Kid who snatched my credit card off counter tracked down

 I took my daughter on our weekly field trip to Vincom mall on Thursday and did some shopping. I purchased clothes, toys and food. My biggest load of purchases came at the bookstore, nearly 800,000 Vietnamese dong (about $40 U.S.) for some books for my son Elijah and daughter Joanna, paper, and toys. This is one of the few stores in Bien Hoa that allows me to pay with my debit card with a chip. I gave the clerk my card while another clerk and I examined a computerized sketchpad I bought to see what kind of battery it needs. While we fiddled with the sketchpad, a boy about 7 or 8 comes up and starts hugging me, acting a little strange. I sent him away and reassembled the sketchpad. While this was all happening, the clerk laid my credit card on the counter. After everything was put away and bagged, the clerk asks for my credit card again. I don't have it, I told her ... you had it. The clerk started looking, and then her search got a little more frantic. Three other clerks joined the search and the card was nowhere to be found. We emptied the five bags I had with me, looked under the counter and behind the counter. No card. I checked my wallet three times. No card. Then the manager said she would check the security camera. She came back right away and said the boy had taken it off the counter. Immediately, the security guard and three store employees fanned out through the mall. After an agonizing wait, one of the girls came back into the store and signaled they got the boy and card. I can't express my relief, since the card is my only source of cash here and it's nearly impossible to get a replacement sent into Vietnam from the U.S. Actually, the boy's father (I guess) came into the store and handed me the card, with no apology or anything, just a silly smirk on his face. And away they went. My daughter Joanna was remarkably patient through the whole ordeal. For some reason I thought about all the times people have scolded Joanna by using harsh or sharp tones for something "horrible" she had done: touching a fish on ice in a supermarket; leaving her shoes (like everyone else) in front of the shoe rack at the swimming pool; opening a glass door at a bakery to get a closer look at a fancy cake. Nobody said boo to the boy or his dad to my knowledge, and the boy took a credit card off a counter. Interesting world and times we live in ... Regardless of my percieved inequities, I want to thank the store employees for their grit and effort in getting my card back to me. Thanks, ladies, you were wonderful. Earlier, I won a stuffed pig and candy for Joanna at the video room playing one of those impossible claw machines. Turned out to be an OK day. 
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It can be awkward for me when the pool we go to is crowded. A lot of kids want to practice their English, which means sometimes I'm being interviewed while I try to watch my daughter. I'm in the pool with Joanna 95 percent of the time, but the 5 percent breather or bathroom break is when the kids will usually pounce. Sometimes they try to talk when I'm in the pool, but I'll just go under water or hack around with Joanna. Often, parents will push their kids to approach me for speaking practice. I don't mind so much, but I really do need to keep an eye on my daughter, who's a bit of a risk-taker, which I don't like around water. When she wears floaties I breathe easier, but she's getting braver as she gets closer to being able to swim. One 11-year-old boy was firing a lot of questions at me and I saw that his mom was video recording the conversation. I have to wear a tiny Speedo here because it's the only suit in my size -- I've got a body like W.C. Fields these days and don't really appreciate being surreptitiously recorded. And I don't really appreciate the mirror in the bathroom when I change into the Speedo. Anyway, I put up a towel to block the video recording and the lady and her friends said sorry multiple times. It was all good-natured but I'd still like to know if someone is recording so I could say no thanks until I get in shape again.
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I don't expect a ruling anytime soon on my wife's waiver application to get a visa to enter the U.S. As a result, I'm considering enrolling my daughter in an expensive private school in Bien Hoa, the only English-only school in town. We visited the campus and were impressed, and Joanna seemed to like it as well. 
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I took my daughter to Ho Chi Minh City for an eye appointment, and the doctor said her vision and eyes are in tip-top shape , unlike her dad. Those were his words, not mine.