Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Please take care

I haven't had much time for quilting today, but I did get a chance to re-learn an important lesson. There are bad guys out there and they are looking for you to be careless. I was having lunch with a friend in a restaurant. We had laughed at the fact neither of us wanted to sit with our backs to the room and that we both carefully tucked our bags onto the bench seat between us. We are so paranoid. It was a very quiet lunchtime there were only 3 tables with customers. Suddenly there was a commotion at the table directly in front of us. The older lady had lost her wallet. Their table was a right in front of the counter and maybe 3 steps away. There were staff at the counter and myself and my friend looking directly at her table. She had put her bag open on a chair and then gone back to the counter to get something while her daughter settled children at the table . In that time someone had come in, sat at the next table, reached into her bag and taken her purse. No one had seen anything. The counter staff were distracted by the woman herself and our view was blocked by the daughter. Impressive isn't it. If she had closed her bag, or kept it on her shoulder, or any one of a dozen things the thief probably wouldn't have had a chance. That moment of inattention ruined her day. There is CCTV footage of the theft it happened to have a clear view but is an old system and probably not good enough to identify the thief.

Now for the real kicker, the lady then left her bag in the same place while her daughter was talking to the manager and went to the bank a few doors down the street. The bag was open with a mobile and all her ID clearly visible. Now I know I wasn't going to let anyone touch it, but did she? It doesn't look to me like they learned from this experience, I hope you do. I don't want to see thieves winning, let alone so easily.

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