Save and Conquer

Last month while on vacation in Yosemite National Park, I did a major bonehead thing and lost our camera. It was on the evening of our last day there, which meant a week’s worth of vacation photos were lost with the camera.

For safety, I had been carrying the camera everywhere we went in its bag. The camera bag also contained a photo iPod and an iPod nano. We realized the camera was lost the morning that we were packing to leave. We were devastated, mostly from the loss of the pictures, but it was also a pretty big financial loss.

Of course we looked everywhere. We checked the cabin, our truck, and the food court where I last remembered having it. We also left our name, address, and a description of the items at the Curry Village reservation desk.

It had been a great and memorable vacation, but we had heavy hearts as we drove away without our camera and pictures.

Besides the description of the lost items, I also had in the back of my mind that I had left a business card in the camera bag as identification. I place business cards in most everything that has a pocket.

The following week, I got a call at work. It was the Curry Village lost-and-found. Someone had turned in the camera bag and they had found my business card inside. After I identified the contents (which were all there) I arranged with the lost-and-found to have them shipped COD.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to the good Samaritan who turned it in! I asked if there was any record of the person who turned it in so I could send a reward, but they did not have a name.

Some people might say the lesson of this story is be more careful and don’t lose your stuff. I will certainly work harder at that.

The main lesson, though, is to make sure all items you travel with have your current identification on or in them. This can be in the form of business cards placed in various bag pockets. We also have sheets of return address labels for use on envelopes. I have taken some of these and directly applied them our valuable travel items, such as our camera and iPods.

These sorts of precautions may not help if your items are stolen, but they are the best insurance you have to get them back in case you lose them. (The police say engraving valuable items with your driver’s license number is the best chance you have of getting them back if they are stolen. You should also record their serial numbers and store in a safe place.)

Finally, THANK YOU again to the good person who found and turned in our stuff. To us, the pictures really are priceless.

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