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Original poster

What would you do with no phone or wallet in a strange town?

79 replies

SnuggyBuggy · 19/12/2018 07:02

Kind of inspired by a dream (or nightmare) where I was in a strange town (seemed to be UK based) a managed to lose my phone and have wallet stolen.

What would you do? I can't remember anyone's phone number. I mean this must have happened to someone. Would you have to hitch hike?

Does anyone have any experience?

OP posts:

Snbre · 19/12/2018 09:53

This happened to me when I was a teenager! I didn't have a mobile and I'd lost my money, I asked the police for help and they told me to get on the train with no ticket and get home and gave me a letter on police headed note paper saying they'd given me permission!

titchy · 19/12/2018 10:13

Jump on a train with no ticket. Worse case scenario you get a fine.

Bleurgh0 · 19/12/2018 12:21

I managed to get cash out of the bank recently without my wallet. I was able to remember enough to convince them I was me.

I did this recently.

JessieMcJessie · 19/12/2018 13:42

Bleurgh0 and AornisHades I can’t believe any bank would give out cash without seeing ID. Even if the teller was your own Mum she’d have to record the ID process for a paper trail. Fancy telling us more about how you swung that?

HowlsMovingBungalow · 19/12/2018 13:47

You can withdrawal cash from ATM without a card.

moredoll · 19/12/2018 13:54

Reverse charge phone call from a phone box if you can find one. Otherwise ask the police.
A teenager asked to borrow my phone recently. I didn't give it to him but I did send a text and also left a message on voicemail at the number he gave me. His father later texted to thank me as his son has special needs and had lost his phone.

JessieMcJessie · 19/12/2018 14:01

Howls don’t you need a phone to get the code though?

MerryBear · 19/12/2018 14:07

This is why I memorise at least three phone numbers, even if it takes me ages. I repeat them again a and again to myself TIL they stick. I double check I can remember them every now and again and refresh them if I hesitate at all.

Metalhead · 19/12/2018 14:15

Happened to me last week after a very drunken night out .

Thankfully I know DH’s mobile and our landline number so went to the nearest police station and they let me use their phone. He then booked a taxi online to pick me up.

Camille01 · 19/12/2018 14:15

A stranger asked me could he use my mobile recently. I must admit I was a bit hesitant but he was with his children so I thought he was probably ok. I still had visions of him doing a runner as I handed my mobile over though!!

Flippetydip · 19/12/2018 14:20

This is why I have memorised DH's mobile number, our home number, my parents, my mother-in-law's and my best friend's. I had a sudden fear that I would be caught without my mobile and completely stuck.

I need to memorise my bosses but never get round to doing it.

IHeartKingThistle · 19/12/2018 14:22

The bank gave me my bus fare out of my account when I was a student without any ID. Think they asked me for loads of details but it was a long time ago!

WontShareMyAuPair · 19/12/2018 14:22

I think over the last 20 years connectivity has become so much easier. So even if you don't know anyone phone number you could still find a library computer/ borrow someone's phone to log into Facebook and send messages to family. Equally I would use the internet to book a hotel room (pay via PayPal) which doesn't require using bank cards.

It's also possible to go into a bank and withdraw money without your card/any id - they'll ask you a long list of security questions about your accounts and need your signature (to compare to the one they have on file). With the cash from the bank you could then buy a mobile phone and get the clever phone salesman to link up all your numbers that are stored in your phone's cloud.

It would be an inconvenient thing to happen but not a huge epic drama. So much is now available online that life would be momentarily disrupted but relatively simply solved.

HowlsMovingBungalow · 19/12/2018 14:23

Good point *Jessie !

MartaHallard · 19/12/2018 14:25

I believe banks do have arrangements where you can make emergency cash withdrawals without a card. So I would look for a branch of my bank. I'd also ask for help at the station if I needed to get a train home. This must happen fairly often, they must have procedures.

My mum had her bag stolen in central London once. She was with her sister, who was able to give her money to get home, but if she'd been alone, she'd have had to sort herself out.

Incidentally, the first thing she did was to use my aunt's mobile to call my brother at home to let him know that her keys had been stolen, so that he'd know (a) to stay at home to let her in and (b) to change the locks.

ILiveInSalemsLot · 19/12/2018 14:26

This happened to me once. When I realised I didn’t have my purse, I stopped dead in my tracks, panicked, looked on the floor and there at my feet was enough money to jump on the train and get to where I needed to be.
It was so weird.

But... if it happened again, I’d go to the library or ask to borrow a phone and log in to email and email someone.

OutPinked · 19/12/2018 14:31

Happened to my best friend years ago when we were about 15. He managed to get on the wrong bus home, it went in a totally opposite direction to where he lived but he figured it would return back to the city centre at the end of its route so stayed on it until the end. The bus driver insisted he got off at the end because that was his last stop of the day and he wouldn’t let BF travel back with him to the city centre depot.

Anyway this was in the days of phone credit and he had run out. He also had used the last of his cash on the bus and was on the completely opposite side of the city to where he lived in an area he’d never been in before, had no clue how to get home. He had to go into a take away to ask to use their phone to call a taxi. He figured he’d ask his mum for the money to pay for the taxi when he got home but she wasn’t in! The taxi driver took his phone as payment 😬. Not a great day for him...

NameChangeToAvoidBeingFound · 19/12/2018 14:38

Was almost in this exact situation with a friend in London last weekend. Both our phones died and it was really dark and getting late. Luckily we had money and managed to find where we were going to meet our friend, who texted our other friend to let them know where to meet us later that night. But my go to would be the police.

MartaHallard · 19/12/2018 14:53

The bus driver insisted he got off at the end because that was his last stop of the day and he wouldn’t let BF travel back with him to the city centre depot.

He probably wasn't insured to carry passengers if it wasn't officially part of the bus route. A driver once told me that's why he couldn't take me round the corner from the last stop on the route, to the stop where the return journey started. (Fair enough, he wasn't being arsey, just explaining, and I was just trying to save myself the trouble of walking 200 yards and crossing a road.)

jessstan2 · 19/12/2018 14:57

That is a scary dream. I occasionally have dreams like that!

Police station. They are always helpful to people in that situation, in any country.

Abra1de · 19/12/2018 14:59

Unfortunately many rural towns don’t have police stations any more.

Magmatic80 · 19/12/2018 15:02

This happened to me. In America on hols and mate meant to be meeting me but I was lost. I went to a public service type building and a very kind lady took me to her office and let me log into my email in her computer so I could email my friend. This was before smart phones.

MirandaGoshawk · 19/12/2018 16:22

I have no idea where my nearest police station is. The one in my town closed ages ago.

This has happened to me - well, not the wallet part, but no phone. I and the dch were waiting for DH to pick us up from a prearranged place and we were waiting there for an hour and he didn't show up. I asked a friendly looking woman if I could use her phone, rang my ILs because I was so worried & got his number mixed up with theirs, pretended It was a wrong number even though MIL recognised my voice! Eventually got him - stuck in traffic. Later on he told me he'd rung the woman back and asked her loads of questions!

But forgetting numbers? Don't know. Would find a friend's number through DX I suppose, and ask them to help.

MartaHallard · 19/12/2018 16:42

Everyone saying you'd call or email someone, what would you expect them to do?

(And in fact if I had an email from an unfamiliar address, purporting to be from a friend saying she was stranded in a strange town with no money, I'd probably delete it before I got to the end, as it's quite a common scam.)

needsleepzzz · 19/12/2018 16:48

Instead of a tattoo OP you could wear a locket with a tiny piece of paper in it with someones phone number?

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