like a little child...

A couple weeks ago Lydia and I were in Redlands with my mom. Our evening went a little like this:

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6:30- Mom, Lydia and I take a break from packing to sit down at a semi-clean table in the Downtown Redlands Hogi Yogi and enjoy our Chicken Salad Sandwich for dinner.

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7:00- We walk out to the car which is parked right in front of the restaurant. Lydia smiles and waves goodbye to everyone as she walks out with my wallet under her arm.

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7:02- I buckle her in the car seat, at which point she throws a tantrum because Mom's car seat is the old kind with the big thing across the front type of a buckle. I bribe her to sit in it with a little of my chocolate M&M's frozen yogurt.

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7:10- We arrive at home.

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7:35- Lydia's asleep. Mom and I start packing up her bookshelves.

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7:48- I get this call from Matt:

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Matt: "So, you're probably looking for your wallet and cell phone. Walmart has it."

Me: "Huh?"

Matt: "Walmart, just called. They have your cell phone and wallet."

Me: "That's not possible, we didn't go to Walmart. We just got home from dinner, I have it."

Matt: "No, they have it."

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(This goes on for a few minutes. It finally dawns on me that I'm probably wrong and that they must have my phone and wallet because Walmart doesn't likely have our phone number on file.)

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8:00- I arrive at the customer service counter at Walmart. They indeed have my wallet and cell phone. I explain to them that I haven't been there in at least a year, and that I had my wallet in hand a little over an hour prior to that.

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8:04- They call the cashier that brought it to them.

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8:10- The three of us (me and my 2 new customer services representative best friends) solve the mystery of my wallet.

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Here's what we concluded:

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Either I took the wallet from Lydia to put her in the car seat, set it on top of the car and it fell off when I drove away, or she kicked it out of my hands during her tantrum and I didn't notice it falling in the street.

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Some guy picked it up and high-tailed it to Walmart to buy himself a new Ipod~ my treat. When he tried to use my American Express card, the cashier noticed that he didn't match my picture on the back and questioned the impostor. He "went to get the owner of the credit card" and split. They called "home" on my cell phone and told Matt they had my things and he called me.

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8:15 - I call home to tell Matt that I retrieved my wallet, and Garrett answers the phone. We have the following conversation:

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Garrett: "Hi Mom. Did you find your wallet?"

Me: "Yes, tell Dad I have it back and everything's there except my cash."

Garrett: "What happened to your cash?"

Me: "Well, someone made a bad choice to take my wallet and steal my money, but I got my phone and everything else back so it will be fine."

Garrett: "Mom, I have an idea. I'll get my piggy bank and you can have all my money since you lost yours. You don't even have to pay me back."

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What a generous little man! It was a nice little glimpse of the good in our world after a disturbing experience with the not so good in our world.

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What did I learn from this experience?

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1) Never let a 1 1/2 year old be in charge of my wallet (duh)

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2) There are some Wal-mart employees that actually check credit card ID(bless them)

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3) Credit cards with my picture on the back are a good thing

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4) Children are pure and innocent and make this world a little brighter