The Kindness of Strangers

So I was at coth's on Friday night and unloading stuff fromms_cataclysm's car and I Dropped My Handbag in the road and didn't notice for ten minutes and then after we had searched the house and the car and the road (at least twice) and it was Still Not There we decided that somebody probably had stolen it so I spent the next hour on the phone cancelling my credit cards and everything, and then trying to report it to the police who said Oh No we won't take details over the phone you have to come to the police station to report it. 

So then flickgc said have something to eat first because the police station is bound to be Horrid and Full of Drunks on a Friday night and you will have to Wait For Hours and this seemed like good advice so I did.  And I was trying hard to be calm even  though it was Really Annoying and Upsetting and then Caro 's mobile rang and it was my brother John who had just had a phone call from my sister Claire in Australia who had had a strange phone call from someone in Ilford at 5 o'clock in the morning (Australian time) to say that he had found my handbag in the road and was trying to reunite it with me.  She said she thought it was someone trying to sell her insurance, and only didn't put the phone down because he had such a strong London accent. 

So, anyway it turned out that this extremely helpful person lived two doors down from coth and he had phoned the police who had been totally uninterested and told him to take the bag to the station the next morning.  He then found my address book in my bag and started ringing my relations.  Who were all totally confused as they couldn't think why my handbag should be in Ilford without me.  They then seem to have spent Friday night ringing each other up and leaving messages on my answering machine.  So I got my bag back and it was completely intact and everything was in it even my £5 in cash.

So it could have been a lot worse, and I am extremely grateful to the kind gentleman in Ilford and will send him some M&S vouchers to say thank you just as soon as I get access to my frozen bank accounts which may take a while (sigh).  In fact the thing that I was most worried about (after I had cancelled my credit cards) was that my season ticket was also in the bag and I could see myself spending some time at Cambridge station trying to get it and my photocard replaced and this would be Very Trying.  I'm so pleased that he made the effort rather than just handing the bag to the police the next morning.