While You Were Sleeping . . .

Oh friends in America, did I have quite the adventure yesterday morning while most of you were snoozing half a world away.


I woke up at 6:00 a.m. like I usually do (actually many of you back home were probably still awake for all that...that's only 10:00 p.m. in Colorado).  Anyway, there I am showering, dressing, packing the boys' lunches and snacks, texting with a friend about meeting up at the new TK Maxx (yes, "K" here), and as a final before-we-head-out-the-door I'm checking that my backpack has all I need for my day, I discover my entire wallet is missing.


Folks, German deodorant just isn't cut out for situations like these.  I was sweatin' it.  I think my stomach fell out and I was suddenly shaking as I tried to think back on yesterday through the panicky fog taking over in my brain. 


Y'all, I never lose anything.  I really don't.  All my things have a place and I pretty much always put them in their place and if I didn't, it's because I had a very good reason and I could tell you exactly where it is.  But, I couldn't tell you where my wallet was.  And it was time to leave as it was one of my days to take the kids to school.


I rewound my fairly accurate memories of the previous day and was able to remember the last time I knew I had it: Autumn and I had visited a drug store after we stopped in a mall and a specific Asian market (to get brown sugar!).  We'd had a little more time before we needed to get the boys so we walked down the road a ways to a "Rossman" (which is like our Walgreens minus prescriptions, you have to go to an Apotheke for scripts). 

Okay, anyway, Rossman.  I bought gum, hand wipes, and the closest thing I could find to cotton balls: cotton pads.  I used my "EC card" (like a debit card since hardly anywhere takes credit cards) to pay for it, stuffed my things in my backpack (since they charge for plastic bags), and we were on our way.  I know I never took my wallet out again after that.  I was stopped to show my subway ticket twice yesterday--which I keep in my wallet--but both instances were before my Rossman transaction.


I had no reason to take out my wallet again. 


Other than Rossman, there was no other place I could have accidentally left it.  The only possibilities were that it fell out or that someone else took it out. 


So yeah, if it had fallen out in the house, it could only be in a few places.  My backpack was only in the kitchen yesterday when I unpacked groceries and hanging on it's regular hook in the hall.  Under the hook in the hall is a couple of suitcases with some clothes and blankets from mini storage.  I had been digging through those yesterday pulling out a few things to wash and/ or hang.  I dug through those for a bit to no avail. 


I'm sure most people would look through the rest of the house for possible ideas.  When Jason lost his keys the morning before, that's what we did: 'what pants were you wearing when you took out the trash?' But, I knew that was pointless as there really wasn't anywhere else my wallet could be.  Really, there wasn't.  I didn't put it anywhere else.  I knew if it wasn't somewhere in those suitcases, it was gone.


Jason handed me his subway pass and the 5€ he had and I walked out the door with the kids.  Jason said he was going to look around a little more and check our credit cards for any unusual activity.  I told him he could dig through those suitcases again but that if it wasn't there, there wasn't any point looking around. 


My plan was to ask at the subway station about a "lost and found" and to go back to that Rossman after dropping the boys off.   Jason texted while we were on our commute that he'd checked our accounts and nothing weird had been going on so that was encouraging.  Very encouraging, actually.


We switch trains at a stop called "Nollendorfplatz".  At that stop there is an info desk between platforms.  We come down from "our" platform to get to the next one but on the "landing" between the stairs to the two platforms is a glassed in "info" desk.  We have 2 minutes till our next train leaves so I decide to stop over and ask a guy through his little hole in the glass.  Except it was spur of the moment so I don't really have words for "lost" or "where is a lost and found?" or "what the heck do I do next?"  And he had no English.  So even when I could come up with "black" in Deutsch and "portemonnaie" (wallet -- port a money, get it?) he shook his head, handed me a transit map (gee thanks, mister) and we went on our way to catch our next train. 


While I was travelling I was able to text with two different friends, one German and one who has lived here for more than 8 years, about what words I needed.  Autumn and I dropped off the boys and no one at the school came running up with, "Frau Zetser! Frau Zetser! Ich fand die Tasche!" so we continued on to re-visit that Rossman as planned.


We got over there at, like, 8:23.  It opened at 9:00.  It's chilly and it's not like I have money to go get breakfast or even stop at a bakery or coffee shop.  So Autumn and I went back to the mall we were in the day before. All the stores are closed and the escalators are off, but the doors open and we walk up the unmoving elevator to sit on a couch to wait.  We pray together and she opens her purse and gives me all her money. <3 <3 <3  Her little coins--some American, some Euros--just sitting there on the leather.  LOVE HER!! 


I continue to text with Jason and my two friends who live here.  The one friend has lost her wallet twice before and both times it has turned up.  "Without cash...but everything else was there..."  Again I feel encouraged.  My wallet had my driver's license, two Visa cards, my EC card (the debit card we use here that doesn't always require a pin--eek!), my two-days-into-a-month's-worth subway pass, the newly-received health insurance cards for me and all 3 kids, a Target card (ummm, why did I carry that or my Kohl's card?  Neither are here but I do still use them online), I also had maybe 15€-25€ in cash.  I couldn't be sure and I know it was definitely less than 40€. 


It gets closer to 9:00 so Autumn and I make our way back over to the Rossman.  They have just opened, no one is even at the register.  I ask the first woman I see if she speaks English.  She says, "A little" and I tell her that I was there yesterday afternoon over on that register over there and I think I might have left "my black...schwarz wallet...tasche...portamonnaie" while doing hand gestures.  She calls over to another lady about it and that lady disappears for a couple minutes before coming out empty handed that she couldn't find my "suitcase".  I know she means wallet though.  Bummer.  I felt like that was my only hope.  It was the only time I'd had it out.  Otherwise it probably meant someone took it out . . . and that meant it was long gone.


Autumn and I start our trek back home.  I planned to switch trains at the Zoologischer Garten which is a fairly major stop and while there I decided was going to ask at an info desk.  I can't find one so I stop in a tiny convenience-type store in the station that says they sell transit tickets and ask.  She tells me (in Deutsch) where to go so we head over there.  While I'm in line, a different employee comes over and I tell him the word both my local friends have told me: "Fundbüro".  The lost property office.  He whips out a lil card for me:




Then he pulls out a map and marks an X on one of the stations (a station on "our" line so I know it fairly well) and then tells me it's a five minute walk from that station.  Autumn and I set out. 


We make it. 




I wait my turn in a short line and then ask the man if he speaks English.  "A little".  He asks me a few questions:
"When did you lose it?"
"Yesterday"
"Oh, it's too early."  What?? 


"Where you lose it?"
Ummm, if I knew that I wouldn't be here.
"On bus or . . . "
"Oh! It would be the U-Bahn (said Ooooh-Bahn).  Ooooh zwei (U2) or ooooh vier (U4).  Or I guess it could have been ooooh neun (U9)."


"It's too soon" again.  With a doubtful look on his face.


"You have your name in it?"
"No, well, yeah on all my cards."
"What is your name?"
I tell him.  And write it.  He goes to his computer and types. 


"It is found." 
"FOUND!?!?! IT IS!??!" 
"With driver license" and he shows me his screen where I can see my birthday and then a bunch of Deutsch and I'm like, "Yeah! That's me! I just turned 36 in July!" and I can see him calculate a little in his head. 


"Fourteen hour"
Huh?  It was found fourteen hours ago?  Come back in fourteen hours? 
"Are you telling me to come back at 14 Uhr? Two o'clock?"
"Yes.  14 Uhr."
"Where is it now?"
"Not here.  It in transport.  It be here 14 Uhr."  He writes down a reference number on the paper where I'd written my name.
"It will?  Okay.  I'll come back at 2 o'clock" and then I do a big Praise Jesus move and it makes the worker and the guy behind me in line have a laugh. 


I have NO clue what is inside my wallet, of course, other than my driver's license but "it is found". 


I call Jason and text my friend and we go home since we have no money to do anything else. 


Just before 2:00, we head out again for the Fundbüro.  It is a different worker.  She can't find it.  I show her my number on my paper and try to figure out the least complicated ways to communicate that "The guy this morning said it would be here at 14 Uhr" and gesture at the clock that it's, like, 2:30 so that's why we're here. 

She talks to some other people and I see the guy from the morning and then they look in their computer and they're like, "It's at Nollendorfplatz" (the station where I started this whole thing this morning when the guy handed me a map!!!).  I confirm: "I go to Nollendorfplatz and it will be there?"  "Yes, there is glass in middle."  "I know just where it is.  I was there this morning." :)  (This is all said happily, mind you, I'm excited that my wallet is found--and anxious to see what might be inside).   "Yes.  It is there."  "Okaaaaaay." I tell them doubtfully and I jokingly shake my fist at her like, "If it's not...." and she laughs.  Off we go.  On the way I get stopped for directions.  The gal is heading the wrong way and it's crazy to me a.) how I know all this and b.) it's crazy that other people don't have maps on their phones or something.  But I'm able to be like, "Ne, Bülowstraße this way" with my big traffic-controller gesture on "this way" and I say, "eine Straße this way.  I go to Bülowstraße" and do a "follow me!" gesture. 


Nollendorfplatz is just one stop away and also where we'd switch to get the boys anyway so it's no biggie.  I go back to the little window in the glass and again, no English for them, no Deutsch for me so I'm doing my best and showing my number and my name and telling them, "Fundbüro says it here. Schwarz.  Portemonnaie.  Tasche. See number?"  I whip out my passport proving I'm me and press it to the glass because I don't know what else to do.  Finally the three guys working back there get out a big mail sack full of things people must've lost that they have to send over to the Fundbüro.  It is sealed shut with a zip tie (ready for transport, oops) and they cut it open and begin pulling out all sorts of parcels wrapped in their brown envelopes and I want to shout, "No, that one's too small! That one's too flat!" but I don't.  I just wait.  Then they hold one up!  And they bring me around to the side door where they buzz me in to their little secure office.  He says a bunch of Deutsch to me and gestures for me to sit.  I do.  I show my passport again to show it's me and because I don't know what else to do.  Eventually we are able to get that he wants my address here in Berlin.  So I write it and then he has me sign for it.  I'm like, "Can't I see it first before I sign?" but that doesn't get communicated so I sign.  And then he pulls it out!  There it is!  Meine schwarze Portemonnaie!!


I unzip it to peek at what might be left.  All of the cards are out of their slots and in a big stack in the middle but I rifle through them and I gather that most of the cards are there!!!  They're there!  I pick out my driver's license from the stack and hold it next to my face and do the same smile and show the guy, "See?  Me" and I thank him and go catch the train. 

On the train I confirm what's there.  Every single card is there!  Even my subway pass (worth 78€ = $100 and able to be used by anyone) is there!  My coins are there!  The only thing missing is my cash bills.  Autumn and I say another prayer together thankful to whoever turned it in.  Even if it's the person who took the cash. We pray for whoever took the cash that they are able to get what they need.  Thankful that we have plenty of money ourselves (plus I found that 5€ on the ground a couple weeks ago), thankful that what could have been a huge headache was over, thankful that Jason was sooooo understanding this morning and didn't add to any of the stress I was already putting on myself.


Jason thinks I still may have been pick-pocketed for the cash and that whoever first took it tossed aside or turned in whatever wasn't really useful to them.  It could've fallen out of my backpack too.  It has always made me nervous carrying it on my back like I do.  I've switched it to a different pocket and we're going to both streamline what we carry in case something like this happens again.

Sorry for the long story about, "How I lost my wallet but got it back" but there ya go.  It's another "Day in the life" really. :)