Human Nature, Part II

Remember my stolen debit card?

Well, the story might have ended right there, except that Tuesday morning when Abby and I pulled up to my house, and Ruth opened the front door, an envelope was sitting on our doorstep. Inside was, get this, my card, along with several hundred dollars in cash (I don't exactly know how much since as soon as I realized what was going on, I plastic-bagged it without touching it, to preserve any kind of evidence... what can I say? I'm a Bones/SVU/Castle fan :)), and a note that essentially said "Sorry for the inconvenience, here's enough money to cover the charges." I'm thinking a parent found my card in a kid's possession and was trying to make good.

However, I was a bit unhappy to know that whoever stole my card knew where I lived; after calling our police officer neighbor for advice, I went ahead and called the State Police and filed a report. An officer came over and collected the bag containing note, card, and money, as well as all the information I had been able to collect from my bank, and told me that they would be sending it to the crime lab as well as retracing the thief's route and collecting surveillance film, etc.

Two hours later, I got a call from the officer handling my case - he'd collected the surveillance tapes, reviewed them, and had identified a silver Toyota Sequoia as the thief's car.

The next day, almost exactly twenty-four hours after I filed the initial report, he called to let me know they'd found the suspect, questioned them, and just needed my permission to go ahead and press charges (which I gave).

I have to admit, I'm kind of surprised - half of me thought that because the charges were so relatively little, they'd dismiss it outright, but apparently not. I'm incredibly impressed with their fast work!

In the meantime, I was able to file the fraud claim with my credit card company on Thursday after the final charge finalized, and later that day the amount was credited back to my account. The next day the bank overdraft charges were reimbursed, and I was back in business.

I'm so thankful for everything coming together so well - for the protection of God (in that of all the things to steal, my debit card is one of the least painless things), for the protection of the police, and last but definitely not least, for the protection of Visa, who covered all the charges promptly and without question. :)