Date Night: Robbery Excitement

DH had been calling me several times during the day. Did I want to go out with him tonight? I was excited! Usually, I'm the one planning our dates. However, today, it was him! We decided to go out to a local restaurant that's been in the area forwhat seems like FOREVER! Brunet's Cajun Restaurant.

This place has wonderful fried seafood with a Cajun flair. The service is great, the atmosphere is relaxed, the food is outstanding, the helpings are overwhelmingly generous! If you are a fried seafood fan, this is the place for you. Although, there are SOME healthy options on the menu as well.Your waiter will start off with your drinks, followed by a bowl of hot hush puppies (fried bread). Then she/he will take your dinner order.

One of my FAVORITE appetizers is the Little Stuffed Bread. It looks like a dinner roll stuffed with a filling of crawfish or shrimp and then deep fried. Absolutely to die for!!! If you want a simple meal without all the calories, just ask for the Little Stuffed Bread with a salad and a bowl of gumbo and you're set!

I LOVE the shrimp dinner. It comes with a shrimp salad, bowl of gumbo, shrimp etoufee, fried shrimp, boiled shrimp, shrimp au gratin, 1 stuffed shrimp, and another bowl of shrimpy something but the name escapes me right now. Be sure to ask for a to go box when your meal is served because there is no way you're gonna clean your plate in one sitting.

Our tummies full of not so healthy fried Cajun seafood and several glasses of iced tea, DH and I exit the restaurant to head home. Since he'd been driving all day for his job, he opted to be a passenger instead. We got to my surburban where I got into the driver's side seat. He opened the back passenger side door and noticed the glass. My purse was gone. The purse that I had THOUGHT about taking inside with me but decided against because....after all....there's nothing in that thing that anybody could actually want! Hah!

He says, "Where's your purse?" and I turned to see him and all the glass and I say, "Where's my purse!!!???" Then he says, "Cynthia, go inside and talk to the manager. I'm calling the police." An hour later, we're still patiently waiting for an officer to arrive. In the meantime, hubs had his copies of all credit cards so we spent our time on the phone getting all accounts closed/cancelled. That part wasn't that difficult. It's a good thing he had his cards with him. I was more concerned about my checkbook, son's social security benefit check that I hadn't deposited yet, and much, much later I remembered that my wedding ring was in that purse! I didn't have much cash in the purse as I had just emptied it of all pocket change. My GPS navigator was also taken. My bank debit cards were in my back pocket since they are what I use MOST of the time.

The officer arrives, we file the report, officer R. Simoneaux goes down into the canal that runs alongside the restaurant. He shines his flashlight around a bit and looks for my brown purse that's gonna miraculously appear in the dark weeds.

At this point, I'm livid and shaking. I even felt a bit nauseous. If I could only get my hands around the neck of the jerk, kid, drug addict, whoever.....Why do I feel this way? It's only a purse! I can certainly relate to the vigilantes of the world now!

The report filed, the theories discussed, we said our goodnight's to the officer and headed home. FINALLY. Arriving home, the very first thing I do is sit down at the computer and began researching what to do about stolen social security numbers. Learning that there's NOTHING you can do through Social Security . gov, I start looking up the credit bureau info.

I'm concentrating on that at 11:45 p.m. when my house telephone rings. Not recognizing the number on Caller ID, I ALMOST didn't answer it. But curiosity got the better of me.

"Hello?"

"Is this Mrs. Cynthia?"

"Yes it is"

"My name is Chris and my wife and I found.....Did you lose a purse?"

Me, excitedly...."YES, YES I DID!"

Chris proceeds to inform me that he and his wife were looking for moving boxes in dumpsters and he found my purse sitting on the top of a lot of garbage about 3 blocks away from the restaurant!!! He told me that he had gotten my phone number off the checkbook.

So, anyway, to make a long, long story short....My purse was returned to me approx 4 hours after it was stolen. Checkbook, credit cards, and son's undeposited Soc Sec check were still in it. My wedding band, ALL cash (even down to whatever pennies was in there), and the GPS navigator are still missing.

Now, off to file a claim with the insurance company to get that back window replaced.

Ahhhh, date night with hubby. I think it'll be a while before we go out again.