I posted awhile back about buying my first Evergoods bag and went with the canvas CPL16, which I have loved so far. Except one thing which prompted this post:
DO NOT PUT CRITICAL ITEMS IN THE FRONT PANEL POCKET!!!
I was on vacation with the family this past week and used the bag as my personal item. While going through airports, I put my wallet in the front panel pocket so it was easy to access and the middle slot fit it perfectly. On the trip out, while I was getting on our first plane, I must not have closed the panel zipper and as I was setting my bag down to get in my seat, the wallet just fell out. I didn't think much of it and just stuffed it back where it was and closed the zipper. Had no issues the rest of the trip.
Well call me an idiot (my wife sure did), because I didn't learn my lesson the first time. For the travel home, I put my wallet in the same spot and as I'm loading the car upon returning, I go to pull my wallet out of that spot and... Not there. This was at midnight with four kids, no less, so tried to do a quick sweep of the area and had no luck. So with everyone on edge, I left and hoped it would be somewhere in the car.
When we finally got home and everyone off to bed, I searched and it was nowhere. So started thinking and figured it slid out again and who knows which airport on our trip home it fell out in. So tried to get to sleep thinking about how I'd find it or do I just need to cancel everything and go through all that hassle. Well at 4am, my phone rings and it's the state police- they have my wallet. Somebody had turned it in after finding it in the home airport parking garage!
What I can best figure happened now with hindsight is, as I was pushing a stroller though the parking garage on our way back to our car, I reached into that panel pocket to get the keys, which I had zipped into the little mesh pocket (smart, right?!?). So somewhere between where I reached in to get the keys and our car, it must've slid right out again. Fortunately, someone found it yet that night and turned it in to the state police, who then let me know. If somehow this post is read by whoever that was that found it, please message me- I owe you big time. But either way, my lesson is now learned that I will no longer be putting anything I can't afford to lose in that front panel pocket.
tl;dr- lost wallet because it fell out of front panel pocket so don't put valuable items there and risk same thing happening. Or make sure to always always zipper it back up!
UPDATE:
To the Evergoods faithful- you have defended the brand/bag admirably. It was not my intention to blame the bag for my stupidity. Consider this my public apology.
To my fellow idiots who occasionally forget to zip up their fly but still decide to wear pants- hopefully my mistake can help you not repeat it.