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The original was posted on /r/tifu by /u/tab6678 on 2025-11-10 15:08:03+00:00.
This happened 25 years ago, but my brain will always remind me of this event.
I had driven to NYC with my now ex wife and sons. We had tickets to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular show on Saturday. We left the house Friday morning and made the 8 hour drive to our hotel in Manhattan. After checking in, I went to the lobby with my younger son and used the payphones to call the office to check for messages. Pre-smart phone days.
We got to the lobby, went to a payphone, I took out my wallet and calling card, called the office, got up to date and went back upstairs. We watched TV and lights out.
The next morning, I showered and went to get dressed. It was when I put my pants on, I realized my wallet was missing. Panicked, I looked around and under the bed and on the chair. No wallet. You know that awful sinking feeling you get in the pit of your stomach.
My brain replayed the events of the night before, downstairs, take wallet out, take calling card out of wallet, call the office.....I must have left my wallet on top of the phone.
OK, don't panic, we can cancel the cards, but the Radio City tickets were in my wallet. Shit. Drove all this way and can't see the show. Damn.
I went back downstairs, and the optimistic fool I am, walked over to the phone bank, and was not surprised that there was no wallet atop the phone I used, 14 hours after the fact. I asked the front desk, "Hey, did anyone turn in a wallet?", ignorant of the fact that if someone had indeed found my wallet and given it to the desk, they would have looked at the drivers license, cross checked it with the registered guests and called the room, right?
"Sorry sir, no wallet has been turned in."
OK, now what. I went back upstairs to the room, carded in, and there was my wife, standing by the bed, holding my wallet in one hand, and my pants in the other hand. I looked down, and I was wearing her pants. Almost the same black jeans as mine.
She never let me forget that for the next 7 years, until she cheated and divorced, but that's a story for another sub.
TL;DR: I thought I had lost my wallet but had worn the wrong pants.