This is a series about a certain purse owned by the Sangl Family. Unlike every other series I have written, I am NOT excited to be writing this one.

Part 5 - A Final Word
Losing a purse is terrible, but it happens. It has caused me to give serious thought to the actions one should take when personal items go missing. I have made a list of the actions I took and some I was preparing to take once we knew the purse was lost.

* Stopped all debit cards (should stop credit cards too if you have them)
* Placed stop-payment on all checks in the checkbooks
* File a police report to let them know you have misplaced an item. I am told by the bank that many recovered items end up being taken to a police station.
* Cut off the cell phone number from the phone
* Place an alert on your credit report. You can do so by contacting one of the three credit reporting agencies (TransUnion, Equifax, or Experian) and placing a "fraud alert" on your account. This will require the credit reporting agencies to actually make contact with you before a new line of credit can be opened. The person at the bank recommended Experian because they are open for twenty-four hours. You can click

HERE to access Experian's Fraud Alert page.
* Contact the Social Security Administration if your SSN has been compromised. You can click

Text is HERE and Link is http://www.ssa.gov/oig/guidelin.htm

HERE to visit the SSA's Fraud page.

I hope this sort of event never happens to you! If it does, I hope it turns out as well as this situation has for us.

Text is Read recent posts and Link is http://iwasbroke.savingadvice.com

Read recent posts

Text is Read the entire "Lost Purse" series and Link is http://iwasbroke.savingadvice.com/series-the-lost-purse/

Read the entire "Lost Purse" series

This is a series about a certain purse owned by the Sangl Family. Unlike every other series I have written, I am NOT excited to be writing this one.

Part 4 - The Conclusion

On Wednesday this week, Jenn received a package at the house! Below is a picture!



The purse with ALL of its contents - including cash, iPod, cell phone, and the kitchen sink were still there!

I am so humbled by the honesty of all the people who saw the unattended purse and left it alone, and we are blown away by the kindness and quick action of the McDonald's staff at the following address:

McDonald's 331 Harding Place Nashville, TN

I called the manager of the McDonald's that same day and profusely thanked them for their kindness and told her of her employee's great work.

The reward has been mailed. It is substantial, and it is worth it.

We are so blessed.

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Text is Read the entire "Lost Purse" series and Link is http://iwasbroke.savingadvice.com

Read the entire "Lost Purse" series

This is a series about a certain purse owned by the Sangl Family. Unlike every other series I have written, I am NOT excited to be writing this one.

Part 3 - A Chance
Jenn was devastated over the loss of her purse. I gave her some money to go get the Chinese food and started unloading the car.

About ten minutes after Jenn had left, my cell phone rang with the caller ID reading "Jennifer Sangl". I thought, "Jenn has found her phone!"

I answered the phone and said, "Jenn! You found your purse!"

A voice on the other end said, "Hello?"

Short story - the caller was the McDonald's employee. They had went out in the lobby and Jenn's purse was still sitting IN THE LOBBY. It had been there for over seven hours!

I asked the caller to tell me her name and told her that if she would mail it to me, there would be a reward. I think she is a teenager - she had no clue about how to mail something. No clue! I had to walk her through exactly how to mail it.

That was on Sunday evening.

On Monday, late in the morning, I received another phone call from Jenn's phone. The girl was at the post office to mail the purse! She said, "I have no money. Can I use some of the money in the purse?" Apparently, the money was still in the purse!!!

My answer? AB-SO-LUTE-LY!

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Text is Read the entire "Lost Purse" series and Link is http://iwasbroke.savingadvice.com/series-the-lost-purse/

Read the entire "Lost Purse" series

This is a series about a certain purse owned by the Sangl Family. Unlike every other series I have written, I am NOT excited to be writing this one.

Part 2 - The Panic
Upon discovery that the purse was missing, I immediately logged in to our bank accounts to see how much of our money was missing with fraudulent charges. $0 of unexpected charges were there. Whew!

I then had Jenn prepare a list of everything that was in the purse. It was a mile-long list.

I called the bank and had them shut off the debit cards. The person at the bank was extremely helpful. I could not believe how helpful they were!

Then I tried to remember where exactly the McDonald's was. I remembered that there was a Red Box outside the store that was not working. I looked up on Red Box's website to find the McDonalds in the Nashville area. There were none that made sense.

So I pulled up Google Maps and searched "McDonald's Nashville, TN". I found two that were located about where I thought we had pulled off. When I zoomed in on the "Satellite" view, I was able to narrow in on the store.

I called the store and confirmed that they had a Red Box outside that was not working and the type of interior the store had. I asked them if a purse had been turned in. They said, "Yes!" I was PUMPED! Then they told me that it was actually a backpack with a bunch of clothes in it. I was SAD!

They said that they did not have a purse, but that I should call back each day to see if it were turned in. Right. Like that is going to flippin' work!

Oh - one more thing - did I mention that Jenn left her cell phone in her purse? Now we have no purse, all the cash is gone, the iPod is gone, the checkbooks are gone, our old Purdue college IDs are gone. It is ALL gone.

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Read the entire "Lost Purse" series

This is a series about a certain purse owned by the Sangl Family. Unlike every other series I have written, I am NOT excited to be writing this one.

Part 1 - The Loss
If you follow me on

Twitter, you know that Jenn and I traveled to southern Illinois recently to celebrate her grandfather's 90th birthday party. It was a wonderful trip. Her grandfather is a real-life WWII and Korean War hero. He was machine gunned down in WWII in the Battle of the Bulge and fought in the Koren War too. He is an amazing man, and it was our honor to attend his birthday party.

Anyway, we headed home on Sunday. It was about a nine hour drive home. We stopped and grabbed some lunch at a McDonald's just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. We then stopped one more time for some gas. As we arrived home at around 8PM on Sunday evening, I told Jenn that it would be great to grab some Chinese food.

Jenn said, "No problem. I will unload the car while you go pick it up. Let me get you some cash for the food."

She reached down to grab her purse, and the feeling of dread set in. She immediately knew that it was not in the car and that it had to be at the McDonald's that we had stopped at nearly SIX HOURS ago.

Panic might be an understatement. Many of our cash envelopes were in the purse. It also contained debit cards, checks, an iPod, and a lot of other stuff. Frankly, I could not believe everything that Jenn said was in that purse. Ladies who read this blog - HOW do you fit all of that stuff in your purses?????

So ... what do you do when you lose your purse?

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