iPhone I Found

I apologize for this belated post.

My thanks to all those who felt for me when I lost the item in reference which, for those who own one, is like a lifeline to family and friends, and an infinite window to the world beyond their immediate space.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Whenever I come in for work, I leave my bag in a small room where most of my colleagues leave theirs. It has two numerically-coded doors where every single employee who has access to it can go in and out.

Several hours before discovering my iPhone was lost, I went inside the room. I find a co-worker who was startled as I entered. He went out of the room hurriedly, a tad anxious. I wondered what was the matter for a brief second then went on with my busy day.

And then several hours later, as the story goes, I discovered I lost my iPhone. I kept searching for clues, retracing my steps, asking around. I found only consolation and an empty hand.

I continued working despite being constantly bothered by the incident. At the end of my shift, I called my family about it since I don’t have landline at home.

I also sent a message to my iPhone to alert whoever has it, tried to locate it through a special tracking feature, and reported the incident to our security.

At home, I kept replaying events prior to my discovery and envisioning several possible versions of the incident so as to acquire an insight into the situation.

It was not until several summoned flashbacks did I acquire an intuition into how I lost my iPhone along with its charger. I had the epiphany right before I went to bed the next night.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I chanced upon my suspect in a neutral hallway. I came up to him and said, “Are you going to my unit by any chance?”

“Yeah, later in the afternoon. Why?”

“I need to talk to you about something.”

“Oh, sure.”

“What time are you going there?”

“Uhmn... probably around... 03:45PM.”

“Good. It’s 3 o’clock. I have half an hour lunch break. I’ll be in my unit by the time you’re there. See you then.”

“Alright.”

I finish lunch @ 3:30PM and walked towards my unit. I enter the room where I last saw my iPhone.

Lo and behold - my iPhone sans charger was lying face down on a personal size fridge inside the very same room where I lost it - about 10 minutes before my suspect said he’d be there.

Few minutes before our scheduled rendezvous he calls. “Hi, Peter. I’m gonna be there in a short while.”

“Okay. I’ll be right here, buddy.”

When he came, he enters the room where I lost - and just found - my iPhone, and I follow. I calmly tell him that I lost my iPhone along with the charger. His brows meet to emanate a look of concern.

I gave him detailed description of the item and asked him to be on the lookout for it, emphasizing that the charger was attached to the phone. He said he will.

I waited some more days for the $30 charger to appear but it never came.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I don’t know why my iPhone was returned.

Maybe the culprit knew about the tracking feature. Maybe my sister’s voicemail about divine admonition convinced the culprit to do so.

Or perhaps my mother’s total of 8 voicemails, each plea becoming more heartbreaking than the previous, afforded the culprit a change of heart.

But it’s good enough I got my iPhone back. The only thing is, if my suspect really was the one who did it, he happens to be my co-worker.

And that’s very sad.