Last Thursday evening, after leaving Wencelsas Square in Prague, my parents and I entered the Metro. Metro systems are rather helpful because they greatly improve transportation. However, as one can imagine, downsides exist as well.
The time was around 5 p.m. The Metro was crowded. I was standing in front of the door. My mother was standing a few people away from my father. My father was around four other men. All of a sudden, my dad says, "Someone just took my wallet." The wallet was in his front pocket and someone just reached it. Those theives are good at what they do. Not knowing what to do, I just look at the other men around him. How can we know which one took it? "Someone just took my wallet," my dad said again.
"Well, I don't know what to do, dad," I responded. In my training, they never taught us how to react in situations like these. None of us really knew what to do. What was there to do? How could we accuse anyone? First, we didn't speak the same language. Second, once the wallet is in someone else's possession, how can anyone get it back? Surely, they would not give it back.
Puzzled, the doors of the Metro opened, and the pickpocketer surely walked out of the doors, as we did as well.
While my parents talking about the situation, I merely said, "Well, let's find a phone booth and cancel the credit cards." Fortunately, my mom had the numbers for the credit card companies and we used my credit card to call these companies. However, eventually the phone booth stopped letting us use my credit card to make calls. Remembering that a key to the hostel was also in the wallet, we quickly traveled to hostel to change keys. The owner of the hostel was very considerate. He let us use a computer to send a few e-mails out to family to help us with the situation.
Also in the wallet was his driver's license. We worried that he might need two forms of identification to board the plane. Soon we discovered that a passport that was all that was necessary.
Around 7:30, we decided we should file a police report, just in case the wallet might turn out. Who would have thought we'd end up in a police station in Prague? Fortuntely, a woman at the police station spoke English and helped us in the process. Nevertheless, filing the police report took an hour and a half.
While in the police station, I decided I didn't even care about the dollars and crowns; it was just money. It was the process that we had to go through. We spent the whole evening cancelling credit cards and reassuring ourselves that they could get back to the United States.
A stolen wallet can surely ruin a trip. My parents were entirely vulnerable; they had no money, no credit cards, in a country where they couldn't speak the language, 6000 miles from home. The problem of no money or credit cards posed a problem when they missed their flight in Amsterdam because their flight was delayed. They had to spend the night in Amsterdam with hardly a dollar in their pocket. Fortunately, the airline gave them vouchers for a hotel and for dinner.
My parents reacted rather calmly considering the situation. What do you do when everything you've relied upon - your money, your credit cards, your identification - is gone? You still have have another day and night still left in the city. You haven't seen your son in seven months? What do you do? How do you react?
You can curse the city and the people within it. You can replay the moment over and over again, wondering what you should have done. You can guilt the other person. These are usually ways we react - whenever are wallet is stolen or whether it's raining outside.
With another day still ahead of us, I decided the only thing to do was admit that it happened and move on. Prague is more than pickpocketers. The city can be a beautiful city and likewise with the trip if we want it to be. There are worse things in the city than pickpocketers. We only need to open our eyes to find something wrong with a place or a person.
I decided that it can rain cats and dogs. We can get lost in the city. We can manage to not find our way to anything we want to see. We can run out of money. We can book the hostel for the wrong night (as I did in Siena with my brother). Pickpocketers can steal my dad's wallet, mine, and my mother's purse. But, they cannot pickpocket my day or my trip. These are things that none can take from me; only I can take it from myself.
I leave you with a picture of my parents who did not let a stolen wallet steal their trip.
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