Shady in Seattle

As soon as Live Longer and I reached downtown Seattle I shared with her some advice that a friend once shared with me, “Keep your purse close to you in Pike Place Market – there are a ton of pickpockets.”

She heeded my advice and we made our way across town – stopping only to eat, drink and shop. Thus, we stopped frequently. Along the way, however, we encountered a ton of homeless people.

“I never realized there were so many homeless in Seattle,” she said. “I honestly don’t remember there being this many ten years ago,” I replied. In addition to homeless people, we encountered a lot of people with road rage – and we were on the sidewalk. “People are so angry here,” Live Longer observed. “It does appear that way,” I replied. “I feel much safer in New York,” she told me. “Same,” I agreed.

Not wanting to let anything get us down, we continued with our eating, drinking and shopping. While dining at a waterfront restaurant we observed a couple outside, feeding the seagulls. They were soon in the restaurant, seated at the table behind us. They ordered a drink and then left before it was served. “Was it something we said?” I asked Live Longer. “Maybe,” she replied. This was a plausible possibility.

Two hours later I received a voice message from my credit card’s fraud department. Apparently someone had been shopping – to the tune of $5000 – with my card in a nearby Target. I immediately checked my purse for my wallet. It was there, but my American Express cards were missing. Discover card was still there. Dollar bills from the drag show, still there. The only things missing were my American Express cards. The couple who were seated behind us had reached into my purse (which was on the back of my chair), taken my wallet out, removed the cards, and put my wallet back in my purse. Sneaky bastards.

“It’s no wonder people are sleepless in Seattle,” I told Live Longer and added, “They’re constantly wondering who might try and steal from them, road rage them, ask them for money or torch their car (something else we saw during our short stay).  Shady, seedy and sleepless in Seattle is way more appropriate.”