First off, the night before was a very fun night to say the least. I'll skip the details, but let you know that it was a fun night spent in the Vista, not unlike many other nights downtown except that this one ended poorly. At the end of the night I decided to head back to Lexington, hopped in the truck, and started my journey. Some 20 minutes later I'm almost home and realize I dont have my phone. Crap. One of my friends swiped it being funny... or maybe, just maybe I left it somewhere. Who cares? It's late. I'm tired. I'll get to the bottom of this in the morning.
The next morning I wake up and immediately have an "oh shit" moment. My phone is one of my lifelines; how will I get through the day without it. Surely someone I know has it. I know! I'll just call them to see if they have it! Doh! ... I have no land line at home; this is 2010, all you need is a cell phone, right?
I then decided that I could easily email the select few people that may have it... no response. Meanwhile, time is ticking. If I did lose it, surely someone who doesn't need to find it will very soon, if they haven't already. Once it's gone, it's gone. I wait what seems like half an hour, but was probably more like 5 minutes. Why wont these people answer their emails!!!
Then it hit me. My phone, the HTC Droid Incredible, was only about 2 weeks old and I was still learning about it and playing with the features and new apps. While at lunch only days before a friend of mine suggested I download this great App called Lookout. It's a mobile security application that will scan your other apps for viruses as well as, and this turned out to be the big one, track your phone! Few people had heard of this app at that point in time, although now I have seen it advertised on commercials. Back to the point, it hit me! I had downloaded this app, so maybe, just maybe, I could find my phone using this app! Sweet! Picture Jim Carrey as Lloyd in Dumb and Dumber saying "So you're telling me there's a chance... yeayah!".
I logged in to the mylookout website, logged in, and the GPS began tracking to a smaller and smaller area, and sure enough, THERE IT WAS!!! Woo Hoo! I tracked the blip it to the corner of two streets in the Vista, a corner that I had walked by on the way to my truck. Excellent! Now, I only have to drive downtown to pick it up. Then the unthinkable happened... the blip began to move. Oh Crap! Someone has my phone!!! What do I do now?
I jumped back over to email and sent a few message to people that I knew that had smart phones. My thoughts were that if I logged in to the website on their phone, then we could track it via GPS and walk right up to it and the person that has it. This is an excellent plan. Two problems. I have to find someone to help and the battery life on the phone is surely an issue. If it goes dead, there will be no GPS signal so we won't be able to track it. Time is of the essence.
Luckily, my friend Terry responds very quickly. I am about to leave to meet Terry when the blip is no longer current. Oh shit. Either someone powered it down, or it actually died. Oh well, we can still try. We met downtown and I logged in. Sure enough, the last GPS signal was from over 30 minutes prior. It was worth a shot though, so we headed to the last known location. It was very exciting, almost as if we were treasure hunting. When we got really close, we picked a parking lot and got out the car to walk the remainder of the way. At that point in time we could no see where the phone was, but we were near railroad track and the signal appeared to be from near there. Ok, maybe someone tossed it down near the tracks.
We continued on foot only to realize the signal had been from beyond the tracks. Great, there is a parking lot around the corner, we'll walk over there and hope that the person is still there. At this point I fully assume that if any one is there, it will be a homeless guy or two chilling on the corner and will claim to not have it. Hmmm. What will this confrontation look like? It may get ugly. Wait a minute; if there is any batter life left, the lookout app also has an alarm feature. This was the idea; if we confront this supposed holder of the phone and they deny having, we'll just the alarm for an "ah ha" moment. "Ah ha, you liar! Now give it to me or I'll... !" Let's not go there. Anyway, hopefully it wouldn't come to that.
We rounded the corner, assuming the best case scenario (besides finding the phone abandoned on the ground) was to find one homeless man with it in his possession. What we found was much more surprising. Homeless? yes. One or two? no. There was a church group feeding the homeless and there must have been 100 of them there. Wow. Now what? I guess we ask around? 20 minutes later - no luck. What to do? Ah, let's sound the alarm. We listen up... nothing. Of course if the batter is dead, the alarm will not sound. Now what?
Ah, luckily I knew one of the volunteers and started talking to them all. The man in charge said he'd make an announcement before the blessing. Sure enough he makes the announcement that "we know the phone was here because of GPS... please turn it in if you have it". Also, at the end of the food line we are asking everyone if they have found the phone. Of course everyone denied having it. It was beginning to look bleak and I had the profound idea to offer a bribe in the form of a monetary reward. A new phone to replace this would be a few hundred bucks since it was not renewal time. I figured offering $20 may not be enough; they may just try a pawn shop, but $40 would do the trick. The second announcement went like this: "If you didn't have the phone before, but have suddenly found it... please turn it in. There is now a $40 finders fee. No questions asked; just turn it in." Within about 3 minutes a man that had just told us moments before that he had see no phone walked up with my freakin' phone. "Is this it?" lol, of course it is. I laughed, gave him the $40, and felt I like had struck gold.
When we left, I was riding high. This software was amazing. It had found my phone when I didn't have any clue where it was. Not only that, but if the battery had lasted, we'd have been able to walk right up to it within a foot. Wow. In the end we were extremely lucky, because when the battery did die, it just happened to have done so after the man that found it was at his destination, a destination that he would be at for the next hour or two. What are the chances that (a) he stays put for that long, (b) that the phone just happens to last long enough to get him to that location? Amazing that it worked out.
I feel quite fortunate that I downloaded Lookout. I feel quite fortunate to have a friend that could meet me such short notice (Thanks Terry). I feel so very fortunate that the timing worked out such that the phone was still in the vicinity it was when it died. I feel very lucky for the entire experience.
Oh, and one last plug for the App. If you have a Droid, get Lookout. It's worth it!
