alt Hacker NewsI once accidentally left my backpack in Nice’s tram, containing mon ordinateur principal. I was flying to Balaji’s Network State conference in Singapore and had no time to go back. I did get ahold of a tram operator and another tram operator had found it at the end of the line. I had left my whatsapp number for her and had to run.
While in Singapore I was able to get ahold of some policeman who made some calls and was told it was waiting for me at the Lost and Found inside the Nice airport gift shop. I thanked him and made 24 hour layover in Nice.
Well, getting to the airport, I came tk this shop. I asked about the “sac a dos gris” in the other room. They checked their ordinateur: “NO, je suis desolee”. Sorry sir! I said you definitely have it, can you please go to that other room and check? “No sorry we cannot. It is not here. After a week we give things to the municipal lost and found. At the polics station. Go there.”
The day was ending (French govt services work til 4pm) so I raced to the municipal police station in Nice. I arrive and they have a bunch of keys and other things people lost around the city. I barely speak French but luckily a middle-aged lady was there who spoke good English. She helped me ask them. “No. Sorry. It is not here.” Are they sure? “Yes, we checked. Not here.”
She gave me a ride on her vespa (she had a motorcycle) and I treated her to dinner while we discussed the situation. We agreed I should go to the central police station after that and file a missing item report. Which I did (spoiler alert: doesn’t do anything, but standing in line is less than in US cities).
That night I chose to stay at some rinkydink place in Nice, because why not (I was by myself) and got up around 4am to take the bus to the tram network’s lost and found — the last place it could be. I would have aittle time before my flight.
In the morning I got up early and got to that Lost and Found, before my flight. I had one hour. It was located near a university, and after wandering around I had found the little enclave. The staff there were very nice — but they didn’t have it either!
I flew home, dejected. My backups hadn’t been perfect; I had a lot of stuff on that computer, including an iOS App on XCode that I had to release to a lot of people! (And a couple Metamask wallets.)
Anyway I kept in touch with the nice policeman throughout. He went to the airport lost and found - the same one which refused to check the other room because their computer said it wasn’t there — and CONFIRMED that my bag was there. They had let him check the back room, you see!
But I wasn’t in Nice anymore. I filled out a “troov.com” report and explained where it was. They had found it! Paid for FedEx. Over the next few days thanks to the Tracking I saw it go to the central station in France and then sent back. Because it was missing a customs form for USA. I had filled out that form, but something had been wrong. I had spoken to the main FedEx customs-facing team in Memphis for a few days, and they thought it was in USA already. They were wrong. Their system was also blind to this. Anyway, I saw it go back to that airport lost and found, a week later. Lost about $100…
Then, the lady offered to come pick it up for me. She came, and was thankfully given this bag. She mailed it with DHL, and I received it. It was really overjoyed when it finally arrived, a month and a half after I had lost it! I of course sent the lady a payment to cover the cost. She did not want any other compensation. We are still friends to this day, and when my dad goes to France, I am putting them in touch.
One moral from this story is: French employees love to say “No” to anything and everything. If their computer says the thing isn’t there, they won’t budge even when it’s the easiest thing to just check the other room manually. Unless you are a local policeman!
The other moral - back up your stuff! Have SyncThing or your own machine in the cloud. Especially if you travel to conferences, like me.
Replies
> French employees love to say “No” to anything and everything.
Obviously an overgeneralization.
In general employees in lost and found offices are quite low on the social scale, but still in a position of power regarding people coming to the office. I guess that this behaviour is not so french. In some other countries where corruption is common in public services in relation to low wages, worse things may happen at lost and found.
That's not how Jason Bourne handled paperwork.
This is a real issue btw, I think it's globalized but we have it a lot in France. People love abusing any power they have on you, they love telling you no and that you're wrong and they know better.
The other issue is that public service employees tend to be huge slackers, and when you have the misfortune of ending up in a situation that requires multiple people working together, you'll be probably there for a few weeks because they can't go further than their own desk.
When I was coming back from Canada, I had to remake my social security card since it was transferred to Canada (through an official transfer that made me eligible to the Canadian social security). But in France, no one knew how that worked, and I basically spent two months calling them weekly for updates (with various people telling me contradictory things) before someone finally went ahead and made sure all the necessities were taken care of.
I frankly hate dealing with French public services and avoid it like the plague.
I once forgot my phone in a French airport (Lyon). Back then I had a "bulky" (hardened, like the crosscall brand) phone. I had trouble finding it in their system as they logged it as having a phone case.
I initially put up a request in their system, which did not match anything when they found it. I ended up finding it in their "public" listing (not really public, I think they ask for a ~10€ registration fee).
Anyway, when I got it back, I tried to argue with the employee that the phone did not, in fact, have a case. But they were adamant that it did. I ended up shrugging it off, happy enough to have my phone. But some people really don't care. Maybe someone filed your bag as something else, and then it wouldn't appear in the system, and weren't bothered enough to go look inside.