It's a metro miracle

A week and a half ago I lost my wallet on the metro. This was a particularly impressive feat for me since I literally spend only 15 minutes on the metro (from escalator to escalator) every day. More impressive, however, was how convoluted WMATA managed to make their lost and found claims service. The internet site WMATA created for you to "easily" report your lost item is slow and will freeze, often times just as you've finished the claim form and are waiting for your claim number. This claim number is what you're supposed to use whenever you talk to a WMATA service person about your item. Figuring that the 8 aborted internet claims, one voicemail and one email I had made would probably equal at least one real claim, I called the phone number WMATA lists (buried at the bottom of the contact us page, no less) for its lost and found service so I could talk to someone about my wallet. No luck, as the number only provides an automated message for you to find out the office's address. There's not even an option to talk to a person. For a laugh, the message also directs you to WMATA's main customer service for more information. Dialing this number reveals that the line plays the EXACT same friggin message you can hear when you dial the lost and found number. Desperate and grasping at straws, I talked to a live person on the customer service line -- and they were actually very helpful despite the fact they had no way of knowing if my claim had been made or processed or if anything had been found. I got the impression this would have been the case even if I had a claim number or not, but at least the woman was helpful.

And then lo, just as I was giving up hope and getting ready to brave the MVA to go get my third license in as many years, I got a postcard from WMATA alerting me that my wallet had been found. So I took my postcard, which bore no mention to the many lost claims I had made to WMATA, to Silver Spring. WMATA has craftily hidden their claims office away at 8405 Colesville Road, which is confusingly actually a block off the road and really on Second Ave. You'd think it'd be easiest to just have the claims office within the metro system at a centrally located place (like, I dunno... METROCENTER?). I guess it's because WMATA really wants the minimum $1.35 charge you incur by having to leave the metro system to get your lost items. "Conveniently" this office is only open between the hours of 7 and 3:30 (MWF) and 9 and 6 (T,TH). I'm only mentioning the hours here for you because WMATA makes no mention of this on their website, and I think you should know that if you ever lose something you might as well just go straight to the office and avoid even making a claim. Seriously, it's your best bet. And yet, despite all these obstacles, me and my wallet were finally reunited. And on top of that, all my money, credit cards and license were still in my wallet. So thanks WMATA for safely housing my wallet in such a way that no one, almost including me, could find it and use it. I'd especially like to thank the kind person who refrained from stealing my money and my identity.