Thursday, October 13, 2011

Is that a huge wad of cash on the ground?

Remember that time I thought a wadded up ball of napkins in the middle of the Target isle was cash and went through mental hell to reach it only to find out it was napkins?

Yeaahhhhh, today was worse than that. My sister and I went to Walmart to grab some needed things (namely Lysol, Lysol and more Lysol seeing as I'm on my 2 or 3 cold this month) and after paying I got $100 cash back, all in twenty dollar bills, jammed it in my tiny purse and went on my way. I was already having a rough morning and forced myself to get out and run several errands so by the time Walmart shopping was over I was drained and Henry, who is also sick again, was ready for his nap. I was clumsy when getting him into his seat and dropped my purse which I immediately bent down to get as I saw a nickle roll from it. Big whoop.

I get in the car and happened to glance into my rear view mirror and see a walmart worker move fast to pick up some "trash". "That's unusual" I think. And then I think to myself, "That lucky bastard just found money. I wish I was that lucky. All I find are wads of napkins."  "I should make sure that cash wasn't mine." I peek into my wallet and sure enough the money is gone. I jump out of the car and see a twenty under my tire. I grab it and then start running at full speed down the parking lot, looking left and right but I can't find the guy. Finally I see him and he's getting into his car and I yell "Hey! I think you grabbed my money!"

He nervously got out of his car and said, "Yes, I..I..I.. was going on break but was going to turn it in when I got off."

I smiled and said, "Ok!" Not sarcastically. I wanted to believe him but as I walk back to my car I can feel how hot the bills are from being clutched tightly in his hands and I feel bad. I'm always dreaming of finding a wad of cash on the ground, he must have messed his pants about finding $60.

That's right. $60. Plus the twenty that I found by my tire. That's just $80. I'm still missing a bill. I knew he didn't have it. I was counting the times he grabbed "trash" on the ground and I knew the $60 was all he had. So I crawled on my hands and knees in the parking lot looking for the last bill.

Napkin

Napkin

Reciept

Used baby diaper

Napkin (There is no bigger tease)

Finally on the other side of the car next to me there it was, next to their drivers door, waiting for a new owner. Was my purse so offensive? Didn't it know how much I loved it and all of the nice things I was going to use it for? And now it was trying to hitch a ride with a lame Windstar mini van when it could be cruising with me in my super awesome Scion rocking to Yo Gabba Gabba.

I felt the guilt as I picked up the last bill as well. Thinking about how it really would have made the day of that walmart shopper as they returned to their vehicle.

But alas, this chick has bills to pay.

I'm blessed. It was a windy day and the guy could have told me to get lost and kept my money. I'm blessed to have found every bill.

And I also won $20 off of a $1 scratch ticket last night. And despite my mother publicly outing my purchase of $11 dollars in scratch tickets (a second one of which I won $2) I still made a $11 dollar profit and that's still dang good.

2 comments:

  1. Oh, I'm so glad you got all your money back. And you were brave to approach the guy who I will always consider STOLE it! Good on you.

    I always have a problem at the store where I go through self-checkout. Twice in the past, I've tapped the machine for money back and forgotten to grab it where it drops down in the dispenser. It's stupid because it's right at your knees where you don't see it. If you're in a hurry, you forget. Well, at least I do. Last week, I did it again. Asked for $20 back and didn't realize I hadn't grabbed it until I got to the car. Miraculously, the guy behind me hadn't finished checking out and didn't notice my money laying there. I swiped it quickly and darted away. Lucky me.

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  2. Me? I'm resorting to finding loose change in the sofa.

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