"Give me my bag back"

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Stolen wallet a step back in time
15 March 2006
By JO MCKENZIE-MCLEAN

A Kaiapoi woman stepped back in time yesterday when she was reunited with personal belongings stolen seven years ago.

Shona Johnstone blew the dust off her dirt-clogged wallet and her mobile phone after picking them up from the Christchurch Police Station.

The threadbare wallet still contained her personal cards ? although faded and disintegrating ? but the $10 that was in it when it was stolen was missing.

The outdated brick-like cellphone emphasised the passing of time, she said.

Police told Johnstone that a woman, who wanted to remain anonymous, found the items lying on an empty section in Cambridge Terrace on Saturday.

"On Saturday, I got a message on my phone from the police to say that my wallet and mobile phone had been handed in and I kind of thought, `what are they talking about? I have got my wallet and mobile'.

"I said to the police it must have been from seven years ago and they said, `Yeah, well, it's pretty horrible-looking'. When I picked it up I was just like, `I don't know whether that's my wallet' but I turned it over and saw the Rip Curl label and I was like, `Oh yeah, it used to be blue'."

Johnstone said her bag containing her wallet and phone was stolen from under her desk while she was working at a photocopy shop in central Christchurch.

"They must have been watching me when I was on reception and I left the desk for maybe five minutes and it was gone.

"Luckily, I had given my car keys to my friends who were waiting in my car for me. When I hopped in my car I saw a girl crossing the road with my bag on. I yelled out and got out of the car and chased her, but she got away."

Despite the phone being dirt-clogged the Sim card still worked and [b:43dff94a98]Johnstone retrieved long-lost messages, including one she sent to the thief demanding: "Give me my bag back". [/b:43dff94a98] :icon_wink:

A rusty key from her old workplace hung from the wallet. "I joked to the police work might want their filing key back."

Aaah, a trip down memory lane.

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