We left the ship to do a bit of Christmas and souvenir shopping.  We made our way to Tropical L'Attitude where I made my last purchase of the day.  After paying for the purchase I turned around, putting my money discreetly away in my wallet.  The cashier said, 'You forgot your purchase'.  I turned, said 'Thank you', picked up the package, and left.  We made one more stop, where I only browsed, then we all walked back to the ship.

We went to our staterooms, put away everything, and met our friends for lunch on board ship.  After eating, we went back to the room to relax a bit.  By this time we had left the port and was on our way to the next stop.  My husband went upstairs to play blackjack in the casino.  I decided to join him.  I went to the bag I had carried shopping to get my wallet and money and it was not there.  I looked in the usual places and still no wallet.  You can imagine what ran through my head.  Was I robbed?  Did I put it someplace before lunch and now have forgotten where I put it?  Did someone come into the room and take it while we were at lunch?  Where was it?  Sadly, after searching high and low in our stateroom, I had no other choice but to face my husband with this bad news.  Needless to say, he was pretty upset that I had taken all of my money with me on our shopping trip and had not left most of it back on board and in our stateroom provided safe.

Since I could only remember the last time I had seen it was at Tropical L'Attitude where I made my last purchase, I had no idea if I had lost it on shore or in our stateroom on the ship.  I called Guest Services and they said if I had not found it by the next afternoon to call back and they would have Security do a room search.  The wallet did not turn up and the next afternoon three security guys came to our stateroom and did a thorough search, still no wallet, it was gone.  My heart sank even lower.

My husband and I decided not to say anything to our friends to ruin their trip so we tried to put it in the back of our minds and not dwell on what had happened for the remainder of the cruise.  There was nothing to be done anyway and the cruise had just started.

We arrived back in our home the afternoon of 8 December and immediately saw the light flashing on our answering system.  My husband and I listened to the messages together, erasing the junk messages, as we listened.  About the fifth message was from a guy named Aaron from our bank, Redstone Federal Credit Union, saying that someone from Tropical L'Attitude had found my wallet and was trying to reach us.  They had used the 800 number on the back of my ATM card in my wallet.  They said the wallet had a substantial amount of money in it and would like to have me call or email them to make arrangements to return my wallet, and its contents.  Can you imagine the surprise and excitement.

I am so thankful to the staff at Tropical L'Attitude, especially Rosie and Julie, for taking the time and trouble to see that my wallet and its contents get safely home to me in Meridianville, AL.  Good, decent, honest people like these don't usually make the 6 o'clock news so I would like to say a big public 'THANK YOU' so your readers and everyone in Grand Cayman will know.  These are some really great people who have made my Christmas and spread their goodwill from George Town, Grand Cayman to Merdianville, Alabama, USA.

Oh, I almost forgot, the wallet contained $1,528.10 in cash.  They did get a reward.  They actually asked me if it would be alright if they spent the reward for a party for all of the employees at the end of the season.  Merry Christmas!

Peggie Chiarizio
Meridianville, AL