Last weekend Ry and I went to the Rochester Philharmonic concert featuring Charles Ross on Timpani. It was an awesome show, and the first time I had seen the drums featured in a solo. (I think it was actually the first time the RPO had done this type of show before) We both had a lot of fun. But the night didn’t end the way we expected…
That night we made a great pressure cooker meal for dinner, then went out for an ice cream dessert. We were running a little late to get to the theater, so I kept checking the time on my phone, and absentmindedly stuffed it in my outer jacket pocket as we got in the car to drive over.
When we sat down, and the show was about to start, I reached in my pocket and didn’t feel the phone, but I didn’t think too much about it. Maybe I had dropped in in the car, placed it in another pocket, or if it were outside someone would turn it in to lost and found. When the show ended and I couldn’t find my phone in any of my pockets I had Ryan call to see if it was between the seats or somewhere in the car. (ah, the beauty of having two phones)
To both of our surprise someone answered on the other end!
It turned out that my phone was found outside the theater by a homeless man.
He was now about two miles away, at the local bus depot, and requesting a reward before he gave it back.
As we got in the car and started driving towards the bus stop, I was thinking – how much would I pay to get my phone back? We only had $6 between us, so that is what we ended up giving him in exchange for the phone, but I was seriously thinking about letting him keep it since he had demanded a reward.
What is the value you place on convenience?
If I had let him keep my phone I would have to go down to the store and deactivate it, pay for another phone (although I think I am due for the “free every 2 years upgrade”), and get the numbers of all my contacts again. It would have been days of hassle.
I had gone through a similar situation last summer when my phone was dropped in water and never recovered, and I knew how annoying the process was. (There are still some numbers I no longer have and occasionally need.) But my world didn’t stop, and I was able to recover my contacts and set up my phone again.
I don’t have an iPhone or BlackBerry, so maybe my view would change if the phone was worth more or had more features, but as of right now I think the maximum I would pay to recover my phone is $10.
However, I am seriously considering backing up my address book so that if (when?) I lose my phone again I have all the numbers saved somewhere.
Needless to say, it was an interesting night.
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