I was changing planes in Dubai on my way home when I suddenly couldn’t find my phone. Realising I’d either dropped it or that it had gotten stolen, I panicked. I had all the pictures from my trip on it, and they would now be gone.
Since I had to wait the whole night before boarding, I had some time to at least try to solve it, so I went to the information desk, asking if they could look in a lost and found box or something. They told me to talk to the police desk at the airport.
Being in another country, talking to the police wasn’t really on my wishlist; however, I wanted my phone, so I went there. There was a lot of questioning from the policemen.
At this point, my travelling companions were sleeping, and I didn’t want to disturb them. so I let them rest. Some hours went by, the night became early morning, and I couldn’t really sleep.
As a group of stern-looking policemen came up to me, my friends woke up and took notice. I was questioned about the phone, thoroughly; they wanted me to describe the cracks in the screen, the background photo, where I last saw it, and everything. One of them started searching through my bag to see if I had a phone. It was quite intense, and I felt like I was cornered as they stood in a half-circle around the chair I was sitting in.
After a while, I noticed that the questions seemed to be asked by someone who had seen the phone.
Me: “Have you found it?”
Policeman: “Just answer the questions.”
Me: “Look, if you’ve found a phone of that color and model, and it is unlocked by a pattern, I can just show that I can unlock it to prove it is mine.”
They stood quiet for a while, and then they brought out my phone! I took it and was just about to unlock it when they started looking at my screen. I leaned back to show I was not sharing my pattern. It took me a second, and then I showed them the unlocked phone.
Policeman: “All right. You should be careful.”
The way he said it, it sounded more like a threat than advice, but maybe I felt that way because I was surrounded and sleep-deprived. They left, however, and since they’d surrounded me, my friends had no idea what had just happened.
Friend #1: “What was that about?”
Me: “Oh, I lost my phone, so I went to the information desk, who sent me to the police, and they found it! They just wanted to make sure it was really mine, I guess.”
Friend #1: “You did all that while we slept?! Have you slept at all?”
Friend #2: “You lost your phone?!”
Me: “I got it back, see? Everything is fine. I’ll sleep on the plane.”
I believe my friends were in shock for a while, and while it might not sound like a big deal, those policemen were really scary! But hey, my phone was back and I was happy.
