about that. 

Long story short, the night started out great—three friends and I made a last minute decision to go down and watch the Festival of Lights on the Mag Mile from the comfort of my nice, warm office. Then we headed to Emerald Loop and got a table right away. The table was by the area where people stand to wait to be called, and also where they check in with the host. I had the unfortunate seat that backed up to that area. As I sat down I put my purse on the back of my chair, underneath my long coat and scarf, and up close against my side because I knew my seat was a tad sketchy.

So after some appetizers and couple of drinks, I suddenly felt my purse swinging a lot. There were a TON of people in the crowded waiting area...and there was a man standing right next to my chair "putting his coat on" and smiling.  It was weird and I immediately knew something was wrong. It didn't feel like my purse was just accidentally bumped.

I grabbed my purse and started going through it. No wallet. My friend looked through my purse. No wallet. We all started looking through my coat, under the table, around the table next to us. Still no wallet. I knew it was gone.

I was handling it really, really well, until the manager came over and told me how well I was handling it. Then, I have admit, I shed a few tears. I was so frustrated.  I composed myself after a few seconds and then I knew I had to act quickly. So he let my friend and I go to the back, through the kitchen (eek), to his little office where we looked up my numbers and cancelled my credit and debit cards. I think I caught it right away, but you never know. We came back and the manager bought us a round of drinks because he felt so bad. Magner's really eased the blow last night.

So now I have no money, no access to money and no ID. I am just glad that I'll be home this week for Thanksgiving so I can get a new driver's license and debit card up in the 'burbs (have to get them up there unfortunately). And I'm SO glad I took a few things out of my wallet last night, like my insurance card, my Border's Rewards card (which I couldn't live without) and my CTA card (again, so happy about that). I do think I might have a lost a gift card, which stinks, but oh well. I'm also glad that it wasn't my nice wallet—it was only my little pink bar wallet. And I'm glad that my digital camera, nice earmuffs, phone, etc were all left in my purse, completely untouched. 

After hearing about the string of violent muggings that have been happening in my area, I almost feel relieved that this is all that's happened to me. How sad is that?