4 out of the 6 times I had lost my wallet, I managed to recover it. I always thought there wasn’t anything I could do, that wallets just sometimes fall out of pants. I just needed to be more careful. It had gotten to the point that I would periodically tap my pockets when I was out just to make sure my wallet was there. (It took me having Pocktail to realize this was mood killing background anxiety!)
Anyway, one night, I got pickpocketed. Even though I was mindful, I lost my wallet to no fault of my own! As I was forced to crawl on the dirty floor to pass under the subway gates (no wallet meant no metro pass or money to get home,) I knew I had to come up with something so this would never happen again.
The first thing I thought of was getting a wallet chain, but there were some problems:
- The wallets I like don’t have any kind of holes to attach a chain.
- Wallet chains are large and look weird, designed as fashion pieces instead of as a functional tool.
- And they don’t work on joggers or other pants without belt loops, which I frequently wear and have previously lost wallets from
I thought of out of the box ideas, but there was no way of escaping the requirement that if you want an unlosable wallet, it needs to be secured to you!
I left this problem alone for months… until one day, I noticed a clip on a lanyard. I had this one pair of pants with really shallow pockets. Things would constantly fall out of them, to the point I wanted to take them to a tailor just to lengthen the pocket liner. Seeing the clip, and thinking of the pocket liner, I wondered… what if I could clip a wallet to the liner!?
I tested if the clip was strong enough to “save” the wallet and the result really surprised me! I’d say it took 10lbs of pulling force just to get it off. That’s a lot considering the thickest, heaviest wallet is going to weigh half a pound max. It’s definitely enough to get your attention if a thief tried anything.
Having found a working solution, I refined the idea, taking my time and testing different options until I had a good product.
So just how good is it? Well, I haven’t had a missing wallet since, and it’s not for lack of trying.
Notable times Pocktail has saved my wallet so far
Pickpockets in Athens, Greece
Near the center of Athens, Greece, an old lady walking my way started crying “Help please!” and held her arm out pointing to my side. She sounded fake, wasn’t pointing to anything interesting, and asking a tourist in English of all people.
As I looked, I heard a man’s voice behind me. When I looked back at the woman, all of her panic had vanished and she and the man were walking away. Did the man, seeing my Pocktail’s chain, tell her I wasn’t a good target?
Wallet Fell in the darkest place
In rural Pennsylvania, deep in the Susquehanna forest, is the darkest place on the east coast. Perfect for stargazing, I parked my car and set up my lawn chair in a nearby field.
Well into the moonless night, I wanted to go back to my car to sleep. Getting up, wouldn’t you know it, my wallet was hanging out of my pocket! I would’ve lost my wallet that night and drove off in the morning if Pocktail hadn’t kept it fixed to my sweatpants.
Talking to a friend in his car
I’ve lost my wallet in a car before (one of those 6 times.) It was, also, right before I had to catch a flight (which is different from the other time I lost a wallet before I had to catch a flight.) It ended up being in my neighbor’s car who I’d been talking to that day… my grandma somehow thought of that and checked for me while I was frantically looking through my things.
Well, I was about to lose my wallet again, talking to a friend in his car. Funny enough, I was telling him about Pocktail because it was around the time I made a workable prototype. As I’m getting out of his car, I see my wallet is hanging out of my pocket, held on only by my Pocktail.