# Can anyone tell me where I read or heard this story? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 26, 2016, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-tell-me-where-i-read-or-heard-this-story/766976 "2016-09-26T21:33:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2016, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-tell-me-where-i-read-or-heard-this-story/766976/1 "2016-09-26T21:33:47Z")
This is quite the long shot, but here goes. I read or heard a story by a blind man who was staying in a hotel. He is a frequent hotel stayer, and the first thing he always does upon entering is to feel his way around the room. He creates a map in his mind as to where the phone is, the bathroom etc. So, he does this one time, and the next morning he cannot find the phone. It is not where he ‘saw’ it the night before. He feels as if he is losing his mind as he repeatedly feels along every inch of every wall, fixture, and piece of furniture. Everything is as it was, but the phone is now missing. His door is dead-bolted, so nobody wandered in and removed it during the night (like that happens regularly). This is a true story, not fiction. I don’t know if I heard it in a podcast, read it somewhere (maybe even here), heard it on the radio, etc. I think I have the above details correct. Does this ring a (telephone) bell with anyone? mmm ---
**Author:** ![troub](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troub/32/14802_2.png) [@troub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troub)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2016, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-tell-me-where-i-read-or-heard-this-story/766976/2 "2016-09-26T21:50:02Z")
It does. It does sound vaguely familiar to me, but I can’t recall details either. I’m also thinking I might have read it here, for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![troub](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troub/32/14802_2.png) [@troub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troub)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2016, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-tell-me-where-i-read-or-heard-this-story/766976/3 "2016-09-26T21:59:57Z")
Could be this? [Invisible Made Visible - This American Life](http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/464/transcript) It’s almost backwards from the version you recounted, though: Blind guy gets a hotel room, and does his usual thing where he feels around the room, but he can’t find the phone. Next morning, he wakes up and the phone is ringing, so he finds it by sound and it’s on the coffee table, which didn’t have a phone on it before. SPOILER: the room was laid out kind of strangely with another couch and another set of coffee tables that he didn’t discover the first time around (he made an assumption about one of the walls and ended up missing a huge section of the room with “duplicate” furniture/items…and the phone). ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2016, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-tell-me-where-i-read-or-heard-this-story/766976/4 "2016-09-27T01:04:41Z")
You got it, **troub**. Nice work! mmm ---
**Author:** ![BobArrgh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobarrgh/32/2881_2.png) [@BobArrgh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobArrgh)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2016, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-tell-me-where-i-read-or-heard-this-story/766976/5 "2016-09-27T17:40:19Z")
That took 26 minutes, which is, frankly, **unacceptable** by SDMB standards. We can do better, people! 😃 Great job, **troub!**