Phone Home

So there I was, taking my kids up to see my family for Easter, when next thing you know, a mobile phone flies out of the window of the car in front of me.

Startled by this unexpected traffic phenomenon, I pull over, go back and pick the phone up off the road. Barely a mark on it and working perfectly (whereas if it had been my phone, it would have smashed on impact, then been promptly run over by two roadtrains in quick succession),
with an adorable little baby smiling at me from the welcome screen wallpaper.

I know for starters someone is gonna miss this piece of mobile modern technology, so I'm surprised when two hours into the trip still no one has rung their own number looking to see where it had been misplaced (don't tell me you haven't done that yourself!)

I'm thinking I'll take a look through the address book later for any entry marked "Home" or "Mum" etc, when the thing rings (scaring the hell out of my little daughter whose turn it was to mind it for me, LOL); imagine my dismay when it's a heavily accented lady on the other end who could not be convinced it wasn't her daughter taking her call!

Another hour and a half goes by when the phone goes off again (some annoying doof-doof ringtone that I would have had to change had the phone remained in my guardianship much longer). I send an autotext to say I'll call back and get the reply "Thank you, very important pictures of baby daughter in phone" (see, told you!). So next pit stop I ring and explain how I came to have their phone (they still don't know how it grew wings and escaped) and hope to tee up a catch up to return their property.

Unfortunately, they're travelling a totally different direction from me, and coming back through on a different day. Fabulous. So I ask them to text me their address and I'll send the phone to them. It will have to wait until after all the public holidays though, for me to get to a post office.

Now, at this point I have had people say "Why didn't you just keep it?" or "Did you use it?" and I always pause to ponder what kind of world we're living in, when that's the common reaction.

OK, so after much ado (which is a whole other blog) I finally get it sent back to them C.O.D. 'cause I thought that was the safest way to track it, and even the owner cannot believe that I did so, and didn't use up all their credit making long distance calls to my entire address book, or nor do I want any payment. I mean, all it cost me really, was a bit of time and effort - I recycled a post-pack and they paid the postage! (I didn't even go snooping through their files because it wouldn't have felt right.) Their delight at getting the phone back (complete with unchanged doof-doof ringtone and important pictures of baby daughter) and reassurance that not everyone's out to rip you off, is its own reward.

I simply say: I guess not everyone has the benefit of being raised by my mum.

And I can only hope that I'm a good enough mother that my children also grow up knowing what is the right thing to do...and doing it!

Jx
©2009