Missing
The Airport Lost and Found
By Daniel Muniz

I was at the airport very early in the morning on my way to a business trip for my employer. In addition to the suitcase that I already handed over to the airline staff, I also had a backpack strapped to my back and a leather carrier for my laptop which I slung over my shoulder as my carry-on luggage for the flight.

That whole morning I noticed how cumbersome it was to tote along that laptop carrier. Because of my backpack it wasn’t possible to keep the carrier on my side at all times since it kept riding up on my front side. However, every time the carrier swung in front of me, it jostled against my cell phones.

One cell phone was my personal phone but the other one was the company phone from my employer. I rarely used the company phone since it was intended for business travel. The cell phone holder that I bought for the company phone had always worked fine although a co-worker of mine bought a similar one that had a strap that would fit over the top of his phone and snap into the holder itself. I thought that the strap of my co-worker’s cell phone holder was a good idea although since I rarely traveled, I felt that it wasn’t a big deal.

How I was so wrong.
 

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As I stepped into the security screening station of the airport, I had to place all of my belongings into plastic containers so they could be inspected by an x-ray machine. As I reached over to pull out my employer’s mobile phone, it was hanging halfway out of its holder. Without a strap holding it securely in place, it didn’t take much for it to get pushed out of its holder and I wondered how big of a hassle that I was going to have traveling with it.

After being checked out by security, I put my backpack on and slung my laptop carrier over my shoulder. Now that I was cognizant of employer’s cell phone, I checked its holder and found it hanging halfway out again. Frustrated, I trudged on to the gate of my flight.

In the back of my mind, I thought that I would probably have to put the phone inside my backpack.

I never had this problem before. I had always slung a different cloth carrier on my shoulder to and from work every day. My employer’s phone was always securely in place. But that morning, the backpack upset the balance of things.

When I reached the gate, I sat down. I had almost an hour to spare before the plane was to begin boarding. To my horror, as I reached over to my belt to slide my employer’s cell phone out, it was gone!

The nagging fear in the back of my mind had come to fruition. I was upset. I picked up my stuff and quickly retraced my exact steps to the gate. I found nothing although something caught the peripheral of my eye. I saw someone at one of the nearby shops bending over to pick something up.

At the exit of the security screeners I knew that that was where I had put my phone in its place so I must have lost it on my way to the gate. I went down the corridor again but I found nothing so I decided to walk towards a counter of security guards that was just outside of the security screeners.

I asked the security guards if there was a lost and found nearby and I explained to them that I lost my cell phone.

The first thing one guard did was whip out his own cell phone and ask for the number to my missing phone so he could call it to see if anyone had already picked it up. At that moment, I was crushed. Since I rarely used that phone, I had never memorized the number. The mobile number was on my business card but I didn’t have any in my wallet and all my cards were inside my only suitcase that was already processed by the airline as baggage. It would be hours before any of my co-workers would be at work and I would be in the air by then.

As I grew despondent, the guard reassured me that the phone would turn up because it always does in the years that he worked in the airport, especially since I had plenty of time before my flight departed. He checked with the security screeners but nobody over there found the phone.

I dialed the number that I thought it was but when my voicemail didn’t answer, I knew I had the wrong number.

I retraced my steps again but nothing. On my way back, there was an employee from one of the shops standing in front of her store with something in her hand. I walked up to her and my eyes widened when I saw my phone. I then asked if she had just found the phone. She explained that she picked it up and decided to stand in front of her shop in case the owner walked by or called it.

I was tremendously relived when she opened it up and it had the adhesive label of the phone number that I printed on it.

I profusely thanked her for the act of kindnesses. I told the woman that she just pulled my chestnuts out of the fire since this was my employer’s phone instead of mine. It is bad enough to have something stolen but to carelessly lose it would have been an unbearable thing to explain. And since the security guard was nearby, I walked over there and explained my good fortune. He smiled as he recounted that it was bound to turn up because it always does.

As I sat down at one of the chairs in front of my gate, I praised the Lord for giving me a reprieve before I embarked on an important business trip. And I quietly thanked Him that there were still plenty of good people in this world who are willing to do the right thing. That shop employee didn’t have to stand in front of her store which made it easy for me to spot her.

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