Two weeks ago I had the unpleasant experience of having my wallet go missing. I was at Sunway Pyramid, hanging out with some friends and looking through some clothes to buy for CNY, and as I was waiting at the fitting room with a armful of jeans to try on, I noticed my handbag was wide open. And after a frantic check, the worst was confirmed... my good ol' yellow wallet with a silver teddy bear in front which I've had for YEARS (at least 5, I think, can't even remember), was gone. I figure I either accidentally left my handbag open and it might have fallen out, or someone just bravely unzipped it while I was busy rummaging through a pile of jeans while looking for my size, and my handbag was slung over my sholuder out of my sight. Either way, someone grabbed the opportunity and snitched my wallet, which contained about RM200, all my receipts for my work claims which also amounted to a few hundred ringgit, a 4GB thumbdrive (I got it free, but I still really liked that thumb drive), and of course, my IC, driver's license, credit card, atm card, and other miscellaneous stuff here and there.
Luckily I noticed it was gone pretty quick I guess, so I could immediately call my banks to cancel the atm card and credit card, after which I reported the incident to the Lost and Found sections of Pyramid, hoping that perhaps some kind soul would have picked it up if it had dropped, or the thief would at least just take the money and return the rest of my stuff to save me the trouble of having to apply for new cards and all that blah. I still took emergency leave the next day to apply for a new IC, but still held out hope for the rest of the week that I would somehow or another get it back... like someone would knock on my door and return it to me or dump it in my mailbox or something...but alas, no luck. Still, I am thankful that it wasn't worse. My whole handbag could have been snatched from me, or someone could've tried to rob me at knifepoint. At least I wasn't at any risk of injury, I was just a bit careless and some sneaky bugger took the opportunity.
So since I had to go through that, I thought I should do a little community service by sharing my tips on what you need to do once you find your wallet has been stolen (and the kinks you might encounter along the way, such as money hungry people who derive joy out of taking more money from you after you've already had your stuff stolen):
1) Already mentioned - call your bank(s) and have all your credit cards and atm cards cancelled right away. Else the next time you get your credit card bill, you'll probably find a lot of strange and very expensive purchases on your bill. Your atm card, they are less likely to be able to use it without knowing the pin number, however, you don't wanna take the chance. The downside, of course, it that the stoopid banks will charge you RM50 for a new credit card, and RM12 for a new atm card (for Maybank, that is). Yup, they do a fantastic job of easing your problem after you've just had your wallet stolen. Gotta love the banks.
2) Make a police report. This is so you can apply for a new IC and driver's license, of course. Very important tip is that if you report your IC as stolen (and this should be stated in the police report), you will not get fined when you apply for a new IC. HOWEVER, if you report your IC as missing or misplaced, the National Registration Dept will happily charge you RM110 for your carelessness. So you gotta be careful how you word your police report, or NRD will give you a hard time!
In my case, I wasn't too sure if it was actually stolen or my wallet dropped out, so I just reported it as I found my wallet missing from my handbag while I was shopping. It was only after I made the report at the police station when I realized my error. The next day when I had to go back to collect the receipt for my report (they also charge RM2 for that stoopid report. I don't know why I pay taxes to these people), I asked if I could amend the report. The guy I was talking to was this guy who was wearing dirty-ish polo T-shirt instead of a police uniform, looked like he hadn't brushed his teeth in ages and was fat enough that I think if he had to run after a criminal, he'd drop dead from a heart attack after running 2 minutes. And while it would be nice to think the police' motto is to serve the people, this annoying bugger's first comment when he looked at my report was I should have made the report at the Sunway police station next to Pyramid, where the incident occurred (I made it at SS17, which is slightly further away). At this point, my eyes kinda narrowed as I imagined a lots of unfriendly things I wanted to do this guy, but I just grunted in acknowledgement. Then he said I can't amend the report anymore after it's already printed, and also that the report wasn't written 'correctly' so most likely I would get fined for the missing IC. Ugh. Fortunately, the next day when I went to the NRD and explained to the guy at the NRD that my wallet was most likely stolen, he didn't give me a hard time, accepted my explanation and didn't charge a fine. *Whew! Thank God for small mercies! Plus the guy who took my photo at the NRD office was a very friendly person. So while dealing with the police was a bit of a pain, I would say I'm quite happy with the NRD. The only pain was the long wait for my turn (I had to wait about 4 to four hours after taking my number! ~:O)
3) In case there is info you want to update on your IC, such as a new address, in addition to filling out a form to request for a new IC, you also need to fill out another form for change of information on the IC, as well as have some documented evidence of the change in address or whatever other info. For me, my old IC has my old address, but I have since moved and didn't bother to change the info on it. Since I was applying for a new IC, I wanted to update my address on it, but didn't know I had to bring copies of my electricity or water bill as evidence. Fortunately again, I didn't have to run all the way back to the NRD office to give them the copies of my bills, I just faxed them the copies the next day and called them to confirm that they received it and will change my address. Good and simple. Again, another reason why I am happy with the NRD. It's not very often that I praise a government department, so you government kulis scanning my blog for potentially seditious comments, enjoy it while you can!
4) The NRD is located at Plaza Masalam at Shah Alam. The Immigration Department is located at the PKNS building, also at Shah Alam. Do not be a doofus like me and think the NRD is located at the PKNS, which is what I did and went to the wrong building. Hehe. Unfortunately, if you live outside of Selangor, I have no idea where you're supposed to go. Sorry!
I have since stopped holding out hope that my wallet will miraculously come back to me, and rather than feel crappy about it, I relish the excuse to buy a new wallet coz' my old one was REALLY old anyway. Like, I think I've had it more than 5 years at least, but probably more. So I went out hunting for a new one, and had a rather fruitless search at Summit, which leads me to tip 5) Do not go wallet hunting at Summit. Wallets there are either cheap but low quality and look ugly, or are nice and of good quality but super expensive. The only good ones I found were at this shop called Bonaco and they cost around RM150. Yikes! So I diverted my search to Sunway Pyramid (where my wallet went missing in the first place, ironically!), and found a pretty good quality wallet (apparently it's made of Korean leather, which doesn't really matter to me coz' I couldn't care less which country it's from as long as it's good quality and looks nice) and it only cost me RM62. And yes, it just HAD to be ..... red.
Ain't it purty? Buying nice new stuff always cheers a girl up.
I don't have any tips yet on applying for my other documents, coz' I need my IC to apply for everything else, and I haven't gotten my new IC yet (getting it back during my CNY leave). But yeah, hoped it helped somewhat if you ever lose your wallet, which hopefully never happens, unless you really need an excuse to buy a nice new red wallet too. :)
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