When they say “lost and found”, they’re talking about what I do. I have, let’s say, a tendency to leave things behind. But, as if I have an fairy that goes off to nudge my belongings back to me, I seem to almost always find things again. In fact, there’s only one thing of significant value that I lost and didn’t get back (a camera), and this lost of things I lost and did get back is very long. That’s a pretty good score. I’m not including water bottles and sunglasses in those calculations, I go through those as if they’re disposable. (not actually that bad, but it’s not great) Since this is my blog and I can do what I want with it, I will only be writing about times I got things back. There’s no need to dwell on the bad stuff.

I’ll probably update this post every few months as I lose and find more things.

Lowish Value Items

• Water bottle that I left in the basket on Paris bikeshare bkes two separate times in one day. The first time, I realized an hour later and managed, through an incredible combination of Google Street View and good sense of direction, to find my way back to the docking station where I left the bike, and the bottle was still right there! The second time was that night after I got back from a long day, elated I hadn’t lost my bottle earlier, only to realize I had done the exact same thing again. I biked back through the city at 1 am and found it. Yay! For once not losing my water bottle. Happy Bastille day.

My Phone

• I’ve left my phone on the train in Seattle twice. The first time I just ran back and the driver must have somehow seen me because they reopened the doors and I retrieved it. Thanks SoundTransit! The second time was worse, after leaving it on the train I had to find public wifi to use my laptop to track it, which meant a nearby McDonalds where I did not buy anything (sorry). After correlating real time data with the Find My position, I located the train it was on and figured out the time it would be passing back through the station I got off at. When it came back through I ran down the platform until my watch reconencted to it, then boarded the car and found it laying on the seat, right where I left it.

Camera

• I left my camera (action camera, like a GoPro) in a taxi in Vietnam. The driver returned it to my hotel an hour later and I emptied my wallet as a very very appreciative and also not nearly enough tip for his good deed. Vietnam is a great place with good people and you should go.
• I left my bigger camera (Sony mirrorless camera) in a bathroom stall in Hong Kong. Gotta hang it up to poop, ya know. Anyway, have you ever been in a Hong Kong mall? They are like entire neighborhoods but without addresses or street signs. After having dinner and getting sufficiently turned around, I realized I lost my camera. I had no idea where the bathroom was that I used, so I sprinted back, retracing my steps, making a few wrong turns and going up a few escalators unnecessarily, going in many of the wrong bathrooms only to realize they didn’t look familiar. Eventually I found the right one, and made a camera/photo gesture to the cleaning guy. He immediately got it and tried to tell me where to go, but me being a dumb American that doesn’t know Cantonese, he ended up leading me on a 10 minute walk through the mall to the customer service desk. As you know, I got it back. Quite rudely, the mall staff did not take any silly pictures with it. btw, this was the mall

Entire bag/suitcase

• When I was younger (in high school), I was going to Alaska with my grandparents. I left my entire bag at the gate in Portland, and didn’t realize until, already in Alaska, the airline called me and asked if I left a blue bag at the gate. Little teenager me replied “no” before my grandprents realized that indeed I was no longer carrying my blue bag, and thankfully interjected before I hung up. Alaska Airlines, bless them, got my bag all to our hotel in Anchorage before I woke up the next morning. Honestly, really convenient way of not carrying your bag around!
• In a similar vein to the above, I (much more recently, well into adulthood) left my backpack on the plane after getting off. Just before leaving the airport, my ever observant girlfriend asked me about it, thinking I’d left it in the bathroom. No, I left it on the plane. I sprinted back to the gate and, in beautiful Alaska Airlines fasion, they’d brought it out to the gate for me. Love that! So nice not carrying your bag off the plan manually!
• The absolute worst offense of leaving my entire bag was in Indonesia, where, after grabbing my bag off the baggage claim belt, I simply walked away from it, through customs, and hired a taxi driver. When the driver asked me if the small backpack was really all I had, I realized that while I pack light, I do still need clothes. Attempting to go back to customs did not work, instead I had to be escorted through security by airport staff (who were laughing at me in Indonesian the whole way), back to baggage claim, where they pulled my bag out of the “is this abandoned bag a bomb or just from an idiot tourist?” pile. Customs was confused and not pleased to see me twice in 30 minutes. Shockingly, I got searched.