2023.02.15. – My wallet got stolen

This is way too long for me to re-check for typos (as I always do before posting), sorry. 

Started the day with a slow morning – as has been my usual morning routine recently; making tea, nibbling on something (today, one of the muffins I made last night) while sipping my tea, and checking my Messenger. Since we are 7 hours ahead of CET, all my friends and family text me when it’s evening there – and middle of the night here, meaning I can only answer them once I get up. Obviously, I do get to talk to a few friends who are online during the day (usually when it’s afternoon here and morning there) but most of the communication would happen in the evening, so it kinda sucks. Well anyway, so part of my morning routine is replying to messages I got while I was asleep. Then I spend (waste) some time on YT or FB, scrolling, still pretty sleepy, until it’s time to get dressed and leave home – sometime between 9 and 10, usually closer to 10. (Except for Thursdays, when my first class is at 9:20 so I leave home around half past 8.)

My class was pretty good, if a bit slower than expected – but I don’t mind because we just learned more vocabulary that came up during class, and it wasn’t due to my students not paying attention or any disruptions. This way I’ll have to alter my next two lesson plans a bit so that the blocks still make sense AND fit into our 90-min long classes, but that’s okay, that’s just part of teaching.

A funny thing, my students kept staring at me (very closely, might I add), and it took me some time (and them explaining) that they were staring because I was wearing a light blue hoodie today – I’ve only worn my green and orange hoodies to university up until today, sometimes the really dark blue one in the previous semester – and last week, when we were learning about parts of the face and how to describe someone’s looks, they asked what colour my eyes were, and I said grey, but sometimes green, sometimes blue, depending on my clothes. So today, when they realised I was wearing blue, they immediately tried to see if my eyes indeed looked blue today – and they did, obviously. So that was a source of amusement and awe today, and everyone just had to see for themselves up close. (They all have dark brown or black eyes so it’s understandable, just funny.)

After my class, I was just starting on altering my lesson plans – my students also told me that next Monday we’ll have an online class; of course I have to learn this from my students, not admin or the head of the language centre… so I had to change tomorrow’s and also Monday’s class a bit (a lot, I was planning on playing games on Monday but we won’t be able to do them online, so…). Unexpectedly, I got a call from Munkh saying someone had dropped off a few books at his office that were in Hungarian and he had no idea what kind of books they were but I should sort through them, see if I want to keep any for myself, my office, my classes, and if there are any good ones, we could donate them to the library. I went to his office, and it was four stacks of really old books, indeed in Hungarian. He told me to take them to my office so I took turns carrying them to my office (along a corridor, down two flights of stairs, along a corridor, up another flight of stairs) – it’s a good thing I don’t mind an out-of-the-blue workout. However, I did manage to overexert my lower back when carrying a box and a stack packed on top of that (I didn’t want to take three turns, okay?), but I guess it’s not too bad, just a bit sore. I did not sort through the books though, might do that on Friday or something.

The Hungarian books donated to the university
(I'd say surprisingly heavy but we all know books are typically heavy)

We met up and had lunch at the Vegetarian Café with my hubby (our usual stir fried veggies in peanut sauce), then came home. I quickly threw my abstract, title, and key words (for my journal publication) into Google Translate – the lady who was supposed to translate for me never even replied to my emails and I couldn’t find her in her office yesterday or today, although I’ve tried several times) so I decided to just bloody give up and translate them with the help of Google. If they don’t like it, they can re-write it to make it make sense, I don’t care. Once it was all (wonderfully, no doubt) translated to Mongolian, I sent it to Munkh, in the hopes of not having to do anything else with it ever again.

Once done with that, I packed my swimming bag and left for Shangri-La for a swim. On the way there, I saw that they put a bunch of gers on Sukhbaatar Square – it’s so cool that I cross the main square several times a week, this way I can always see what’s going on there. Never seen this many gers in one place before. The weather was also nice, cold but not freezing (okay, literally, it IS freezing, around -16 rn, maybe around -10 when I was there, but that is so much warmer than -30), and also very sunny. I love how sunny it constantly is here – very rarely overcast.

There's more than a dozen gers at Sukhbaatar square now - they look so cool.

Just as I got to ShangriLa and entered the mall, I felt that my bag (which I wear across my body, the bag itself being under my arm) was suspiciously light and empty. As I looked down, I saw that it was fully unzipped and indeed, my wallet was nowhere to be seen. Immediately, I retraced my steps (I was pretty sure it had to have been stolen right there next to ShangriLa, otherwise, I would have noticed it sooner), and called my husband at the same time, trying not to panic. There was no one outside (well, not near the entrance anyway) and my wallet wasn’t on the ground or thrown under one of the bushes, so I started to walk back the same way I had come from, to check in bushes/bins, in hopes that the thief just took the money and got rid of it as soon as possible. My husband, meanwhile, told me to block all of my cards from my online banking applications – smart man – and so I just went inside the mall (on another entrance) bc my fingers were freezing with my phone out. I blocked two of the three cards and set the limits to 0 HUF on the third one (as I couldn’t find the ‘block card’ option in the app for that card, interestingly – and neither could my hubby later on, which means it’s either not there or incredibly well-hidden; why? Why make it impossible to block your card? So stupid, I hate that app (and dislike the bank too, but they had the package that was best suited for my needs), so I just set both payment and withdrawal limits to 0).

Then I called my husband again, telling him I was ready with those. He told me he was already on his way to me, with my passport and some cash – since all my ID cards and everything was in the wallet. He also told me to call the embassy to let them know about the pickpocketing, so I did. The embassy guy was nice enough but said it happens from time to time (although he suggested I simply left it at home or maybe lost it on my way, not noticing it fell out of my pocket… I am not stupid, okay?) and that I should talk to the police, and they can only help after I have a certificate from the police stating that I need to get new ID cards since they’d been stolen. Basically, not much help, but then I reminded him I couldn’t just go to the police since I didn’t speak any Mongolian, and he offered to get someone at the embassy to help me if I go there, saying someone who speaks both Mongolian and Hungarian would come with me to the police station. Now that was an actually helpful offer which I was very grateful for, so I started back towards the embassy (which also happens to be the same way I had come from), still checking all bushes and bins, and talking to my husband who was looking through the bins at Sukhbaatar square. I had been pretty sure that the pickpocket got me right next to ShangriLa (I would definitely have noticed it sooner otherwise) but – in slight panic mode – I started doubting myself, of course, so we checked all bins and even the snow for my discarded wallet, nowhere to be seen of course. Resigned, we started walking towards the embassy – but at least now my husband was with me and his calm support did wonders to calm my (otherwise surprisingly calm anyway) nerves.

That’s when I suddenly got a call from Otgontuya, the head of the language centre at the uni, that someone from ShangriLa called her that they found something that was mine. She was about as surprised as I was – how did they even know her phone number? I guess I had her card in there, as I put all business cards I’m handed in there (and I have a bunch of them ofc by this is Asia). It’s super lucky that they ended up calling her and not the other random people who’d handed me their business cards all over the city. Or maybe they did call them but they had no idea who ‘Dalma’ was, so they kept trying until they got someone who knew me. Well anyway, we turned back towards ShangriLa, and went to the gym first, because Google said the number they called Otgontuya from belonged to the gym – and also bc I knew they would speak English while others wouldn’t. They said it was a number all of ShangriLa used but they used their own landline to call security and lost and found and told me to go to the car park and ask the cashiers there for the security, as they had my wallet. Super relieved, we went down there, got the cashier (with some more Google Translate) to get a security guard, and in a few minutes, he arrived with my wallet!

At first, he didn’t want to hand it over as I had no ID on me (all of it was in my wallet) but I showed him that it was all in my wallet, and he wasn’t convinced by my ID pics but once I showed him I had (coloured) pics of my husband and me in there too, and he recognised us from those, he immediately handed it all over. So I called the embassy to let them know and also checked if all my cards were in there. It was a general mess – very sad and frustrating – with all my ID cards (driver’s license, Hungarian ID, tax card, health insurance cards, Hungarian residence card, Mongolian residence permit, library cards and such) and bank cards (Hungarian, international, and Mongolian) in random pockets, between old bus tickets, club cards, and coffee stamp cards (from Ireland from2017, hehe). But I checked and it seems like every single card is there, just not in their place.

Interestingly, not even the cash was stolen. I had very little cash on me (I never carry cash, why would I) but they did not take it. It baffles me. They steal my wallet right out from under my arm (a mystery, they must have been really good), they go through all of its contents, and then they drop it/leave it somewhere/give it over to security, without stealing anything from it. Why? I am very suspicious – after all, they could have taken pics of my bank cards so they have all my bank card details, they could buy something online. But then online transactions usually require authentication either through an SMS code or through the app. And if they don’t, I can always just go for chargeback. So… it seems safe to unblock my cards now? But should I really? They never even tried to pay with them, I got no notifications. And they didn’t steal them. Didn’t even steal the cash (about 3500 HUF worth of MNT). I am so confused. If they need money this much that they would resort to pickpocketing, why not take the cash? I wouldn’t even have minded, if they need it that much. But if they don’t, why pickpocket? It’s such a mystery.

My husband says maybe, once they realised it was the wallet of a non-Mongolian, they got scared as most Europeans here are actually working for embassies or big international companies like UNICEF (but mostly embassies), and the police is sure to go after anyone who steals from a diplomat. I mean, it’s a better theory than anything I could come up with. He also said maybe they wanted to get lots of cash, possibly EUR, but I didn’t have any so… Well anyway, we just don’t know. And this way I won’t even go to the police, it would just be much ado for nothing, as I have all my cards and even my cash. Nothing was stolen. Well, it was, but then it was given back.

Once all the hassle was over, my husband had a nice sandwich in the vegan café right next to the gym, and I used the time to quell the rest (well, most) of my anxiety. Then, he came home and I went and had that blasted swim that I’d left home for originally, figuring a nice swim would do me some good. It was a really good swim and my anger has also mostly dissipated. I really hate petty crimes (all crimes, really), because they are usually very selfish and stupid acts. Like, imagine all the trouble someone has to go through when all of their IDs, club cards, and bank cards get stolen – especially abroad. If someone is that desperately is in need of money, ask for money, look for a job (it’s so easy to work illegally here, they could do delivery or taxi or something), something. But don’t steal from others, that’s despicable. Even if it’s not a wallet but a car, a bike, a bag, anything really. So yeah, I am generally calm and collected but having vented about it for a good page now, I can feel I still have some lingering resentment and anger.

However, I also have gratitude. I am grateful because my wallet did get back to me in one piece, with all of my stuff (or if something is missing, I haven’t noticed it yet, but the most important things are in there). And I am also grateful because this is a good lesson. I always keep my wallet in the same place, in this little bag on my side, because this way I never forget it and because my arm is shielding it pretty well from potential pickpockets – but apparently, not enough. (Although I have to say, if it was given over to ShangriLa security, that means that I indeed noticed the crime as soon as it happened, probably.) So now I know I have to be more careful, and carry my wallet in an inside pocket of my winter jacket (and later on, maybe my jeans, because I won’t have a coat with an inner pocket once it gets warmer). That’s why I prefer this bag – I can carry it in all kinds of weather, all seasons, to all occasions. It’ll be more complicated with a wallet not in my bag, I’ll have to remember to take it with me when I leave home, when I go anywhere from my office/table, and such. Also, it’ll have to be much smaller. The one I have now is huge (probably why it’s so easy to notice when it’s gone), bulky and heavy, and it simply doesn’t fit into my pockets. Maybe I can get rid of my club cards and my used bus tickets and the business cards too, and leave the library cards and such at home (with the danger of not having them on me when I actually do end up going to the library). That way, I could have a limited amount of cards (and not much cash, since I don’t have cash anyway) on me, in a slim, small wallet, that is easier to have in my pockets. Safer too. So yeah, gotta have a new strategy, and today was a good reminder to do just that – with some stress, but without any actual loss, I consider myself lucky. I am lucky to have been a victim of pickpocketing. How weird is that? But true.