When the NRMA rang me yesterday I assumed it was because I had forgotten to pay a bill. It took a minute or so for me to stop what I was doing and tune in to the voice on the other end of the phone. The caller told me that the NRMA had been contacted by a random stranger who had possession of my wallet.
My stomach dropped and I felt the blood drain from my face. I jumped up from my desk and ran through the house like a mad woman looking for said wallet. Now this may seem an odd reaction to the uninitiated, but regular readers of this blog will remember that I was robbed a few months ago and my wallet (along with every piece of hardcopy evidence as to my identity) was among the stolen items.
To my great relief my (new) wallet was exactly where I had left it, complete with (all new) contents. I returned to the caller who, to his credit, had remained on the line during my brief rampage and asked him what he was talking about.
Apparently the stolen wallet had been found. The finder had gone through the wallet and taken out the remaining cards and found my NRMA roadside service card – hence the contact. This might seem like a reasonable thing to do, but the wallet had been discarded in an alley before all the rain Sydney had during July, so it was soaked and muddy and had crawly things in it. Nevertheless this stranger picked up the sodden mess and went through it looking for something to identify the owner. He then went to the trouble to contact the NRMA so they could contact me.
You’d think I’d be grateful for this wouldn’t you? And I was―sort of. See the thing was, I didn’t want to meet him to pick it up or give my address for him to post it back. When the NRMA guy told me he was going to put him on the line, I was less than gracious. It’s not that I didn’t want it back, I did. It’s just that, well, what if it was someone who was trying to get access to me or the house for not so honest reasons? So when he asked how he would get it me I told him to just take it to the police station.
I didn’t expect him to, but he did. About an hour later I received a call from the police telling me they had my wallet and I could pick it up if I wanted to but it wasn’t in good condition. They were right about that!
The constable told me the bloke who dropped it in found it in the alley behind his house and when he opened it and saw photos of a child, thought that whomever it belonged to might like to have it back. Very considerate. This guy took time out of his day and had to go through several channels to make sure the wallet came back to me, despite my lack of enthusiasm. I didn’t make it easy for him but he persevered anyway.
Kind of restores my faith in human nature a bit. So thank you stranger, you made my day.
City Observationist 