Well things have settled from the holiday. Although the holiday is over, it appears we are still paying for it. Like I said in the last entry, Chris got his wallet stolen while we were in Brussels. He had his wallet in his back pocket (we do know now, not a good idea, but we didn't think about it or worry about it before hand). He had a long T-shirt on and a long coat that covered his back pockets and yet, we both know when it happened because we both noticed the guy bump into him, but didn't think about it until we where about a block away and Chris noticed it was gone. We tried to ask people on the street and in shops where the police station was but no one would speak English so we walked back to the hotel, asked the mean employee, who, wouldn't give us a phone number, only circle a general area on a map, and cancelled the cards. Chris had 2 bank cards in his wallet. We called and cancelled the card within 45 minutes (at the most) of the card being taken. We took out the money we had put in there for "emergency holiday funds", loosing money by getting it out in Euros and felt quite assured that the man who stole it could do no more damage, until Chris remembered that the overdraft for the checking account was directly connected to the Visa card that had a bigger balance on. We crossed our fingers that we had caught it in time.
Monday morning we realized we hadn't caught it in time at all... in that 45 minute space of time whoever stole the card had managed to spend around $600.00, not to mention all those foreign conversion fees. We called the bank and they said they didn't know the details of all the transactions but two were for - women's wear, and one was at an art gallery.
I am sure the person who stole the card has it all down to a science and I am sure they were busy that night because at the police station there were 3 ahead of us that had purses/wallets stolen and 2 more come in while we were waiting, but we continue to watch the account and to be amazed at how much they got in such a short time.
So.... all we can do is say, Merry Christmas to someone out there who now has an extra wad of cash, thanks to their "Secret Santa"!
Monday morning we realized we hadn't caught it in time at all... in that 45 minute space of time whoever stole the card had managed to spend around $600.00, not to mention all those foreign conversion fees. We called the bank and they said they didn't know the details of all the transactions but two were for - women's wear, and one was at an art gallery.
I am sure the person who stole the card has it all down to a science and I am sure they were busy that night because at the police station there were 3 ahead of us that had purses/wallets stolen and 2 more come in while we were waiting, but we continue to watch the account and to be amazed at how much they got in such a short time.
So.... all we can do is say, Merry Christmas to someone out there who now has an extra wad of cash, thanks to their "Secret Santa"!
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