A most incredible piece of mail!

Today I got a very unexpected letter from Paris, and when I opened it, I found the contents of my wallet that was stolen in St. Etienne last February.

Unbelievable! It was mailed to me by the American Aid Foundation of Paris, who had received my cards (sadly not my nice wallet or obviously any of the money that was inside) from the US Embassy. I can't believe they made it back to me!

After my wallet was jacked, I filed a police report in St. Etienne but despite checking back several times, it was never returned. It was the most irritating thing to happen to me, after just moving to a new town, subsequently breaking my foot, and having to find a new apartment without money or ID. This random act of thievery nearly forced me to leave France, as it took me more than a month to try to sort out my bank accounts on both sides of the Atlantic, and survive on borrowed money while doing so.

Most of the things in my wallet were replaceable, but I can't tell you how happy I feel getting this letter and this stuff again! I think about how many people cared about getting these cards back to me- whoever mailed it from St. Etienne to the US Embassy in Paris, the people from the Embassy who decided to send it to the non-profit group American Aid, and the people there who- free of charge- mailed it all back to my house in California.

Wow, I guess that for every bad person out there (ie the person who stole my wallet in the first place), there are many more good people who want to do the right thing. This miraculous return of my driver's license, insurance card, student IDs and French bus pass has temporarily restored my faith in humanity!

Yay nice people! And yay for having duplicates of everything that I can now keep in a safe place in case my wallet is ever stolen again :)