Over the course of my weekend spent obsessed with snow and ice removal, I made several trips to Sherwood Home Hardware.

On my first trip, to buy an extension ladder, I paid with my MasterCard.

I remember, while I was paying, seeing a sign on every cash register alerting the cashiers to make sure that customers didn’t leave their credit or debit cards in the machine.

And I remember thinking “who the hell would do that?”

Later in the day I returned to Home Hardware to buy some ice melter, and went to pay with my MasterCard.

But it wasn’t in my wallet.

I phoned home.

It wasn’t there.

“I must have left it somewhere,” I said to myself.

And I paid with my debit card instead.

Out in the parking lot, I mentally retraced my steps, and realized that the last place I’d paid with my MasterCard had been at the selfsame Home Hardware.

So I went back inside.

“I didn’t happen to leave a MasterCard here earlier today, did I?”, I asked.

The friendly cashier rooted around in the lost and found drawer and quickly located a MasterCard.

“What’s your name?”, she asked.

“Peter Rukavina,” I replied.

She handed me my card.

I thanked her profusely, and related the irony of my earlier disbelief that anyone could be so stupid as to leave their credit card in the store.

On my way toward the door, the other cashier, the one who I’d bought the ice melter from just moments earlier, chimed in.

“Did you say your name was Peter Rukavina?”, she asked.

“Yes,” I replied, with some trepidation.

“You forgot your debit card here too, just a minute ago.”

So, not once, but twice.

Who the hell would do that?