Around here I'm usually known for asking "what are the chances?" 

Usually it involves something I believe my husband is just being paranoid about. He's ultra careful about everything.  He locks everything.  He double checks everything, sometimes driving me crazy.  Did I shut off the coffeepot?  Did I lock the door?  Forget about when we leave a hotel room and he has to do his double-triple routine. He checks everything in the room while we're all standing there waiting for him and complaining the whole time.  Yes, one time he found my socks, still at the foot of the bed, under the covers.  What would I have done without those socks?  

Last week we came home to discover I left the front door unlocked. Not opened, mind you, but still not locked.   Oh my.  And nothing was stolen.  I suppose someone could have figured this out but really...what are the chances?   Especially where we live.  I guess I'm of the opinion, if they need it bad enough, let them have it. Locks are for honest people anyway. 

Well that mentality got tested last night when my wallet was stolen.

We took a quick run to McDonalds which is literally five minutes from the house.  It was dead in there.  Five or six workers behind the counter, two teens sitting down eating, one of whom we know and have in SS class.  He works there and was on break.  I don't remember seeing any other customers. 

I paid for my order and collected this take-out order as my husband finished  speaking to the young man from Sunday School.   On the way out I picked up straws for our smoothies. 

As we're driving into the driveway I noticed my wallet missing. It's pretty big and black.  We have to go back. So as fast as we could, we drove back. Five minutes tops.   I expected to see my wallet still sitting at the register counter.  It wasn't.  Great! 

Nobody had seen it.  I see two older couples sitting there having ice cream but other than that it was dead in there like it was minutes before.  We checked around the area, even looking outside where we parked the car.  Nothing. 

We double-tripled checked all around the inside of the car.  Still nothing.  What are the chances, in a complete down time at an eatery that someone would steal my wallet instead of turning it in?   In just a matter of a few short minutes? 

So we go home, thinking about what needs to be canceled.  What did I have in my wallet?  Well I had the usual three credit cards, cash, two uncashed payroll checks (great!) a few store membership cards like Sams, Best Buy, CVS etc.   I had slips and other odds and ends, mostly of a personal nature but then there was my license. 

It's a pain in the neck to have to go back and get a re-issued license. Time and money I didn't want to spend. 

I immediately get on the phone canceling two of my credit cards before my husband reminded me of my brand new Target card we just received that week.  Great.  Another one to cancel. 

He decides to go back down to McDonalds.  We're starting to think maybe it was an employee who took the wallet.   It could be.    My husband just wanted to do his usual double-triple checking thinking maybe it's there and he didn't look around enough when we first went back.  He needs to check the trash.  He needs to triple check everything.  That's just the way he is. 

He leaves.  I call the cops.  I report it and give them my suspicion it could be an employee.  I'm thinking if a cop can go down and do some checking around behind the counter or back room where we can't, maybe he can find it.   I tell the dispatcher my husband just went back to the scene of the crime hoping they'd meet there. 

About 10 minutes later my husband comes home with the wallet held high.  He found it.  It was thrown out the front door in plain sight.   Now we're thinking when we went back the first time whoever had it was still inside because we would have seen it.    He found it easily when he went back knowing there was no way we would have missed it the first time.   Did we make someone nervous who overhead us inquiring about this wallet?  

When we went back the first time, my husband told Jon, the kid we knew while I was speaking to the manager.  Jon went back and told the manager who already knew because I left her my name and number.  Did someone go "uh-oh it's one of my co-worker's friends?"  Could it have been the other teen who was eathing with Jon whom we didn't know? 

We don't know.  All we know is it was thrown out the front door between the first time we went back and the second time.  The cash was missing.  Everything else looked good. 

It wasn't until I got my wallet back that we realized that we had another credit card with a $20K limit that I barely use.  I only use that card for gas and since he gets most of the gas didn't give it a thought.  Also there was a $25 gift card to Bed, Bath and Beyond that was right next to the cash that didn't get taken. 

If it wasn't for my husband's need to double-triple check we might not have gotten this wallet back.  But really, what are the chances that the next person walking into McDonald's by the front door doesn't reach down and bring the wallet, sans cash now, to the manager and report it? 

I don't have an answer for that anymore.  The thief must have needed that cash more than I did.  I'm all for giving to the poor.  I just don't like the way this one chose to receive it. 

Hmmmm he must be a liberal!