Was it unreasonable for me to carry that much cash in the wallet?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Hi,

First-time poster here, greetings to everyone.
I read on a different forum today a series of heart-warming stories about lost and found wallets, mobile phones, etc. in Japan.

My story is a little different. Last summer (August 2016) I visited the US for the very first time, as a tourist. I stayed mainly in New York, but one weekend we (my family and our hosts) took a trip to an outlet mall upstate, where I lost my wallet to never recover it again.

I made a purchase at a JC Penney’s, where I paid with one of my debit cards, so I definitely had it at that time. After that, we split the group, and I wandered alone for maybe a couple of hours around the mall. When we got together again, I routinely checked my backpack, to discover my wallet was missing.

I went straight back to JC Penney, the wallet was not there. I also backtracked looking everywhere for it, and finally filed a lost item claim with the customer center at the mall. Called back there for 3 or 4 times during the next week, the wallet was never found.

I don’t think my wallet was stolen (although I don’t rule this out). I can’t tell for sure if I put it in my pocket, or in the backpack. The backpack showed no evidence of being forced (no cuts, etc.) My theory is that I just lost it, and whoever found it saw that I had some 130 - 150$ in cash inside, took the money and threw away / destroyed the rest, to avoid identification. Luckily, my passport was not in the wallet, so I was able to return home without the hassle of visiting my country’s embassy.

So, I’m wondering - is that amount of money tempting enough to someone to support my theory? How much cash do you routinely carry around in your wallet?

2

I routinely carry no cash when at home, but if I’m travelling overseas I’d have a few hundred dollars. $130-$150 is definitely enough for someone to be dishonest, in fact I think any amount is enough for someone to be dishonest for a variety of reasons.

3

Definitely. Just the fact that it’s money would be enough for some people.

4

I would hand in a wallet bulging with £50 notes and woulsn’t take a “taste”, my sister would probably throw a wallet containing a £2 in the bin after taking the money. Everybody is somewhere on the continuum.

5

$130-150 not unreasonable at all for walking around money. And depending on the person, I suppose it’s enough for them to be dishonest. But really, they could have taken the cash, and then just dropped it off at the nearest sales counter, or put it in a mail box.

6

The unreasonable part was keeping your wallet in your backpack. Might as well have a sign on your forehead that says “please steal my stuff.”

7

No matter how much money is in a wallet, there are people who would turn it in with the money intact (or try to return it directly to the owner), there are people who would take the cash and turn in the wallet, and there are people who would keep the cash and keep or throw away the wallet. All of these are common enough to be unsurprising.

How could you have lost the wallet? Might you have laid it down somewhere and forgotten to pick it up again? Might it have fallen out of your pocket or your backpack without you noticing? If the answer to the second question is yes, then it’s also possible that someone could have taken it out of your pocket or your backpack without you noticing. (And if the answer is no, how do you think you could have lost it?)

The unreasonable part IMHO was not carrying that much cash, but being careless about where your wallet was.

8

The one time I felt my wallet get lifted in a crowd, it actually got mailed back to me (minus the cash) in about 2 weeks. So there are thieves honorable enough to drop a lifted wallet into a mailbox instead of a trash bin. Not sure what the post office would do with an out-of-country wallet though.

9

How does “unreasonable” enter into this? The person at risk for loss/theft is the one making the decision about how to balance the amount of cash to put at risk versus the inconvenience of not having enough cash on hand to get through the day. Everybody gets to decide for themselves.

Me, I don’t like visiting ATMs all the time, so when I do, I withdraw several hundred dollars, leave $100 in my wallet, and stash the rest at home. I mostly use my credit card, so $100 can last for weeks in my wallet; that’s about as much as I’d care to put at risk for loss/theft.

I don’t think the amount of cash in your wallet is a factor in the incentive/disincentive for theft. Someone who’s jerk enough to steal cash out of a wallet they found isn’t going to change their mind if there’s only $10 in there instead of $100; either amount, they’re going to pocket it and ditch the impoverished wallet.

10

Hmmmm…

:stuck_out_tongue:

11

The last photo image of it was in my left hand, while on my left arm I had the open backpack, hanging there, as I was about to put inside the clothes I had just bought. Did I put it in my pants pocket? Can’t remember. Did I let it slip inside the backpack, along with the clothes? Most probably, but wouldn’t bet on it. Did I let it slip outside the backpack? There’s a slight chance, although I suppose I would have heard it falling on the floor.

Some ten minutes after I left the store I went to a restroom, where I sat down on the toilet. If I did put it in my pants pocket, it’s possible it slipped quietly and I did not notice it as I was leaving the stall. I’ve had the mobile phone slip out this way several times, the thing is I never lost my phone. But then again, a phone, even slipping out of a pants pocket is not quiet when landing on a hard tile.
I went back to the restroom when I realised the loss, the stall was empty but also no trace of the wallet (this was a little more than one hour after my first visit there).

As for having it picked from my pocket, it was not crowdy that afternoon, and nobody bumped into me. Or I maybe have been the victim of a particularly skillfull pickpocket.

This is actually what troubles me the most: the fact that I can’t remember what I did with the wallet. To preserve my sanity, I chose to file it under “automatic gestures you don’t remember performing”, such as when you’re not sure if you did lock the car doors, or the front door to the house.

12

Oh, absolutely. Heck, I’d assume $10-$20 bucks is enough for many people to just take the cash and chuck the wallet. $130-$150 is not like finding a nickel in the street. That’s real money.

I generally keep no cash in my wallet. Every so often I have some bills in it, but for the last, I dunno, decade or so I’ve kept it as bare as possible. I used to have a $100 bill tucked in somewhere for emergencies, but I’ve forgotten about doing that.

That amount of cash, though, is not what I would think is too unusual to routinely carry around. I could probably guess which of my friends keep that around and which don’t, not based by their income, but based on their views of cash. It was not at all unreasonable for you to carry that much cash. “Unreasonable” to me, as a person who doesn’t like to carry cash, would probably start at around $1000 or so.

As for pickpocketing, I would say it’s rather unlikely that happened to you here in the US. It doesn’t seem to be a skill/art that’s much in practice these days, given easier and more direct ways of separating you from your cash, but I may be mistaken.

13

It’s not that much money, I used to walk around with much more before there were ATMs all over the place. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone found it and kept the cash, and everything else. I assume you contacted the credit card companies. Someone may still have the cards and ID not knowing what to do with them. I don’t know what percentage of people would keep lost property of value, but it’s high enough that people are surprised when such things are returned to them.

14

Maybe a poor choice of words from my part - what I meant was, if most people walk around with, say, $50 at most in cash, somebody who has three times that amount on him would become a target for theft. Heck, in Sweden, a bus driver did not accept $5 in cash for a bus fare, he insisted I use a card. I suspect any amount of cash on you makes you a target there.

15

I would hazard a guess that the person who lifted the wallet and the person who mailed you an empty wallet were not the same person. Someone jerkish enough to pickpocket is probably not going to be too worried about littering.

You never do quite know though, a former housemate of my brother had her bag snatched out of her hand the same morning that she’d discovered her house had been burgled, yelled that at the thief in frustration, and he glanced back at her, dropped the bag and ran off.

16

I actually called my bank’s customer service to have the cards blocked, so they can’t be used. Anyway, I had only debit cards, not credit, so nobody could have spent / cashed out from an ATM more than I had in my checking account at that time.

Is this what you meant? Or are you saying it would be worth to call Mastercard to check if somebody found the wallet and would like to know how can he/she send it back to me?

17

I don’t know if they would contact you if it was found, or if they would let you know if someone tried to use it. But if you contact them you might find out.

18

I see, thank you. I might as well do that, although it seems to me like a longshot. After all, it’s been over 14 months since it happened.

19

One of the TV news shows did a segment where they left a child’s wallet in a busy area with a small amount of money in it and filmed what people would do. The wallet was pink and had a cartoon character on it, so people could easily assume a child lost it. A surprising number of people just took the cash and left the wallet behind. I don’t recall if anyone threw it away. Of course, some people turned it in as well.

I think your assumption is correct that someone found it, took the cash, and threw the wallet away to avoid getting caught.

20

I kind of doubt you’d recover your wallet now. But you might find out that someone tried to use it, so at least you’ll know that it didn’t just end up in the trash or was never found. Not much consolation there though, it’s as good as gone either way.