Petty Crime...

Had an interesting day….my handbag got stolen this morning.

I won’t go into too many details, but suffice it to say that I realised within an hour that I had not misplaced it, and that it really had been pinched. We went through all the procedures of stopping credit cards, Switch cards and mobile phone cut-offs, but I was quite concerned because there was a cheque in the handbag that I was due to pay into the bank during my lunch hour. It was a significant amount, and to have the bag stolen at such a point was awful.

I am so very thankful that God made sure that the perpetrator was not given enough time to do more damage. Within minutes of me notifying the police, a gentleman came to where I was, and said, “There isn’t anyone here called Kennett who’s had a bag stolen, is there?” He had unknowingly interrupted the thief as he rifled my bag, challenged him (thinking that he was urinating at the back of his premises, when he was actually trying to hide the fact of rifling through my bag), and the guy dropped the bag and legged it. He had taken the cash from my purse and my mobile phone…and that’s it. He had got as far as my credit cards when he was interrupted, so he put them back (into a different part of the bag, so I know they had been moved). The cheque was still there (now banked!!)

I am glad to say the police took it very seriously, and managed to get a number of witness statements from people who had spotted the guy, but not realised the significance of this until we started putting two and two together. It was also interesting watching a Scene of Crime Officer at work, gathering evidence! I am so grateful to God for family and friends who were there at every step of the way – you know who you are, and I am forever thankful.

It also brought home to me that there is no such thing as petty crime. To the person it happens to, any such invasion can be huge. Granted, the end result was fantastic, and miraculous. I certainly never expected to get the bag back, and to have done so, so quickly, and with the credit cards untouched is astonishing. The Investigating officers who interviewed me at lunchtime were “astonished”

But above all, I believe that there were whopping great warrior angels surrounding me, and him, fulfilling God’s promise to me - “Thus far and NO FURTHER”, and “No weapon formed against you shall prosper”

Pat’s Thought for the Day
From my mum; “Sometimes God lifts a veil, and allows us to see and understand just a little of how much He protects us from, every moment of every day".