A Blessed Theft
A Blessed Theft
My briefcase with two laptops, business and financial records, passport, etc, was just stolen… and I’m happy about it! As I moved my bags from a motel room to my rental car’s trunk during a California business trip, thieves struck in a moment. They’d apparently been watching my room and car from the parking lot, and after I loaded the first two bags and walked ten steps to my room for the third bag, they hit.
It’s a big hassle to replace everything, and will cost well over $5000 and many, many hours of work. That’s not what I’m happy about.
What pleases me is the knowledge that I get to choose my reaction to the situation. I’m so grateful to realize that I can decide to see the waves of goodness in a sea of gunk. What a blessing!
I’m not saying I was thrilled in any way, but I “got over it” in 24 hours. I did it by consciously deciding to “look for” the positives and then weigh the bad and the good:
It’s BAD that I:
· Have to buy a new computer to replace the brand new MacBook laptop.
· Have to get a new passport.
· Have to change my financial account numbers and alert my investment company to watch for fraud.
· Have to deal with that feeling of “violation” that other crime victims talk about.
And, it’s GOOD that:
· When I received a suspicious nighttime call in my motel room telling me that I needed to go to the office because “the manager has to talk to me,” I was alert enough to recognize that something was fishy. If I’d left my room when the crooks called, I may well have been mugged, stabbed, or who knows what.
· The thieves took the briefcase from the trunk of my car, rather than barging into my room as I returned to get my other bag. I never had to confront them and potentially be terrorized.
· Police arrived within ten minutes of my call. I never wondered if the cops were “good guys,” or if they expected a bribe, as happens in so much of the world.
· Just about everybody to whom I’ve mentioned the theft immediately expresses true sympathy. People care.
· When I called American Express to see if I’d purchased the brand new MacBook laptop with my Amex card, hoping it might be covered under their “Purchase Protection Plan,” I found out that I had used a different credit card and it wasn’t covered. But, the phone rep, after telling me how sorry he was, gave me a $50 credit on my account just out of kindness.
· The reason I had two laptops in the briefcase is because I was in the process of moving all my data from the PC to the Mac. It’s a time-consuming hassle, and now I don’t have to do it.
· The annualized cost of theft in my life; the total cost of items stolen divided by my 58 years, comes out to just over $100, which is really not bad. (Until this theft, it was $0.05 because I had a $3.00 pocket knife stolen in about 1970, and that’s all.)
So, when you weigh it out, there’s plenty I can be happy about. Most of all, I’m glad that I have the knowledge and skill to determine how I’ll react to situations like these. And you do, too. What a blessing!
My briefcase with two laptops, business and financial records, passport, etc, was just stolen… and I’m happy about it! As I moved my bags from a motel room to my rental car’s trunk during a California business trip, thieves struck in a moment. They’d apparently been watching my room and car from the parking lot, and after I loaded the first two bags and walked ten steps to my room for the third bag, they hit.
It’s a big hassle to replace everything, and will cost well over $5000 and many, many hours of work. That’s not what I’m happy about.
What pleases me is the knowledge that I get to choose my reaction to the situation. I’m so grateful to realize that I can decide to see the waves of goodness in a sea of gunk. What a blessing!
I’m not saying I was thrilled in any way, but I “got over it” in 24 hours. I did it by consciously deciding to “look for” the positives and then weigh the bad and the good:
It’s BAD that I:
· Have to buy a new computer to replace the brand new MacBook laptop.
· Have to get a new passport.
· Have to change my financial account numbers and alert my investment company to watch for fraud.
· Have to deal with that feeling of “violation” that other crime victims talk about.
And, it’s GOOD that:
· When I received a suspicious nighttime call in my motel room telling me that I needed to go to the office because “the manager has to talk to me,” I was alert enough to recognize that something was fishy. If I’d left my room when the crooks called, I may well have been mugged, stabbed, or who knows what.
· The thieves took the briefcase from the trunk of my car, rather than barging into my room as I returned to get my other bag. I never had to confront them and potentially be terrorized.
· Police arrived within ten minutes of my call. I never wondered if the cops were “good guys,” or if they expected a bribe, as happens in so much of the world.
· Just about everybody to whom I’ve mentioned the theft immediately expresses true sympathy. People care.
· When I called American Express to see if I’d purchased the brand new MacBook laptop with my Amex card, hoping it might be covered under their “Purchase Protection Plan,” I found out that I had used a different credit card and it wasn’t covered. But, the phone rep, after telling me how sorry he was, gave me a $50 credit on my account just out of kindness.
· The reason I had two laptops in the briefcase is because I was in the process of moving all my data from the PC to the Mac. It’s a time-consuming hassle, and now I don’t have to do it.
· The annualized cost of theft in my life; the total cost of items stolen divided by my 58 years, comes out to just over $100, which is really not bad. (Until this theft, it was $0.05 because I had a $3.00 pocket knife stolen in about 1970, and that’s all.)
So, when you weigh it out, there’s plenty I can be happy about. Most of all, I’m glad that I have the knowledge and skill to determine how I’ll react to situations like these. And you do, too. What a blessing!
posted by George Walther | 8:15 AM
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