The Prophecy

A couple of weeks ago, I had lunch with JR and P, one of the other clerks at his law firm. As we were walking back to work, a woman stopped me. She said that she had noticed that my purse was hanging open and that I wasn't paying attention and that it would be really easy for someone to reach in and grab my wallet. She said she felt she had to tell me because it was the type of advice she would give her own daughter.

At the time, I bristled a little. I tried to be polite and smiled and thanked her. But my mind was a little offended by the critisim. But, something I've come to internalize over the past few years is that I only feel defensive when subconsiously I know what the other person is saying is true. So, I moved all of my things into a purse with a shorter strap and I've tried to be much more attentive to it.

Then, on Friday, I had to kill some time between work and meeting some friends for a movie. I went to a Barnes and Noble and bought a book and got a drink at the Starbucks cafe inside. At a certain point, I realized that there was a guy sitting next to me, close enough that he could reach into my bag, which was hanging on the back on my chair. I picked it up to move it to the other side and noticed that my wallet was missing.

I told myself not to panic - maybe I was just overly sensitive after the woman stopped me on the street. So, I stood up to check to see if I had stuck it in my coat pocket instead of returning it to my purse. That's when I noticed it on the floor and the guy that had been sitting next to me was walking out of the store.

I lucked out. He took the less than $10 cash inside and left all of my credit cards and the check that I hadn't cashed yet. But still, it felt awful.