Tag Archives: swampscottt

The first indication I had that my trip east  was about to go horribly wrong came early this evening after I had spent much of the day wandering all over Salem, Massachusetts. My husband called to ask if I had lost my credit card. He had tried to use the card, which is in both of our names, at the grocery store in des Moines and couldn’t so he called the credit card company and was told that someone had called in to say they found it so the company cancelled it. I looked in my purse and not only was my credit card missing. My entire wallet was gone. No license, debit card, money, or…credit card. And this on the first day of a five day trip where I need to travel  by train and stay in a hotel and eat out.

I had a terrible sinking feeling. Retracing my steps wouldn’t really  work because there had been so many of them. I had wandered up and down those pretty narrow new England streets that I love …which does not lend itself to finding a lost wallet. But someone had called the credit card company about my card so it must have been found by someone who was honest and trying to find me. Now how could I find him. Or her?

I called the credit card company and they had a name but no phone number for my good citizen. And his name was very common. Then I thought if he had my license he could find my phone number in Iowa. But my husband found  no message on our home phone. Then i remembered my phone listing is for my office phone. My husband walked into my office while my heart beat like a tomtom and there was one message and it was from my good citizen. He had left his phone number, which I called and he picked up right away. Turns out he is the dock master for the marina where I had stopped to sit on a bench and admire the view. Somehow my wallet fell out of my purse, someone found it and gave it to him…I think. We drove back to Salem from my relatives house in swampscott and we used cellphones to find each other and now I have my wallet back. The guy could not have been nicer, even apologizing for getting my credit card cancelled but if he hadn’t done that I probably wouldn’t have known until tomorrow when I was leaving that my wallet was missing because no one would have  noticed the message on my office phone while I was away. I do plan to write my cellphone number on my wallet. I think that makes sense. Or maybe my email address. Live and learn. I got lucky. And this was a good reminder that there are some good people out there. I tried to give him some money but he wouldn’t take anything. He did let me shake his hand.