A document retainer (10) having receptacles (14) is provided. The retainer is equipped with clip switch contact sensors (46, 50) in the retainer receptacles. Documents (12) held in the receptacles maintain the clip switch contact faces in a spaced relationship by being interposed therebetween. When a document is withdrawn, the contact faces spring into engagement, closing the contacts and thereby energizing an alarm circuit that has audible and inaudible alarms (20, 18) to facilitate indication of the document withdrawal. A resettable timing device is provided to suppress the audible alarm for a period considered sufficient for a card transaction. Preferably, the retainer is in the form of a compact module that can be inserted into a receptacle in a wallet or can be attached to another object by use of a provided releasable attachment device. The attachment device is equipped with a detector to sense if the retainer has become detached from the object to which it was originally attached and energizes the alarm circuit in a manner to circumvent any alarm suppression timers thereby energizing the alarms (20, 18) immediately.