Mission two-thirds accomplished. Kindle and I are in the US. Kindle is in a box, nestled in bubble wrap. Once I find out which shipper obfusciatrist prefers, I’ll send it tomorrow. Here’s the whole boring story as it unfolded over about a half-hour of my five hour layover. I couldn’t write it earlier, at a(n) Euro every 10 minutes.
I headed over to the Lost and Found in Terminal 1, right next to bathrooms, thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The girl at the desk told me to go to the next desk, checked luggage. Oh well, whatever. The guy there said to go back to Lost and Found. She keeps running obfusciatrist’s name and case number through the computer. Nothing. I mentioned that Kindle was left on the plane. Oooh, that’s different. They have a special office for that, Cabin Found items in Terminal 2.
I didn’t realize where Terminal 2 was. When I used to fly out of Munich a lot, there was no Terminal 2. Wandering aimlessly around Terminal 1 I finally spot the new terminal out the doors by the supermarket, across the courtyard filled with palm trees and Audi demo cars. Soon I was there. Coincidentally my flight departed from that terminal.
Eventually I find the office. The man runs obfusciatrist’s case number and name through the computer. He claims the item is in Frankfurt. Uh. Did I totally misunderstand this whole thing? Did obfusciatrist really fly through Frankfurt? Great. No, a few minutes later I had the Kindle in hand. He transposed a couple digits in the case number when doing the lookup.
Lesson for today? For Lufthansa, it makes a difference where you lose your items when you try to retrieve them.
For anyone who cares, no one asked those 3 questions nor did I have to take off my shoes. I did get a thorough patdown, though. Woo hoo! Second lesson for today: I don’t have testicular cancer.
CKDH, thanks, but not as generous as it seems. I knew I had 5 hours to waste in the airport. I almost wish it’d taken longer. The adventure was more interesting than looking at duty-free and blue checkerboarded tchotckes. Besides, in a few hours it’ll be FedEx’s actions that’ll determine whether this story has a happy ending.
What gets me is that out of the hundreds (thousands?) of members on this message board, randomly one lost an item at a foreign airport and another member randomly had already planned to be in that same foreign airport within a week. Neither one of us live in Munich or Germany, and I’d made my flight arrangement almost 2 months ago. Weirrrrd, man, weird.
I also passed thru Munich within a week of this, but the other way. My flight back to the states (also on Lufthansa) was on the 24th. Who knows. . . there might be even more.
Way to go!!!
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Caractacus Pott**, you’re good people.
Anyone remember the time a year or so ago where he took orders for Girl Scout cookies to ship to fellow Dopers in the UK? (I’m on the other side of the pond, but had a friend in Staffordshire who was thrilled to be a recipient).
I just checked; the Kindle is within 50 miles of obfusciatrist. The story is drawing to a close. As long as Kindle doesn’t end up inside the drywall at FedEx, only to be discovered 30 years later…
I considered posting the number but I didn’t know if obfusciatrist wanted his location known. For my last check for the morning, Kindle has left the FedEx distribution center. Hopefully the next post will be obfusciatrist saying he’s reunited with Kindle.
I didn’t realize how popular those are. On the plane, on my way to the toilet I saw at least 5 people reading them in my section. If I’d taken a lap through the entire cabin, I’d probably have seen more. I, though, watched “Toy Story 3” and “Dogs and Cats 2” and the same “Two and a Half Men” I’ve seen on every flight in the past few years. It’s gone from being an annoyance to a tradition.
Aarrrgh! FedEx didn’t deliver today. The saga continues. I wonder if Twentieth Century Fox would option this story? Matt Damon in the lead, walking dramatically through Franz Josef Airport terminal to terminal, desk after desk, grimacing occasionally, to recover the Kindle. Unlike real life, Mr. Damon attempts to return it in person to obfusciatrist, played by Angelina Jolie, also a nod to fiction. Oh no! Will Matt overcome the ever-changing gate assignment in Atlanta to make the flight to Seattle? Tune in and see.
blondebear, it couldn’t hurt.
Zsofia, yeah the weather was great. I saw a lot of it parked on I-26. Major traffic jam.
