Matt and I found ourselves directly in the middle of our own
crime scene just two weeks ago, little did we know we would be the ones to
solve it!
I was suffering from
a bit of “new-mommy-brain” and left my purse in the cart after loading my
groceries into the car. I drove out of
the parking lot and less than a minute later realized I had left my purse. When I returned my purse had
disappeared. It was no longer in the
cart and no one had returned it to the store.
I was devastated! I just kept
thinking about all the cards I would have to cancel, all the personal
information in the purse, my cell phone, even my work I Phone was in the purse
which would cost me hundreds of dollars to replace, not to mention the time to
replace all my personal items!
Once I finally got over my denial and realized my purse had
been stolen, I began my drive home only to remember that Matt had recently put
the “Find My I Phone” app on all of our Apple products which allowed Matt to
track my phone if it was ever lost! I ran into the apartment yelling Matt “Get your IPad, my purse has
been stolen!” Matt was on it so quickly
and we had my purse tracked immediately, traveling down a country road just a
few miles outside of town! We
immediately called the Rapid City Police Department. I believe our exact conversation was “My
purse was stolen and I know exactly where it is!” Police officers were sent to our apartment
where they literally “set up camp”. They
had their GPS and maps out, giving coordinates, and following our thief. They also contacted the grocery store to have
them check the video cameras from the parking lot. Unfortunately, they do not have
cameras in the parking lot, but we didn’t let that stop us!
*Remember this is Rapid City, SD. We apologized for taking their time to handle
such a petty crime, we thought surely they had bigger fish to fry, but they
reported they even do this for missing cats! *
The vehicle with my
purse eventually stopped at a residence that we pinpointed using Google
Earth. Two police officers left, while
Matt and I were given the responsibility to remain in contact with dispatch and
update them if and when the purse moved. The purse did move from a shed into a
residential home, but other than that remained stationary. I am so grateful that whoever had my phone did
not think to turn it off!
The police officers attempted to talk to someone at the
residence but no one answered. They
seemed to think that we could no longer pursue it any further. I must say I was
shocked with my reaction to this whole situation. I found the thrill of the
chase rather exciting, and I wanted to simply go knock on the door and ask for
my purse back, but Matt wouldn’t have it! Even the police officer said it was a
shady residence and not to try! If I ever quit my day job, I might look into
being a bounty hunter. *Matt and
Lori=Dog and Beth* Knowing that the police were not going to try any longer, I
made one last desperate attempt to send messages to both my phones asking the
culprit to return the phone to the store and we would not press charges. No luck.
Regardless, Matt and I decided we were not going to give
up. We tracked them through the night
and when we awoke the next morning the purse had moved to a local business in
town. We assumed he had taken the purse with him to his place of work, maybe
left it in his car. When we tracked the
address down it was at “Pack Rat Palace” which was essentially storage units. Call us crazy, but we got in the car and
headed straight to Pack Rat Palace, not quite sure what we were going to do
when we got there. We called the police
on our drive there to let them know the purse had moved and that we were going
after it. They were willing to send an
officer to assist, but didn’t seem hopeful.
Once we got to Pack Rat Palace, an officer met us who stated
that a man just called the police station reporting that he had found a missing
purse. The man worked at the business
across from Pack Rat Palace. Eventually,
we met up with this man who returned my purse with all the contents still
inside including my work IPhone! I was so relieved!
The man who had the purse reported that he had found it in
the shopping cart and had to rush to an appointment, so he took the purse and
was attempting to return it to the owner. Whether he was telling the truth or
not, we chose not to press charges. We are just grateful he chose to return the
purse with all its contents!
So lessons to be learned:
- I need to stop forgetting my wallet and purse in random places!
- Always appreciate your husband’s unique talent for technology and love for electronic gadgets!
- There really is an app for everything!
- If you come upon a lost item (purse, wallet, phone, etc.) at a store/restaurant, RETURN IT TO THE STORE/RESTAURANT or the police station. DO NOT TAKE IT HOME WITH YOU, it makes you look bad!
