Today on a return visit to the mother-in-law, I somehow lost my phone at Denver Concourse B -- did not notice it until the doors had closed and it was time to turn off all electronic equipment.

Really bummed me out -- tried calling the phone before take-off, on landing in SFO 2 hours later, while picking up the car, and a couple times after returning home -- no joy.

Called Denver Airport Lost & Found, left a VM, they called back 15 minutes later to say no joy yet but they took my home number and would check again tomorrow -- very helpful but no phone

Started to give up, went to the ATT site (my carrier) and temporarily deactivated the phone -- didn't want any huge international phone billings.

the LO & BEHOLD, a few hours later -- received a call from a person sitting at the same gate we had departed from -- I had sat down for 5 minutes awaiting for boarding -- they had found the phone, looked in the phone directory for "HOME" and gave us a call -- will return to us by mail once the holiday is over

Morale of the story -- make sure you have a clearly labeled HOME phone in the phone directory

I had heard about this concerning phone discovered with people in a medical crisis or accident, but it works well for lost phones

BTW, I plan to come up with a nice thank gift for this great person

Edited -- probably should be in a different forum -- It is I just spend 90% of my time in the United forum

Glad things worked out for you! Let's move this to TravelBuzz! so others in the community can share their experiences.

FlyinHawaiian, Co-Moderator
United Mileage Plus Forum

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May I suggest an exceptionally nice gift catalogue. You're probably aware of it by your Flyertalk name.
.....www.winecountrygiftbaskets.com

I have used this catalogue ever since I helped a family of four during irregular ops get back home. By miracle I found four seats and they were so greatful. Took my name and company address. I thought they would just send a thank you note and instead sent me a gift basket from this catalogue. It was great and actually made me a regular customer of the catalogue.

The couple times that I've found phones, I've always found that the best way to locate the person is by calling the "Mom" entry

[QUOTE=FlyingNone;8338809]----------------------------
May I suggest an exceptionally nice gift catalogue. You're probably aware of it by your Flyertalk name.
.....www.winecountrygiftbaskets.com

.....
[QUOTE]

Ah, yes. thanks for reminding me ... WineCountryGiftBaskets is a good outfit -- also most of the local delis do gift baskets. Probably need to skip wine without knowing more detials

Glad to see folks are willing to do the extra effort to re-unite lost items -- easy to be too busy in our lives to do the extra effort. Maybe it is good karma for the phone / PDA I found in the local shopping center parking lot last month.

Thanks for the tip. I never thought about putting a home entry in my phone.

You're wise in skipping the wine gift. Some of us don't drink alcohol. A restaurant gift card is always a good gift.

And maybe for more serious things, it might be useful to use ICE (In Case of Emergency)

"Following the disaster in London, the Ambulance Service have launched a national "In case of Emergency (ICE)" worldwide campaign.
The idea is that you store the word " I C E " in your mobile phone address book, and against it enter the number of the person you would want to be contacted "In Case of Emergency".

In an emergency situation ambulance and hospital staff will then be able to quickly find out who your next of kin are and be able to contact them. It's so simple that everyone can do it. Please do.

Please will you also email this to all the people you know, it won't take too many 'forwards' before everybody will know about this. It really could save your life, or put a loved one's mind at rest.

For more than one contact name ICE1, ICE2, ICE3 etc.

It’s a great idea, store it in your phone then pass on the message to your family and friends...."

How nice to know that there are still goood people around! I am going to do the ICE in my phone and the kids and DH now - thanks for the tip on that, I had not heard of that before. To the OP you could also send flowers (and get points! lol).

Some newer phones also have an "In Case of Emergency" contact built-in that you can set to one or more people.

I misplaced my phone a few states away two weeks ago. The circumstances were different and irrelevant to FT, but I figured it had a decent chance of turning up eventually. I was six months into a two-year contract, and the cheapest replacement from Verizon was $130. (Never mind how much they wanted for a phone like the one that went missing.) Neither of my previous phones is workable, though they're still sitting around - I don't know why.

I went to eBay and narrowed my search to phones without service, Verizon, within 100 miles of my home, sort by auction ending soonest. I e-mailed a few sellers to see if they'd let me pick the phone up in person instead of sending it; all but one would. I lost the first auction a few hours later, got the second phone that evening. Drove over the next morning (way under 100 miles) and picked it up.

Later that day I got an e-mail that my 5-year-old granddaughter had found the phone on the seat of my son's car. (I had always liked her anyhow.) So now I have a backup phone that works, too.

Just thought I'd post this in case the idea of finding a temporary replacement on eBay is useful to anyone else. At least it lets you buy time to figure out what to get next if the missing one doesn't turn up.

I use ICE for the number to Icelandair's operations department at Keflavik. I can't quite imagine their reaction if someone called to advise them I had been in an accident.

edited

I've used the Mom entry a couple of times as well. Another time I used the phone to call my cell number. I then returned the call and left a message for the person to call me back so I could get the phone back to them.

I've heard about the ICE program, but have not done that yet. I'll have to program one in today.

I've always thought that the ICE idea was great but it had potential drawbacks.

If I lost my phone and someone found it, and they called my 70-y-old mother and told her some BS story about me having been hurt... I'd be scared sh(*less that they'd try to extricate $$$ out of her.

My recommendation is that you put someone that's swift and wise as your "ICE" number. And make sure that they know!!

JP

I did the same thing with a man's wallet I found in a chair at the gate.
I found an ID card with his phone number, called it and left a message, since he was still on the flight.
He called me back the next day, and I UPS'd his wallet and all it's contents that day. He received it the following day.