Come join my pity party. Bring pixie dust and some perspective to share. *UPDATE #86*

[montrealdisneylovers]

Wow I really feel for you. We had two experiences losing items on two seperate trips and I must say our experience was much better in both cases.

Three years ago, my teenage daughter and I were enjoying EMH and MK and doing our last run on Spacemountain. When we got off the ride and walked the long walk outside, my DD noticed that her phone was missing. We immediately went to the counter where you can purchase your photos from the ride and explained what happened. They asked if we remembered what car we were in. Strangely enough I noticed the number as it pulled up and remembered. They walkie talkied up to the front and about half an hour later we were told to go back through the ride through the fastpass entrance and go up to the loading area. When there we had to describe the lost phone and voila we had it back.

Last year same DD lost her purse. She was sure she handed it off to her uncle along with all our other purses and bags (as he was not coming on the ride: Splash). We enjoyed our ride and went back to collect our bags. We were all handed a purse except DD. Panic set it and we went running back to the photo booth for the ride. This time I did not know the number of our boat but they looked all through the photos for our picture, zoomed in and got the number of the boat. After about an hour we were told it was not on the boat but to go to lost and found at the front. Sure enough, someone had returned it there. The funny part was that my daughter was asked to produce I.D so that they could return the purse to her. All her I.D was in the purse (unfortunately none with a picture). Luckily for her, the spelling of her name is original and when she told them she had a credit card with that spelling on it and she pretty much remembered everything she had in there, the CM was comfortable handing over the purse. Everything was intact including all the cash she had in there.

Our experience so far with retrieving lost items at Disney World has been amazing. The wait until you find out can feel like a lifetime but the CMs were very comforting and kept reminding us that people who come to Disney are usually not thieves and more than likely would return the purse. I was impressed at how quickly it really showed up at the City Hall given how far Splash is from the front gate.

I certainly hope that this is it for lost items for our family

 

[SamSam]

Jean, just stumbled on this thread. So sorry about your phone, I would be upset too! Mainly because of photos that I have on my phone.

How frustrating that you know where it is and know one will look there!!!!

 

[DiznyDi]

Keeping my fingers crossed that your phone will show up!

 

[CarolMN]

 

[genmasjoy]

Hope your phone will be returned. We have lost things twice at WDW and both times were able to retrieve them from Lost and Found a day later.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Here's is what you need to do:

"Tony, Tony, Turn Around, Something’s Lost And Must be Found!"
Lost something today? Better pray to Saint Anthony, the patron of lost things. And pretty much of anything that's missing in one's life; children, a significant other, whatever or just plain missing oneself, invoke St. Anthony and he might just help.

 

[snowglobe girl]

I sure hope your phone turns up. I thought about you all last night too. I got a new iPhone 5 in December and lost it twice in January- fell out of my coat pocket at my son's school the first time and when I called it, someone answered and had it for me. Second time I dropped it on the sidewalk at the bank and a girl that I know works there and found it as she was coming in. But I know how that panic feels when you know it's gone. It made it even worse for you because you knew where it was and nobody helped you. But I want to thank you for educating me on the Find my iPhone app. We put it on all our devices today and have used it several times throughout the day to see how we'll it worked. My DH was amazed when I sent him a text telling him to get out of Best Buy and get home. Lol. But I'm still sending Pixie Dust that a nice CM will have the phone and you will get it back quickly.

 

[jekjones1558]

As sad as I am about the phone, and I am surely sad, I feel very lucky to have DISers in my corner. A front desk person suggested I ask a Buzz supervisor to check their log book from last night. No phone. So I am likely out of luck. That means I am 0 for 2 because a couple of years ago I left a camera on the Safari ride, realized it minutes later, but it was never returned.
I will check central Lost and Found on the way to the airport tomorrow but odds are pretty lousy. Life will go on. Thanks again to everyone. St. Anthony might still be working on this, so there is a glimmer....

 

[nabi]

Safe travels home again..... our country is in despair, again, over another likely terrorist attack, occurring in Boston. I know I never heard any news, while on vacation, and there always seemed to be a doozie while we were away.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I just saw this and can sympathize. Unfortunately you never know what kind of assistance you'll get but lost and found is not exactly the most helpful group at WDW. If we forget something we make every attempt to recover it ourselves as soon as we realize and to the best our ability. Had I just gone with the normal protocol I know I wouldn't have all my camera batteries but I elected to go back over to BWV after we checked and caught up with the housekeeper who had my charger that I left in our room.

But also not all CM's are as indifferent as you ran into and I'm sorry that happened. DH wears his phone in a holster on his hip and when getting on to SM a few years ago it snagged and popped off on to the track area. He told a CM who said they would get it and when we got to the end of the ride another CM handed DH his phone! I could have hugged them because DH without his phone is one of my worst nightmares!

 

[jekjones1558]

Bad news. Find phone app shows the phone near downtown Orlando. Since it never moved from Buzz until after park closed at 1:00 AM, it appears that one of the Buzz maintenance people took it. At least I know that I have to get a new phone. I called security this morning as soon as the app tracked the phone and they will see who was working at Buzz that night but I doubt that they will be able to finger which person it was. I will file a report with Orange County police online. Sure leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The specifics of my camera loss a couple of years ago seemed to point to a CM then also.
In retrospect I should have contacted security right away, not just park people, even though there was no reason to believe the worst then. They could have stayed at Buzz after closing and worked with me as I repeatedly called my phone. I was naive enough to think that as long as my phone was working then CMs would turn it in. Just a suggestion to anyone else out there....
Thanks again for all the support, DISers.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Bad news. Find phone app shows the phone near downtown Orlando. Since it never moved from Buzz until after park closed at 1:00 AM, it appears that one of the Buzz maintenance people took it. At least I know that I have to get a new phone. I called security this morning as soon as the app tracked the phone and they will see who was working at Buzz that night but I doubt that they will be able to finger which person it was. I will file a report with Orange County police online. Sure leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The specifics of my camera loss a couple of years ago seemed to point to a CM then also.
In retrospect I should have contacted security right away, not just park people, even though there was no reason to believe the worst then. They could have stayed at Buzz after closing and worked with me as I repeatedly called my phone. I was naive enough to think that as long as my phone was working then CMs would turn it in. Just a suggestion to anyone else out there....
Thanks again for all the support, DISers.

Can you lock it remotely?

 

[jekjones1558]

Double post

 

[jade1]

Taking/stealing an iphone is really risky these days. The fact that the owner and cops could simply knock on your door should be deterrent enough.

 

[montrealdisneylovers]

Bad news. Find phone app shows the phone near downtown Orlando. Since it never moved from Buzz until after park closed at 1:00 AM, it appears that one of the Buzz maintenance people took it. At least I know that I have to get a new phone. I called security this morning as soon as the app tracked the phone and they will see who was working at Buzz that night but I doubt that they will be able to finger which person it was. I will file a report with Orange County police online. Sure leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The specifics of my camera loss a couple of years ago seemed to point to a CM then also.
In retrospect I should have contacted security right away, not just park people, even though there was no reason to believe the worst then. They could have stayed at Buzz after closing and worked with me as I repeatedly called my phone. I was naive enough to think that as long as my phone was working then CMs would turn it in. Just a suggestion to anyone else out there....
Thanks again for all the support, DISers.

Wow, so sorry this worked out this way. I really expected you to get your phone back.

 

[jekjones1558]

It is locked with a message to call because it is lost. I can erase it but then it can't be tracked. At some point I'll have to erase. I need to get a new phone and the old one can't be blacklisted until I wipe it.

 

[rlduvall]

It is locked with a message to call because it is lost. I can erase it but then it can't be tracked. At some point I'll have to erase. I need to get a new phone and the old one can't be blacklisted until I wipe it.

I am so disappointed that someone took it. Hang in there. I firmly believe in "what goes around, comes around." Karma will bite them.

 

[DizBub]

Well, this just stinks. You are correct that they KNOW who was working on that ride during that time. The phone can be tracked. They know you lost it and are actively looking for it. I would call the police.

In the state of Florida it looks like theft of anything worth over $300 is considered grand theft "in certain circumstances". Not sure what those circumstances are but it would be worth at least filing a report.

Hoping you at the very least had insurance on the phone......

 

[tjkraz]

Sorry to hear about the loss, Jean. Hope there's a happy ending.

For what it's worth, if you end up getting a new iPhone I would strongly suggest looking into the Photo Stream feature. With Photo Stream enabled, all of your photos are automatically synced to Apple iCloud servers. It's a great way to back-up that content.

My wife and I are both linked to the same iCloud / Photo Stream account. Between our two iPhones, iPad and iMac, every photo we take is immediately accessible on every device. A few minutes after we return to our hotel room, all of the photos taken on either of our iPhones are synced across all devices and we can easily browse through them on the iPad.

The only footnote I'll add is that you need access to wifi in order for the sync to occur--it won't transfer photos via the cellular data connection.

Here's some info:

http://www.apple.com/icloud/features/photo-stream.html

 

[quirty30]

I'm so sorry to hear your news, Jean; I was afraid this would be the outcome. My daughter accidentally left her iPod in the seatback on a United flight back from Disney a few years ago & didn't realize til long after we got home. I was never even able to get a reply from United to my initial inquiry. And I never forced the issue because in my heart I knew the device was long gone.

I find it totally disheartening that individuals who "find" lost items don't see keeping them as wrong. At the very least, it's taking advantage of another's misfortune, and as far as I'm concerned, only slightly less egregious than stealing something outright. It's a shame that people can't do the right thing and turn things in.

Perhaps the lesson here for all of us in such instances is to be the squeaky wheel. Force the issue right then & there, and don't leave until you're satisfied with the resolution. The longer an item is lost, the less likely you are to see it again. Again, I'm so sorry your story didn't have a happy ending