Experts Warn Oklahomans to NOT CARRY These Items In Their Wallets

To begin, let me ask Oklahoma a question...

When was the last time you cleaned out your wallet?

I can only assume most people are as bad about this as I am. When I randomly clean out my wallet, it's like taking a look back at the history of whatever era in my life it is. Sometimes there's a lot of receipts I thought "I better hang onto that," and other times it's a good surprise--finding a forgotten twenty dollar bill.

I've had the same wallet now for over a decade, and when I recently cleaned it out, I found three separate expired 5-year fishing/hunting licenses. They were tucked in behind my lifetime license I picked up last summer. Receipts from a few tools I bought in 2015, and one I'm not entirely sure where it came from or what it was. It's so old, it's blank.

People tend to carry more stuff in their wallets/ purses wishing it was all money.

That's not always the case, and experts are offering a fair warning to all after an uptick in personal theft has started to spread across Oklahoma.

We're in a period of time where technology is offering to simplify the mundane aspects of life, such as what you actually need to carry with you in your wallet, amongst other things.

As a Millennial who has traveled and moved around a lot up to this point in my life, it was always necessary to carry more than just my basic license and cash around with me from place to place. It made sense to have legal and additional identification on me instead of sitting in a folder or my dresser, just in case I needed it--social security card, draft card, bank account information, etc...

The risk is, if you lose your wallet, you lose your identity too.

We've all been there, probably...

I lost my wallet once. Just the one time. It was the mid-2000s, baggy cargo khakis were still popular, and I lost my wallet at some point between lunch that Friday and dinner the night before.

This was before smartphones and online banking had become tech-savvy, so the process of canceling cards and figuring out how I was going to access my money without an ID.

I made it through the weekend with no problem, and my wallet showed up in my mailbox Monday evening. Turns out I dropped it on the sidewalk outside of work and the mailman picked it up. Nothing was missing, but everything was worthless at that point.

Picked up one of these, it hasn't ever happened again.

We can debate the merits of the humble chain wallet at a later date, but it serves a purpose beyond being out of touch with today's fashion standards...

In order to avoid what could be a years-long process of restoring your identity and finances, experts are advising that you don't carry a lot of the usual stuff with you on a daily basis.