Walking Naked in San Francisco

On Friday while having coffee with a colleague at Equator someone wanted to ruin my day. In a process that took less than 2 minutes I’ve got my phone & wallet stolen:

1. My coffee was spilled all over our table
2. Lucky the phone that was on the table didn't get wet but in order to clean the table I moved my phone & wallet to the edge of the table while I was wiping the table
3. Shortly after the table was clean I moved my hand to bring back the phone and wallet but they were not there any more

It’s amazing how fast it all happened. It took few seconds to understand that it did not fall on the floor or anything alike but was intentionally stolen.. unbelievable! :(

Another minute has passed and the lady at the table next was telling me to use ‘Find My iPhone’ (obviously I should have thought about it but was still processing the situation). I immediately opened my laptop but the phone was already turned off and and was inaccessible.

The phone was stolen and within less then 2–3 min (which felt like 20 seconds) was turned off.

I obviously sent it a lock & erase commands but based on iCloud feedback the phone was not turned on since the incident (4 days ago).

Handling the situation

Lucky my colleague helped me process it all and act fast. Within couple of hours it almost all got back on track.

• Submitted a report to the local police online
• Cancelled Amex card on Amex website — Their default replacement shipping is 7–10 days but it can be changed to 1 day at no cost.
  This is a weird experience as at the heat of the moment I needed to read the fine prints otherwise I would have gotten stuck without a card for a while
• Went into Wells Fargo to Cancel my debit card (funny story about it below)
• visited T-Mobile to get a new SIM Card
• Bought iPhone 7 Plus :)

2 hours after the incident I was in my car, diving while using the phone navigation almost as if this entire thing didn’t happen..

Wells Fargo are not Smart

I tried to cancel Wells Fargo Debit Card online but didn’t find how so I decided to walk into a nearby Wells Fargo office.

Went in and explained that I want to cancel a debit card as it was stolen.
I was asked for an ID but I didnt have one and without an ID they said they can not cancel a card. While it does make some sense I’m with a laptop on me and I can login to the website but the option to cancel card is not available and the scenario of a stolen wallet is not unheard of.

I decided to take it a step further and remembered that I have a Wells Fargo credit card that I never used in my bag. I pulled it of as a proof of identity and they said it’s not enough. Now this is silly, it’s either that I now present them a stolen card or I don’t. Either way it should get their attention but it didn’t.

Few minutes later and after I pushed again and again that I don’t care about a replacement card and that I just want to cancel the card they agreed to ask me identification questions and get the process going.

To end that experience in a positive note, the banker explained to me that even though the card was cancelled I should be aware that some online transaction but be accepted and I will be charged so I should not be relaxed.
When I tried to dig deeper what she meant she was unable to explain herself. Add that to the rest of the experience and you get a good example on why the banking experience suck.

Epilog

I got home and told me my wife the story. Before I reached the end she immediately said this is the best story I had so far for upgrading my phone :)