I hate those moments when you get that sinking feeling that you have lost something.

It is unsettling.

Landing in Detroit from our flight from Amsterdam was full of last-minute hassles.  Simon decided to finally fall asleep just as we were on approach.  As we scooped up everything from our trans-Atlantic flight, carried a sleeping toddler whilst dreading the immigration lines, and leaving our seats from the very back of the plane, something just didn’t feel right.

Was it the excitement of seeing family again?

Was it the stress of traveling?

Unknown to us, it was the fact that we had left something behind in the pocket of seat 49F on this Delta flight that fateful afternoon.

Such a trivial thing

Normally, what we had left was such a random and trivial thing that we wouldn’t have thought twice.  Oh well, live and learn

except…

What we had left was SIMON’S

If you had ever tried to rationalize with a three (almost four) year-old, then you know that is a Sisyphean task.

About a year ago, we had given our son, Simon, an old iPhone (maybe a 4S or 5S?) in half an Otterbox that we use during travel.  We have taken all of the apps off of the phone as well as the SIM card. The only thing that he can do is listen to music and take pictures.  We give it to him so he can take pictures and videos (just like mommy and daddy!) when we go on our trips.

This POS is what causes us problems

Normally, we would not lose any sleep for having forgotten it.  BUT, life with a toddler is anything but normal.

Delta Lost and Found

We pretty much wrote this phone off as gone forever.

Our last-ditch effort was to try and contact Delta lost and found to see if someone has found it.  Our hopes were further diminished when we learned that Delta uses an automated lost-and-found system to record any inquiry.

The Search

The series of emails I received from Delta were actually mildly amusing.  Here is the story.

June 5

At this point, we felt like there wasn’t much to lose.  While improbable, we still had that silly belief that luck would be on our side.  I took the 5 minutes to fill out all of the details that I could (which to be honest was not much besides the ghetto case).   As soon as that was done, out pops the automated response.

June 8

At this point, we didn’t really hold out much hope.  I did appreciate the updates, and the language made it sound like they were actually looking for this old phone.

Delta was not only looking for this phone, but they were diligent in their search.

June 12

After this email, I really felt like Delta cared about me.

They hadn’t given up so neither will I!

And Finally … June 14

Honestly, I was shocked that it was actually found.  We did have to pay a bit of money to have them ship it, but we did get it back. (To be honest, I wasn’t concerned about the phone as much as my Apple ID was logged into it)

So overall, not that bad of a result.  A bit of money for shipping and 5 minutes worth of work to return something insignificant, yet important.

So it just goes to show to not give up, despite having to deal with automation from time to time.