Now that I've calmed down a bit, I can tell you what happened

Well, last night I was just freaking out - crying, then I'd stop, then cry again, etc.

Some South African background...

1. there is no point in holding out for a phone to be found. it will never happen.
2. also no point in reporting to police/ mall security (the only thing that will accomplish is me getting more frustrated)
3. no, the iphone wasn't insured (and I work in insurance!)

So what happened?

We were at Ackermans buying bedding for the kids. D had two kids hanging onto him plus one of the bales. I was about 10 m behind them with the other bale in one hand plus 3 pairs of shoes in the other.

I saw a really nice black dress on my way, stopped to look at sizes and felt someone brush up against me.

The shop wasn't full so I immediately looked down, saw the front pocket of my bag was now gaping open and my phone was gone.

I SCREAMED!

Dropped the clothes there and ran about 5 steps to the nearest people, a man and a woman, and said, "did you see my phone?"

(I'm clearly in shock because I was not thinking at all)

He had this weird expression on his face and his girlfriend said, "does it look like this one?" which is an odd thing to say anyway because what would you normally say? I'd say something like, "where was it? what does it look like?"

I had a feeling then (but my mind hadn't caught up to my gut) and I know now that it's them who brushed up against me and took the phone.

I've been beating myself up but what could I have done? I was as vigilant as I normally am (very), the shop wasn't busy, by rights nothing should have happened.

You also can't shake them and say, "I know you took it - give it back"

I ran to D, shouted across the store (LOUD), MY PHONE's JUST BEEN STOLEN and of course, we lack empathy for these things in South Africa. No-one even blinked.

One very kind couple stopped and he offered me his Blackberry to make the necessary calls. I told him I don't even know where to start or what to do and they calmed me down and told me to go straight to the Cell C shop.

I did, we blocked the phone and this morning I took the iphone box with me and they blacklisted the handset.

My kids were SUPER awesome (as was D) and kept saying (Connor), "Mummy, I'm very, VERY sorry the bad people took your iphone" and Kendra, "I think you need to get Mr Smack for them" :) Lots of hugs and kisses and I'm sorrys.

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So I sent Mandy my accountability list and since I saw something that could be done fairly quickly, I quickly made a disc for Cat of her boys' party pics, and I felt GREAT!

Action :)

And then I wrote Beth an email to tell her congrats on her Nate Berkus thing, and mentioned the iphone thing and then I realised, this is SMALL in the grand scheme of life. Beth's son was murdered for goodness sake, and I had some good old perspective.

Which is great!

I do want to say a BIG thank you to Mandy for being so quick to email me some links to lock and password protect and send a message to the person who now has a very nice iphone with an even nicer case (I almost love my case more than the phone).

So I wanted to buy a new iphone today but the istore doesn't have any phones in stock. I could get one from Cell C but I want my 20% cash back next month if I buy from the istore (on Discovery) so will wait. When I told them to phone Sandton, they told me there are NO phones in the country! It kills me to use savings for this (which is so unnecessary) but sadly, I'm now an apple convert and I can't go back (after only being convinced for two months).

They're waiting for the new iphone 5 to arrive (yes, I've signed up for notification). So that's where we are.

I bought a new SIM, did a SIM swop (I'm learning far too much about what happens when phones get stolen) and you can now phone/ SMS me again on what I call the pink phone) my old Nokia. I probably won't sms back because I hate that keyboard :)

And that's the long and horrible story.

Thankfully, I've completelly stopped the crying - I think the kids were worried!!! - and I'm back in problem-solving mode.

How was your Friday night?
PS I was supposed to do the black and white photo link-up today. I'll do it next week. Promise!