Sooner or Later You Will Lose Your Wallet – What to Do

A few weeks ago, I misplaced my Baruch ID card, and while I wasn’t concerned about it being misused, I was concerned about the bother I would have to go through to get it replaced. If this happened with a credit card, I would be more concerned about quickly calling the credit card company to report it. If it was my driver’s license, it would be a bigger bother to get it replaced.

Monday night, a student in my class found a wallet under her seat with a Baruch ID card, a NYS identification card, a debit card and a credit card and gave it to me to report. I immediately called the Baruch security office to tell them this was found, and they said they would contact the person who lost it and that I should leave it with a security officer when I leave the building. When I dropped it off, I was told they had already sent an email to the student who lost these cards.

Luckily, I found my Baruch ID, but as a caution, I photocopied everything in my wallet, front and back, in case I really lost something, or the wallet I carried everything in. Also, I removed a bunch of cards that I did not need to always have with me. That included department store credit cards that I only used when I went there, and some hotel and travel ID cards that I might use once or twice a year. Also, many of the cards I removed can be saved digitally on my iPhone. I even removed my often-used library card and downloaded it to my iPhone.

The point I want to make is that we should be prepared for bad things to happen. Losing a wallet is not the end of the world, but it causes a terrible and immediate response from us when it happens and also consumes a lot of our time and energy. Knowing I have the copies won’t stop me from losing my wallet, but it gives me the comfort that it will be easier to report it if it is lost.

I do not know what happened to the student whose wallet I turned in, and hopefully, he wasn’t put out too much, but I know that the cards weren’t misused.