Monday 12 November 2012

Lucille Finds Her Own Way Home

I did not have the best of mornings. That will teach me to rearrange the sacred day of domesticity! I decided to shop and do groceries before cleaning. It seems this is wrong. OK.

On my way to the first shop (candle wick) I wasn't sure where it was and turned down what I thought was a nearby street. I turned smartly as a police car was parked on the corner. He or she was as whacked out as I was as that street was one way, and neither of us seemed to notice my car was not headed in the right direction. Not to worry law person, I was properly scared straight on my way to the first cross street. No cars or people were scared physically in this debacle.

Got my wick. $.45 a meter at Maritime Hobby if you need some. Then off to the Superstore on Portland for groceries. Picked up sherry for the fruitcake and popped it in the car so I didn't need to deal with it. Back in the store I stopped in to the washroom first (yes, it's part of the story, you need to know). I remember putting my purse on the tidy door hook. I'm pretty sure I took it with me. Anyway, some shopping later I realize I have no purse in my cart.

No tears, no panic. In times of crisis save those thoughts for after, with the sherry. However I was adding up what was gone and figuring Christmas was off my list for the next 10 years. I'll try to make this long story short. There were many trips to the customer counter, parking lot (to see if my beautiful truck was still there), garbage cans (was it dumped?). I gathered an entourage as the crisis spread throughout the kingdom. Superstore people were great.

Fortunately I remembered early on that I had an iPhone, and had registered that puppy for Find My Iphone. Dashing off to the Aliant store in the mall I found all the employees were doing their best "I'm so busy" routines. When I couldn't get their extremely slow web browsers to work (an 8 year old was called upon for assistance and he was helpful) I knocked on the back door where 2 employees had just disappeared and I dumped my woes in their general direction. Aliant Mary got out her own iPhone and we used the Find app to locate my phone. IT WAS STILL IN THE STORE!!!

You could see it. The dot was at the back of the store. NOOOOO!!!!! It moved! We watched it move to the front of the store where it settled and stopped. With everyone searching, calling the phone (it quacks) and using the locator sound option we still had no luck. I also had to run out every 10 minutes and check on my truck. I love my truck.

Finally I hear my name paged to the Joe Fresh counter. This was at least an hour later. It seems my purse had been found in a shopping cart at the back of the store and these lovely (very wet behind the ears) ladies had brought it to their counter. They were so pleased to see me as the phone had been driving them crazy with all the ringing and quacking.

They never thought to answer it or take it to customer service, where all lost things go. I didn't burst their bubble by hammering them over the head with a ham, but I wanted to. I thanked them very much and then bought the ever faithful Aliant Mary with a Timmies card. That girl never left my side, which was good, as it was reassuring to watch that little red circle stay still.

Nothing was missing from the purse. I have no idea what happened. I had no cash - maybe someone was only after cash. Maybe someone just found it and set it out? Maybe I switched carts in mid aisle? I don't know. I just know I like to have faith in the people around me and it does seem to work out.

I went home and made fruitcake. Lots of sherry in that fruitcake! Some in me too!

3 comments:

  1. My wallet disappeared at my daughter's graduation ceremony from York U. (I like to pretend that the university, not happy with merely emptying my wallet, finally took it!) It was not fun. I'm glad you got yours back.

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  2. Quite a day. I'm glad that you got your purse back. Very curious that someone would wander around the store with it!
    Enjoy your fruitcake.

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  3. Wow! Glad it all ended well! Gord's mother received a call in the mid-nineties when they were renovating and creating the Radisson downtown. They'd found a purse that had been stolen from her office in that building in the 80's. The thief had stuffed it in the ceiling of a men's washroom, and it appeared when they gutted the building. No cash, but all her old cards and some scary 80's photo ID.

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