Wallet Facts

Facts related to "Wallet"

In 2006 muggers accosted magician David Copperfield, who promptly turned all of his pockets empty despite carrying his wallet, cell phone and passport cbsnews.com/news/david-co…
The character Guinan in Star Trek:TNG, played by Whoopi Goldberg, was named after an American actress, producer and entrepreneur, Texas Guinan. A colorful character who would greet her speakeasy’s patrons, “Hello, Sucker! Come on in and leave your wallet on the bar." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tex…
The most misused social security number ever (078-05-1120) belonged to Hilda Schrader Whitcher. She was the secretary of an executive at E. H. Ferree company who manufactured wallets which included a sample SSN card with her number. It was used over 40,000 times. ssa.gov/history/ssn/misus…
The Hello Kitty Murder (1999) was a case in which a nightclub hostess from Hong Kong got kidnapped and tortured by 3 men after stealing their wallet. She was then decapitated and her head was crammed into a Hello Kitty doll. Only skull, one tooth, and organs were later recovered en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hel…
In 1982, a Caltrans worker happened upon a wallet belonging to one of the Salomons alongside the Antelope Valley Freeway. A subsequent search turned up another wallet as well as photos and personal documents belonging to the couple. The case was reclassified as an active homicide investigation. lamag.com/citythinkblog/s…
Today I learned of the fat wallet syndrome, where sitting on a fat wallet in your back pocket can cause sciatica (a type of back pain) and piriformis (a form of butt pain). ijmrhs.com/medical-resear…
A mountaineer found a wallet in the Andes mountain range that belonged to passenger of the plane crash in 1972. Realising the owner had survived, the mountaineer returned in wallet to him in 2005, more than 30 years later. backpacker.com/trips/aliv…
A 17-yr-old found Chris Hemsworth's wallet on a restaurant table in L.A.; he returned it to the actor who gave him back the wallet's cash plus more. Later on the Ellen Show, the teen was also rewarded $10K cash for his honesty. mashable.com/2016/04/19/h…
TV host Soupy Sales was once suspended for asking his young viewers to send him "little green pieces of paper" taken from their parents' wallets. snopes.com/fact-check/gre…
A mountaineer found a wallet in the Andes mountain range. It was swung out of a plane, which crashed in 1972. Realizing the owner of the wallet was one of the 16 survivors, he returned it to him, 32 years later. alpineexpeditions.net/dis…
2 Florida men failed to steal a Corvette, because they couldn't drive stick. At gunpoint, the owner told them 4 times to push the clutch, but they gave up and ran away on foot with only the man's phone, keys, and wallet. foxnews.com/us/2013/01/29…
Illusionist David Copperfield was robbed at gunpoint and used sleight-of-hand to hide his wallet, passport, and cell phone. usatoday30.usatoday.com/l…
An Iowa man was reunited with a wallet he lost in 1944, it only took 72 years to get it back. wqad.com/2016/02/23/iowa-…
A children's entertainer named Soupy Sales asked on-air that children send him "those funny little pieces of paper with pictures of presidents on them" from their parents' purses and wallets and was thus suspended from his show for 2 weeks en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou…
The United States Postal Service will return wallets that are found to the owner classroom.synonym.com/how…
In 1938 a NY wallet maker used a sample of the newly implemented SSN on the card that goes in their wallets. Some of the customers thought this number was their assigned SSN. Overall an estimated 40,000 people reported under the 'Woolworth number' with cases turning up as late as 1977. snopes.com/fact-check/the…
In 1992, George Washington’s wallet was stolen from a Trenton, New Jersey museum and returned three weeks later with $1.66 missing. The two bills, one from 1776 worth 2/3 of a dollar and a 1779 dollar bill, were never recovered. deseretnews.com/article/2…
Soupy Sales told viewers to send pieces of little green paper from parents wallets snopes.com/fact-check/gre…
Diners Club was the first independent credit card company. Cofounder Frank McNamara had the idea in 1949 after dining with clients and realizing he had forgotten his wallet. He later returned to the restaurant and paid with a cardboard charge card and a signature. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Din…
The US Postal Service will return a lost wallet free of charge if it is placed in one of those blue post office boxes classroom.synonym.com/how…
A children's entertainer named Soupy Sales once asked the children who watched his show to send him "funny green pieces of paper with pictures of U.S. Presidents" from their parents wallets and purses. He was suspended for two weeks when parents complained. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou…
Pickpockets will sometimes yell "someone stole my wallet" so everyone around them pats their wallets, revealing the pocket valuables are held in. stuffyoushouldknow.com/po…
The man with the record for owning the most credit cards is Walter Cavanagh with 1,497 valid credit cards. He keeps them in the world's longest wallet that measures 250ft long and weighs 38lbs... guinnessworldrecords.com/…
In 2006, David Copperfield used slight of hand to trick armed robbers into believing he had nothing even though he was carrying his passport, wallet, and cellphone. usatoday30.usatoday.com/l…
The FBI maintains their own Bitcoin wallet that consists of seized Bitcoins. wired.com/2013/12/fbi_wal…
A photo of a man stealing a wallet in a store was on the bottom of The Lewiston Tribune on December 14, 2007. Above it was an unrelated photo of a man painting a business. Readers noticed both men were wearing the same clothes. They were identified to be the same person leading to his arrest. nytimes.com/2008/01/07/bu…
Macaques monkeys in Japan learned to steal purses and wallets, and take out the coins use them to buy drinks and snacks from vending machines. factsanddetails.com/japan…
Andrew Zimmern of Bizarre Foods was once a homeless drug addict who stole purses and wallets for years in NYC before moving to Minnesota and getting clean citypages.com/restaurants…
Wallets weren't used for carrying money and identification like they are now. They carried things like dried meats and "things to be unseen". It was also considered uncivilized to carry your wallet in your pocket up until the 20th century. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wal…
Today I learned about Mel Wiley, a police chief from Ohio who disappeared more than 30 years ago. His car was found with his clothes, badge, and wallet neatly stacked inside. A fellow officer found a typewriter ribbon from an unsent letter suggesting he was going on a “one way trip”. medina-gazette.com/News/2…
Sportscaster Jim Nantz wants his breakfast toast so burnt, he carries around a picture of burnt toas in his wallet to show servers to save time. ftw.usatoday.com/2016/03/…
Today I learned of the unsolved murder of Mitrice Richardson, arrested during a psychotic break, released without her wallet/phone, and not found for a year lamag.com/longform/what-h…
Illusionist David Copperfield once used sleight-of-hand to convince robbers that his pockets were empty though he held a wallet, passport, and phone. theguardian.com/world/200…
For years, James Randi (nee Zwinge) wrote everyday "I, Randall Zwinge, will die today" along with the date and his signature on a card he carried in his wallet. He hoped in the event of his untimely death, he would be credited with having predicted it. nytimes.com/2014/11/09/ma…
The Lewiston Tribune once published two pictures on its front page, one of a thief who had stolen a wallet at a store, and the other of a man named Michael Millhouse. Readers quickly recognized that the thief and Millhouse were identical and called the police, who arrested Millhouse for theft. blog.oregonlive.com/break…
132 wallets were "lost" in NYC as part of an experiment, and only 2% of them were taken. Wallets were more likely to be taken on the Upper East Side, where median family income is as high as $126,000. columbia.edu/cu/news/07/0…
If Bill Gates dropped a 100$ bill on the ground, he'd earn more in interest in the 1 second it took him to pick it up than the actual act of picking it up and putting it in his wallet. mic.com/articles/45397/10…
The first credit card, issued in 1949 and made out of cardboard, was Diners Club. Co-founder Frank McNamara was dining with clients and realized he forgot his wallet. His wife paid the tab, and McNamara thought of a multipurpose charge card as a way to avoid similar embarrassments in the future. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Din…
Using a mobile wallet is safer than shopping online or swiping a physical card because it uses a randomly generated 15 to 16 digit number called a "token," which are useless if stolen. time.com/money/4579360/pa…
The founder of PETA has asked for, when she dies, her skin to be turned into wallets, her feet into umbrella stands, her flesh into nuggets, and for her ears to be sent to the Canadian Parliament en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ing…
Today I learned about preparation to reduce the impact of a stolen wallet

Long story short, my wallet was stolen Thursday morning during a brief stop to pick up a friend near the beginning of a 750 mile car trip, and wasn't noticed until about 250 miles later when we stopped for lunch and gas. If it weren't for my friend being with me, I'd have been stuck 300 miles from home with no ID, no credit card, and no cash.

There is some traditional advice about what to do after the fact, such as get new credit card numbers, file a police report, report it to credit agencies, etc - there are a bunch of websites that list that stuff. However, there were a few things I noticed that could be done ahead of time to make things a bit easier in the event that it happens.

  1. Enter the phone number from the back of your credit cards into your cell phone. Without the cards to look off of, it was a few hours before I was able to get access to a computer and look up the numbers, and a lot of mischief can happen in those hours. Even if you're near home, 20 or 30 minutes is enou
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Abraham Lincoln was carrying a Confederate $5 bill in his wallet when he died. thekojonnamdishow.org/201…
Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser was drugged and robbed of his passport, wallet, suitcase and trousers in a motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was quoted as saying "I wish I'd never heard of bloody Memphis." articles.latimes.com/1986…
At one point over 5000 Americans thought that 078-05-1120 was their SSN...because it was printed on a sample card that was included in Woolworth wallets ssa.gov/history/ssn/misus…
A small, bladed can opener issued to U.S. soldiers with rations from WW II into the 1980s -- officially known as the P-38 but called a “John Wayne” by Marines – is still carried in wallets today by some veterans. networkworld.com/communit…
If a thief uses 1234 as a PIN number, they could access funds in almost 1 out of every 9 wallets they steal. mashable.com/2012/09/24/p…
Los Angeles International Airport found 154 laptops, 98 cellphones, 229 driver's licenses, 18 iPads and 32 wallets within the span of one month in 2014 latimes.com/travel/deals/…
Today I learned of Antoine Le Blanc. Hanged after being convicted of murder, his body was then used for experiments with electrical currents. After the experiments were completed, his skin was removed, turned into leather souvenirs (wallets, purses, lampshades) and sold to people of the town. weirdnj.com/stories/antoi…
, in Japan it was once believed that a man could become wealthy by keeping a clump of boar hair in his wallet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jap…
There is a standard way for blind people to fold money so they can easily locate them in their wallet afb.org/info/money/5
Waiters & Waitresses get 63% of their income from tips, so when you stiff them, it really hurts their wallet payscale.com/tipping-char…
During an integrity test run by ABC, 40 officers in LA and NYC were given bait wallets filled with cash/IDs. Of the 40 wallets given out, every single one came back with all of the cash. abcnews.go.com/Primetime/…
At age 21 Bill Gates was arrested for speeding in his Porsche 911 and immediately posted bail from his wallet full of cash. He also has a huge grin on his face in his mug shot. jonhs.com/mugshots/gates.…
During Reagan's attempted assassination, military officials unsuccessfully tried to keep FBI agents from confiscating Reagan's wallet, which contained the Gold Codes card (the nuclear launch codes). The FBI did not return it until two days later. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rea…
It's possible to purchase wallets, belts, and boots made of bequeathed 'human leather' humanleather.co.uk/index.…
Soupy Sales asked children to send him "green pieces of paper" from their parents' wallets. examiner.com/article/soup…
You can legally buy products made out of human leather, but a wallet costs $14,000 humanleather.co.uk/humanl…
Sitting on your wallet can have long term negative effects called Piriformis, or fat wallet syndrome, which causes pain and numbness in the buttocks and bring irreversible harm to your hips. (pdf link) iach.amedd.army.mil/secti…
A UK company offers wallets, belts and shoes made of human skin. When pressed to reveal their source, they declined to disclose it. standardmedia.co.ke/artic…
A man had 41 shots fired at him for pulling out his wallet because he thought he was being robbed en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ama…
All watches, clocks, pencils, electric razors, scissors, flashlights, wallets, and purses looted from murdered Jews during the Holocaust were delivered to Wehrmacht front-line troops during WW2. holocaustresearchproject.…
In 2009 a Walmart customer found 10 human teeth in a new wallet. foxnews.com/story/2009/03…
Former digital wallet Isis Wallet had to change it's name to softcard after the rise of the militant terrorist group ISIS en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/S…
A lost wallet is more likely to be returned if you have a photo of a baby in it. In a 2009 study, 88% of wallets with a baby photo were returned, followed by wallets with a photo of a puppy (53%), family (48%) and an old couple (28%). Only 15% of control wallets were returned. lifehacker.com/5313032/ba…
Sitting while your wallet is in your back pocket is bad for your posture and can cause neck, shoulder and back pain. ergonomics.about.com/od/b…
In 1938 wallet maker E. H. Ferree provided, in each wallet, a sample social security card (with "specimen" written on it) and actual SSN of secretary Mrs. Hilda Whitcher. Over 40K people claimed the SSN as their own. Mrs. W later remarked "...I can't understand how people can be so stupid." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soc…
At the time of Abraham Lincoln's death, the only currency he had in his wallet was a Confederate five dollar bill. loc.gov/exhibits/treasure…
You can buy an 'IT' the O ring monocycle thing from South Park (5E11). Lacking the flexigrips mind so it only penetrates ones wallet. wheelsurf.nl/wheelsurf-20…
Today I Learned that keeping a condom in your wallet is a bad idea. goaskalice.columbia.edu/5…
A man shot him self in the butt while reaching for his wallet in a Home Depot. detroit.cbslocal.com/2013…
Over 40,000 people used Hilda Whitcher's Social Security number because it came in wallets they bought at Woolworth. ssa.gov/history/ssn/misus…
There is a company in China called "Mexican" that sells low end wallets and bags. s8.taobao.com/search?q=%E…
A Black man holding a wallet is more likely to be shot by the police than a White man holding a gun. thesocietypages.org/socim…
The first American ship sunk in WWII was off the coast of Australia. The only person to die was the cook, who went back for his wallet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_…
The number on a sample Social Security card distributed in wallets sold through Woolworth stores was used by thousands of people. It is one of two numbers that are explicitly "off limits" when validating Social Security Numbers. snopes.com/business/taxes…
In 2007 there was a man wanted for the theft of a woman's wallet who had a CCTV photo published in a newspaper. Nobody realised until after the newspaper was published that a photo of the same man putting up Christmas decorations was featured on the same page. seattletimes.com/html/loc…
Murderer William Burke's skin was used to make wallets after being hanged and dissected. edinburghguide.com/edinbu…
Softcard, a mobile payment platform that began as a joint venture between Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T, was originally named ISIS Mobile Wallet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sof…
There is a wallet that is also a cell phone. concept-phones.com/nokia/…
Jim Carrey wrote himself the now legendary cheque for $10 million, which he kept in his wallet and subsequently and poignantly placed in his fathers pocket at Percy's funeral. jimcarreyonline.com/info/…
In 1938 the E H Ferree company printed fake social security cards for display purposes in selling their wallets. Unfortunately the used a secretary's real SS number. To date the number has been claimed by over 40k people as their own. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soc…
I am not the only person to have been injured by their wallet. Piriformis syndrome is sometimes called "fat wallet syndrome." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pir…
An old man got his wallet stolen, catches the thief, hogties him and left him in the street for police youtube.com/watch?v=D6ZZZ…

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