SMWinnie

We left an iPad in the seatback while getting off DL2340 at DTW on Tuesday. We realized the iPad was missing about three hours after de-planing.

We submitted a lost item form and have since spoken with baggage both at DTW and at LAX (the next stop for the plane). Neither baggage office was able to help. The LAX office suggested that the lost item would go to Alabama.

I called the Platinum desk. They were unable to help other than to say that we might hear something from Alabama in a week.

From various threads here, here is what I assume to be the case:

1. A lost item found by Delta personnel or turned in to Delta personnel, if not reunited more or less immediately with the owner, goes to Alabama.
2. Once the lost item goes to Alabama: Forget it, man. It's gone.

My concern here is not the lost iPad. My concern is the password files that were on the lost iPad.

Any suggestions for escalation?

DesertNomad

Do you have findMyPhone installed on the iPad? You can wipe it remotely if you do.

SMWinnie

Good advice. It is installed and we have sent the remote wipe. Unfortunately, the iPad hasn't connected to the Internet since we sent the wipe request. (Wipe is pending.)

Also unfortunately, not connecting to the Internet is what I would expect under any circumstance. Found and going to Alabama? Was in airplane mode; wouldn't get unlocked and wouldn't connect. Found and sold to someone who is mounting it to crack it? Wouldn't connect.

SMWinnie

Also asked for help from @DeltaAssist and got the party line to submit the form and wait seven days.

I've always been impressed with the help from the Platinum Desk and from @DeltaAssist, so this would appear to be a really hard and fast rule.

Often1

It's not a rule, it's simply how it works. Nothing any CS person can do to help.

Starblazer

The best thing you can do... get your serial number and make sure it's on the lost item form. If Lost and Found Central gets ahold of it, they will match it via the serial number and contact you.

This also leads to my next point, if you want a quick resolution, make sure your name, your e-mail address, heck, even a FF program name and number is on your lockscreen. I give a good faith effort using all the information I have... but if your iDevice is locked and my efforts come up empty, off it goes to Lost and Found Central.

lovecabo

Or more likely, like my Mac PowerBook did a few years ago in New Orleans, it went into the trash bag of the contract cleaner and then to his/her house.

rylan

Oh boy I think I remember that... didn't you post a story about how that all happened and you eventually recovered it?

lovecabo

Unfortunately, no. My boss and I drove from MSY to Baton Rouge and I didn't discover the loss until late that night. Nothing was open in MSY by that time. The next day a really helpful person in the SC checked the various stops of the plane after it departed MSY but it wasn't found at any of those destinations. Luckily insurance paid for all but about $400 so it wasn't a total loss. And unlike the OP there was nothing other than work-related data on it. It just taught me that you should never put anything of value in the FC seat back pockets (since they are so cavernous).

MarkCron

If you are just worried about what the finder might do with your passwords, then change all your passwords ... now.
If that was the only place your PW's were stored, than that's another story. You'll have lots of fun getting passwords reset.

mr_hoff

This very thing happened to with my Android tablet. . . twice. Once at JFK and once at TLV. The first time at TLV, the cleaners turned it into Lost & Found. When I called the airline & airport to report it missing, they said they may have it and asked me to come down to collect it. They asked me to authenticate in some way it was mine (which I could), and they turned it over to me.

The second time (yeah, I didn't learn), was at JFK. I did the exact same thing, calling the airline & airport to report it missing. This time they just opened a Lost Item ticket and waited for it to show up.

Well, Android also has a feature to locate your lost item. I kept checking it for about two weeks, when it showed up in the Bronx. Of course, I wasn't able to recover it. But, my guess is that the cleaners grabbed it and took it with them (I actually have some prior experience where we caught the cleaning crew at JFK taking someone else's tablet. So, this is more than just speculation on my part).

As far as the Alabama comment, there is a "Unclaimed Baggage" center in Scottsboro Alabama. Ultimately, that's is where most US airlines send their unclaimed bags and lost items. And we the public can go there and but it at a discount.

http://www.unclaimedbaggage.com/

sethb

The police weren't interested? (Sometimes a reporter asking them will help.)

JulienMSP

Not sure how new your ipad is or whether or not you've enabled this--but...if you had "find my ipad" enabled--anyone who steals it could still wipe it BUT..they'd not be able to re-activate it ..so it's essentially useless. Also, they'd never be able to get in and see anything or bypass that passcode requirement for re-activation.

SMWinnie

We changed the high-risk passwords immediately (online banking, credit cards) and are slowly grinding through our other accounts in rough order of risk if compromised.
Good point. The passwords are backed up. Both my wife and I use KeePass with the database in Dropbox.

SMWinnie

All good points. We don't have the serial number and were only able to get the partial number (in the form XXXXXlastdigits) from the relevant iCloud account.

OTOH, my wife's name and e-mail address are laser-engraved on the back of the case...