Foo - I suppose it will forever be a mystery...

Tonight, at about 9:45 p.m. a man came up to my door and got my daughter to open it (I was upstairs). He had my wallet that I had lost two/three weeks past. He said he believed it was "your dad's" and he gave it to her, and she brought it to me.

It was wet; it had been in some water. All the money was gone ($200 or so), but all the credit cards, library card, Ralphs card, all that stuff was still in it. My license was there as well. These are all things that I have painstakingly replaced by now, by the way. Except the library card. I had forgotten about that one!

Now here's the weird part. Deep inside the wallet was a medallion about the size of a US half dollar. It's round, and in the middle is a crest with the letters OU on it. The crest is white, the letters are red and use that collegiate font. The U is partly over the O. I'm guessing Oklahoma University or perhaps Ohio University.

Anyway...I've never seen this thing in my life; I didn't go to any schools with the initials OU, and I have no idea how this thing got in my wallet.

Oh, and the guy said he found it in the interior courtyard of our complex, but I couldn't have lost it there because I know for a FACT that it fell out of my bike bag. It may have fallen on the exterior of the building, but not in back. So, someone took it there, took the money, and probably tossed it near the fountain. That's all I can guess.

And isn't it just like Murphy's Law that it finally turns up, now that I've gone to all the trouble to replace everything!

I wonder what Rod Serling would say?

Does it look something like this?

My girlfriend is a few years older than I am, a retired grandmother, and a model of patience, understanding, and positive thinking. Where I am cynical, aloof, and demanding, she is trusting, friendly, and accepting. I think of her as a mentor in developing some traits for which I am in desperate need.

Two weeks ago, we did a tandem ride near Seattle, and I dropped her off at her daughter's in Redmond, driving back to Vancouver by myself. She came back by Amtrak a few days later. When she arrived back at her place, she was quite distraught. Her purse, containing cash, credit cards, driver's license, passport, and Nexus card (expedited border crossings, very handy with the 2-hour+ lineups at the border these days) were lost. Naturally, I figured some sleazebag low-life crook had lifted it on the public transit (she took the light rail back to her place from the train station). She figured it had dropped out of her bag and someone would return it.

Anyway, she got her credit card cancelled, but she couldn't get a police report in order to replace her passport because the RCMP needed her passport number (typical bureaucratic Catch-22). She didn't sleep for the first few nights. We took another trip across the border on the weekend, but we had to take a less crowded border crossing (for which I knew some shortcuts that got us into the lineup closer to the border). The day after we returned, I was at work and she phoned me. She had got her purse back with everything in it, including all the cash. Turns out it had been returned the previous week, and if the RCMP had taken the report, they probably could have got it to her before the weekend... It was just like she had expected, some honest guy had found her purse laying on the road and had turned it in without even opening it.

She asked for and got (after the police got his permission) the name and number of the guy who had turned it in. He was an East Indian, a Sikh gentleman, who had done quite well for himself in Canada. I was quite surprised, as my experience had been that East Indians were among the most dishonest people on the planet (another story...), and Sikhs were responsible for the bombing of a airliner over Lockerbee, Scotland 25 years ago (a crime for which the accused were acquitted because the RCMP had screwed up the investigation). (Do you begin to detect a pattern here about the competence of Canada's national police force?) Anyway, I think there's at least one lesson here...

- L.

Does it look something like this?

Yeah except it doesn't say Sooners. Just OU. But that's probably what it's about. Just why someone would stick it in there is weird!

I wonder what Rod Serling would say?
Don't know, but I was sure that Serling Diego would have a few comments to make -- so I called him up on his cell...

"Submited for your approval...one Mr. Digital Gee. A man like any other, aside from one peculiar detail. You see, he had a penchant for losing what was most precious to him. On this partucluar day, while out riding his shiny white bike, he lost his wallet. Or so he thought. "Lost" is at best a subjective term here on Earth, but in the Twlight Zone otherwise known as San Diego, "lost" can mean any number of things. Take for example Mr. Gee's wallet. Like a homing pidgeon, it found it's way back to said owner, but only after he had gone to the trouble of replacing what he thought was most valuable...his driver's licence, his credit cards, and his car wash punch ticket with 9 of the 12 required washes validated, leaving him 3 washes shy of a freebee. What he didn't realize, however, was that his alter ego, living in a parallel universe, was a graduate of Oshkosh University. And therein lies the rub, for you see, our humble plane of existance, Oshkosh Unversity boasts the finest Used Car Sales graduate school in North America. But on the distant planet of Kemboutea 3, Oshkosh U. was a bike racing factory, gladly handing out athletic scholarships to the fastsest cyclists in that quardrant of the solar system. Yes, you are about to draw the proper conclusion...our Mr. Gee's parallel-universe alter ego is nothing short of the fastest bike racer in the universe. One can only ponder what our hero will discover the next time he throws his leg over his humble two wheeler and begins to peddle."

Sounds like a ferret made a trade, some of your treasure for some of his....

>>> Sikhs were responsible for the bombing of a airliner over Lockerbee, Scotland 25 years ago (a crime for which the accused were acquitted because the RCMP had screwed up the investigation)

'Hart. Can't let this one slide.

If you're referencing the December 21, 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 it was the Lybian intellegence service and both defendants were Lybian. One of them is still behind bars; the other was acquitted. Thing is, I've worked with Sikhs and found them to be as trustworthy as the best folks I've ever dealt with. Cool hats, too. If it's any consolation, it was Scotland Yard's 'fumble' that got one of them acquitted.

Ok, here's where I grab the scruff of my own sorry neck and duckwalk myself off to P&R for a well-earned sojourn in that stinking swamp.

Weird story, for sure. I don't use a wallet, just a money clip or rubber band and I lost a credit card around Christmas a couple years ago. Like DG, I stopped the card and replaced it only to have my 2 year old grandson come crawling down the hallway a week later with it in his mouth like a dog. :)

Don't know, but I was sure that Serling Diego would have a few comments to make -- so I called him up on his cell...

"Submited for your approval...one Mr. Digital Gee. A man like any other, aside from one peculiar detail. You see, he had a penchant for losing what was most precious to him. On this partucluar day, while out riding his shiny white bike, he lost his wallet. Or so he thought. "Lost" is at best a subjective term here on Earth, but in the Twlight Zone otherwise known as San Diego, "lost" can mean any number of things. Take for example Mr. Gee's wallet. Like a homing pidgeon, it found it's way back to said owner, but only after he had gone to the trouble of replacing what he thought was most valuable...his driver's licence, his credit cards, and his car wash punch ticket with 9 of the 12 required washes validated, leaving him 3 washes shy of a freebee. What he didn't realize, however, was that his alter ego, living in a parallel universe, was a graduate of Oshkosh University. And therein lies the rub, for you see, our humble plane of existance, Oshkosh Unversity boasts the finest Used Car Sales graduate school in North America. But on the distant planet of Kemboutea 3, Oshkosh U. was a bike racing factory, gladly handing out athletic scholarships to the fastsest cyclists in that quardrant of the solar system. Yes, you are about to draw the proper conclusion...our Mr. Gee's parallel-universe alter ego is nothing short of the fastest bike racer in the universe. One can only ponder what our hero will discover the next time he throws his leg over his humble two wheeler and begins to peddle.

BP, you, sir, have an amazing talent for the written word! Love these posts; they make my day.

Weird story, for sure. I don't use a wallet, just a money clip or rubber band and I lost a credit card around Christmas a couple years ago. Like DG, I stopped the card and replaced it only to have my 2 year old grandson come crawling down the hallway a week later with it in his mouth like a dog. :)

The good news about this is that I recovered my wallet that I bought because it's probably one/third the width of my conventional wallet. I bought it online based on a link someone provided here, but I've forgotten it. The wallet is made of a light material like parachute material or something. It's pretty amazing but it does take some practice taking it out of one's back pocket without spilling all the credit cards all over the place.

BP, you, sir, have an amazing talent for the written word! Love these posts; they make my day.

True that.

The good news about this is that I recovered my wallet that I bought because it's probably one/third the width of my conventional wallet. I bought it online based on a link someone provided here, but I've forgotten it. The wallet is made of a light material like parachute material or something. It's pretty amazing but it does take some practice taking it out of one's back pocket without spilling all the credit cards all over the place.

The wallet is something like this one, but I think mine came from a different vendor:

Whoa it's thin! (http://www.kerrybuckley.com/2007/08/02/super-thin-wallet/)

The wallet is something like this one, but I think mine came from a different vendor:

Whoa it's thin! (http://www.kerrybuckley.com/2007/08/02/super-thin-wallet/)

Geezer alert! What you are about to read constitutes an authentic geezer comment.

Man, when I was a kid a fat wallet meant you had some serious cash. I guess with plastic everything changes.

I remember that thread cause I bought one of the wallets, which I still use. Like it very much. Here is the company link:

http://www.all-ett.com/

That OU medallion is cursed. It probably has a long history of woe, with each owner suffering one calamity after another, until they can find a way to pass it off to another person.

I remember that thread cause I bought one of the wallets, which I still use. Like it very much.

Does it go well with Florsheims?

That OU medallion is cursed. It probably has a long history of woe, with each owner suffering one calamity after another, until they can find a way to pass it off to another person.


Yes, it might even eventually lead to broken pipes, wet ceilings and floors and plumbing bills and even riding flat bar bicycles.....:rolleyes:

Sorry for the home disaster, Tom. Hope it is not as bad as it seems.:(

Does it go well with Florsheims?

Indeed it does--but only on clipless road bikes.....

well of course it was a magpie...
took the dosh and replaced it with coin.

you'll be blessed with a run of good fortune

you did say the coin was white...

Sounds like a ferret made a trade, some of your treasure for some of his....

Well, there's* an idea! Maybe a magpie took it up to her nest, full of shiny stolen things. As she rummaged around her treasures, opening the wallet only to take the money out for nesting material, she got distracted (as magpies sometimes do) picked up the OU talisman and then dropped it in the wallet before deciding the wallet was making the nest feel too small. She dropped the wallet out of the nest, where a passing person of impeccable moral code found it and returned it to DG.

Cyclezen!!!!!

Jinx! I can't believe we both saw the truth at the same time!

I bet when whoever found it, looked and seen your address and just threw it there on the way by. Anyhow now you have a back up if you lose it again.

Yup. You probably lost it not far from home. Somebody picked it up, pulled the cash, and tossed it.

So here's my story: Lost my wallet in college. It was empty --only casualty was driver's license. The next day campus security called me to come pick up my wallet. It now had a $10 bill in it. Someone apparently found the empty wallet and, out of pity for a poor college student, slipped in a $10 and returned it to campus security.

Doo-dee-doodoo Doo-dee-doodoo

I'm so glad it was found :D, but sorry about the loss of the cash.:(

I highly recommend calling the police to get the medallion fingerprinted. They might still be able to lift some prints that are not yours and could track down whomever stole your money. The medallion could be a calling card of sorts. I really strongly urge you to do this..... it could solve the mystery but better yet nab the thief.

Lhbernhardt. Please forgive me. I blasted you for a point in which I was DEAD WRONG! I did a little more research and found that indeed there WAS Sikh involvement in the Lockerbee incident.

Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa and I throw myself at the Foot of Your Cross and beg your pardon. . .for my mistake of fact.

Mind you, I stand by my opinion of Sikhs being as good as any I've met in my business, but yeah there were some bad ones hooked up in the Lockerbee attack [and I also recall ol' Indira Gandhi had a spell of bad luck with some of them, too. . .culminating in her death by concentrated gunfire.]

I'm so glad it was found :D, but sorry about the loss of the cash.:(

I highly recommend calling the police to get the medallion fingerprinted. They might still be able to lift some prints that are not yours and could track down whomever stole your money. The medallion could be a calling card of sorts. I really strongly urge you to do this..... it could solve the mystery but better yet nab the thief.

Probably a good idea, but it's too late. The only fingerprints they'd find now are mine, as I handled it, inspected it up close, showed to others, etc. This would fall into the petty crime area at best (no one stole the wallet, but someone found it and someone took the money from it). If that's a crime, and I suppose it is, I doubt it would make the radar screen of our police department.

Probably a good idea, but it's too late. The only fingerprints they'd find now are mine, as I handled it, inspected it up close, showed to others, etc. This would fall into the petty crime area at best (no one stole the wallet, but someone found it and someone took the money from it). If that's a crime, and I suppose it is, I doubt it would make the radar screen of our police department.

Still, it could at least be a calling card. Even if they get no prints, the medallion may be of interest to connect the crime to others that are similar in the same city or in adjoining cities. It wouldn't hurt to at least mention it to them.

BP, you, sir, have an amazing talent for the written word! Love these posts; they make my day.

Thanks, but I just made a call to Serling Diego...he did the rest!

Dude. It's no mystery. Some guy found your wallet and traded you his OU medallion for your 200 bucks, and then gave your wallet to your daughter. Why is that hard to understand or accept?

My girlfriend is a few years older than I am, a retired grandmother, and a model of patience, understanding, and positive thinking. Where I am cynical, aloof, and demanding, she is trusting, friendly, and accepting. I think of her as a mentor in developing some traits for which I am in desperate need.

Two weeks ago, we did a tandem ride near Seattle, and I dropped her off at her daughter's in Redmond, driving back to Vancouver by myself. She came back by Amtrak a few days later. When she arrived back at her place, she was quite distraught. Her purse, containing cash, credit cards, driver's license, passport, and Nexus card (expedited border crossings, very handy with the 2-hour+ lineups at the border these days) were lost. Naturally, I figured some sleazebag low-life crook had lifted it on the public transit (she took the light rail back to her place from the train station). She figured it had dropped out of her bag and someone would return it.

Anyway, she got her credit card cancelled, but she couldn't get a police report in order to replace her passport because the RCMP needed her passport number (typical bureaucratic Catch-22). She didn't sleep for the first few nights. We took another trip across the border on the weekend, but we had to take a less crowded border crossing (for which I knew some shortcuts that got us into the lineup closer to the border). The day after we returned, I was at work and she phoned me. She had got her purse back with everything in it, including all the cash. Turns out it had been returned the previous week, and if the RCMP had taken the report, they probably could have got it to her before the weekend... It was just like she had expected, some honest guy had found her purse laying on the road and had turned it in without even opening it.

She asked for and got (after the police got his permission) the name and number of the guy who had turned it in. He was an East Indian, a Sikh gentleman, who had done quite well for himself in Canada. I was quite surprised, as my experience had been that East Indians were among the most dishonest people on the planet (another story...), and Sikhs were responsible for the bombing of a airliner over Lockerbee, Scotland 25 years ago (a crime for which the accused were acquitted because the RCMP had screwed up the investigation). (Do you begin to detect a pattern here about the competence of Canada's national police force?) Anyway, I think there's at least one lesson here...

- L. just a little off topic but didn't the libyans blow up that plane? jeez, talk about canadian bigots.:p

Dude. It's no mystery. Some guy found your wallet and traded you his OU medallion for your 200 bucks, and then gave your wallet to your daughter. Why is that hard to understand or accept?


Not necessarily true. As I have posted in this forum in the past, 3 times in my life I've found wallets with money in them. All three times I returned the wallets to their owners with the money. All three times I was accused of stealing the wallet in the first place, then losing my nerve and returning it.

Okay, here's what actually happened.

I stole my own wallet, for the same reason that people fake illnesses to get into hospitals. I wanted a good story to post on 50+ and figured this would do the trick. The money had already been spent on drugs, so I "pretended" to lose my wallet to cover my tracks. The medallion was something I shoplifted from the OU bookstore years ago. Then I got the guy to come to our place and give my daughter the wallet, to further throw suspicion off myself. Pretty cool, huh?

And now ... the rest of the story

After a tough day, DG went out on his bike to blow off some stress. On this day the bike ride just wasn't cutting it and so he stopped by a liquor store and bought a $150 bottle of Scotch. While sitting on a park bench and drowning his sorrows, a con man happened by and sold him a "lucky OU talisman" for $50. DG stuffed this into his wallet. He got home somehow with his bike, although he doesn't remember any of it. While sneaking into the back of his building, he saw a raccoon nosing around the trash and so he threw something at it. Later he couldn't remember what it was that he thrown, or even if he had thrown anything at all.

^^ Sounds plausible to me. What kind of Scotch do you suppose it was he was drinking on that fateful night? I mean, after all, good Scotch can be the root cause of a lot of explaining. Do NOT ask me how I know this to be true.

Not necessarily true. As I have posted in this forum in the past, 3 times in my life I've found wallets with money in them. All three times I returned the wallets to their owners with the money. All three times I was accused of stealing the wallet in the first place, then losing my nerve and returning it.

Well, you fail to consider this wallet was returned sans cash. And as far as that goes, from what I read about you here, it's hard to imagine you losing your nerve after actually having the wallet in your posession...:D:D:D

It could be a ploy to put you off guard. Did you cancel all the credit card accounts? I'd keep an eye on any financial transactions in your name, if possible. They could "read" the info off all the cards and then return them to you.

You oughta walk around the parking lot of that apartment building and find the car with the OU alumni license plate frame. Wait the the owner comes out and ask them if they know the answer.

It could be a ploy to put you off guard. Did you cancel all the credit card accounts? I'd keep an eye on any financial transactions in your name, if possible. They could "read" the info off all the cards and then return them to you.

Did that the first night.

Maybe the thief really needed the money to feed his/her family and, in exchange, gave you his/her prized possession, the OU medallion.

And now ... the rest of the story

After a tough day, DG went out on his bike to blow off some stress. On this day the bike ride just wasn't cutting it and so he stopped by a liquor store and bought a $150 bottle of Scotch. While sitting on a park bench and drowning his sorrows, a con man happened by and sold him a "lucky OU talisman" for $50. DG stuffed this into his wallet. He got home somehow with his bike, although he doesn't remember any of it. While sneaking into the back of his building, he saw a raccoon nosing around the trash and so he threw something at it. Later he couldn't remember what it was that he thrown, or even if he had thrown anything at all.

If I drank a 150 dollar bottle of Scotch, the only thing I'd be throwing is UP.


200 dollars, damn DG... it still amazes me!

That OU medallion is cursed. It probably has a long history of woe, with each owner suffering one calamity after another, until they can find a way to pass it off to another person.

Send it to Texas, immediately. Or perhaps the former Governor of Texas.

DANGER

In all seriousness, a common trick when taking a wallet/finding a wallet is for the person to return -- after first copying down the credit card numbers and authorization codes from the backs of the cards, copying down the drivers license numbers, etc, etc..

Having gotten the wallet back, there is a tendency on the part of most individuals to not report the loss/theft to the credit card companies, DMV, etc.

It then becomes easy to use the credit card info to buy things, to use the driver's license info to get duplicates at another address, etc.

If you haven't already, you should cancel all the cards, get a replacement driver's license (report it as missing), etc., etc.

*****

Ooops ... just saw that someone else posted something similar. Make sure you deal with ALL the personal info that was in that wallet. Anything at all.

She asked for and got (after the police got his permission) the name and number of the guy who had turned it in. He was an East Indian, a Sikh gentleman, who had done quite well for himself in Canada. I was quite surprised, as my experience had been that East Indians were among the most dishonest people on the planet (another story...), and Sikhs were responsible for the bombing of a airliner over Lockerbee, Scotland 25 years ago (a crime for which the accused were acquitted because the RCMP had screwed up the investigation). (Do you begin to detect a pattern here about the competence of Canada's national police force?) Anyway, I think there's at least one lesson here...



I'm sorry. Is this supposed to be a joke?

Sikhs have a reputation for being some of the most honest people on the planet. Sikhs mostly come from Punjab state, which is in Northwest India and not eastern India.

Perhaps of more importance to you is that Sikhs are recognized as some of the toughest fighters on the planet. In World War II, the troops that the Japanese feared more than any others were the Sikh units in the British Army.

And why would the RCMP be investigating a bombing of an airliner that occurred over Scotland?? That being an airliner enroute from Germany to New York.

If this is supposed to be a joke, it's not funny. If it's not a joke, you are about the most ignorant person on the planet.

Hey.......DG made it to FOO!

Not necessarily true. As I have posted in this forum in the past, 3 times in my life I've found wallets with money in them. All three times I returned the wallets to their owners with the money. All three times I was accused of stealing the wallet in the first place, then losing my nerve and returning it. Years ago while driving my Corvair down Lankershim Blvd., I witnessed a purse-snatching and I chased the snatcher who was on a rickity old bike for about 10 minutes until I was close enough to jump out of my car right in his path. He threw the purse at my feet and turned to leave. I thought about hitting him, but he was so scuzzy I felt sorry for him. I couldn't find the victim, so I took the purse to the police station, where they treated me as though I had stolen it. The desk officer counted the money and decided I was telling the truth, and let me go, finally. Anyway, the lady called to thank me and that felt pretty good.
I miss that Corvair.

Hey, you guys! Did you come looking for me? :p Welcome to Foo! :)

Glad you got your wallet back, DG. Nice to see a mostly good outcome....

Time to call the Mystery Machine Team!


http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/8720000/8729908.jpg

I'm sorry. Is this supposed to be a joke?

Sikhs have a reputation for being some of the most honest people on the planet.

...
If this is supposed to be a joke, it's not funny. If it's not a joke, you are about the most ignorant person on the planet.

Indians tell jokes on Sikhs all the time. Though, unlike the op's contention, the stereotype is that Sikhs are overly honest and a bit dull.

Here's one. (Indians call Sikh men "Sardar," which is respectful.)

A Sardar buys a five dollar ticket and wins the lottery. He goes to claim the prize and the man verifies his ticket number. The Sardar says, "I want my million dollars!"

The man replies, "No, sir. It doesn't work that way. We give you $100,000
today and then you'll get the rest spread out for the next nine years."

The Sardar says, "Oh, no. I want all my money right now! I won it and I want
it."

Again, the man explains to the Sardar that he would only get $100,000 and the rest
would come in payments over the next nine years.

The Sardar, furious with the lottery man, screams out, "Look, I want my money! If
you're not going to give me my million dollars right now, then I want my five dollars back!"