don't look for me, interpol

Years ago, I left my wallet on the subway and a kind soul returned it completely intact. I vowed to pay it forward when I had the chance.

Last week I stopped for gas and found a credit card and an ATM card on the ground by my car. They were from the same bank but in different names. Frightened that I had hit the bank card Bermuda triangle, I picked up both cards and carefully placed my own credit card back in its place. That night, at home, I cut up both cards and called the bank. I figured the card owners would be happy to know that the person who had found their card wasn't a fraudmeister.

I learned that it's difficult to report someone else's card missing. The woman on the phone couldn't believe I was calling in to report someone else's card lost. She seemed to believe that I had an ulterior motive, maybe that I thought I could verify that the cards were active so that I could use them. Perhaps my phone voice sounds like I've just stepped out of a police line-up. When she asked for my name and information I politely declined, imagining that I might appear on some Interpol-type report in a faroff place.

This leads me to another story about my mother. She's an academic-artist type and is not good with technology or things that appear technology-related. A couple of years back she called me in a panic because the ATM had "eaten" her card. I advised her to go into the bank and ask that someone take the front off the machine to get her card back. The guy who did that discovered she'd put her card in the slot where the bank statements come out. He also found five other cards from people who had done the same thing and clearly not bothered to go into the bank to get their cards back.

All of this leads me to one question: is there some kind of world epidemic of bank card loss and abandonment of which I've only recently become aware?

RainyBow

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SunnyShine note: I have a friend that is a bank teller and he told me that there are people who come in and don't even have a bank card. I find this very difficult to comprehend. I would be completely lost without mine.