(as seen on my blog earlier this week on WorkingMother.com)
I lost my phone while in Phoenix this week. The next morning I called my husband David and asked him to use the Find My Phone app to track it down. While I was hoping it was still in the hotel, sadly it was about ten miles away at a Chinese medicine store on South Central Ave. Not sure what to do I decided to just let it go. Clearly, someone from the hotel found it on the table where I left it and took it. I really wasn’t in the mood for a confrontation.
I went to meet my BFF Shamim Wu, who works in my industry and while listening to her talk I thought, “I wonder if she would go with me to track down my phone?” Wearing a gorgeous white Chanel suit, I thought it better to skip the idea all together when out of the blue I said, “Shamim, my phone is about ten minutes from the hotel, will you go with me to get it?” Head of sales for a billion dollar organization, I wasn’t sure this was such a good idea…but the truth is Shamim is a kick ass woman who knows no fear. While her boss might not like the idea of me dragging her into my investigation, I knew she was my girl!
Not surprisingly Shamim agreed to go. We jumped in the back of a black SUV and headed off in search of my stolen phone. As we pulled into the parking lot of the medicine shop I started to get really nervous. Was someone really going to admit they had my phone? What if we get into a fight or worse yet, shot?
We walked into the store… black heels, white suits (yes we actually both had on white) and nerves of steel. Shamim said hello in Chinese and proceeded to tell the owner that my phone was stolen and tracked to her location. Playing tough we requested she let her employees know that they could give up the phone now to us or deal with the police later- who we would promptly be calling (that was of course a bluff).
The store owner returned from the back of the store and explained that none of her employees had the phone. Graciously she let us look around. My heart was beating so fast I thought I would pass out. About to give up we decided to call Dave and ask him to ping the phone for us. With just 2% battery life left, we were running out of time!
Resourceful, Dave jumped on google maps to zero in on the location and tracked the phone to a doorway- “It’s on the Northeast side, by an entrance” he said. Sweating, Shamim and I walked around; furiously looking for the phone…it was nowhere. We looked in trashcans and behind cabinets- even our driver got involved. Dave was in Florida looking at a computer screen and trying to tell us where it was but we simply couldn’t find it! I felt like we were playing a game of cold, warm and hot. “It’s by an entrance, I see it!” Dave kept saying. Where was the phone?
We decided to walk outside and look at the exterior of the building when we heard a, “Ding, ding, ding!” Everyone started screaming, including the store owner, employee, driver, Shamim and me. We could hear it but where was it? I couldn’t believe we might actually find my phone after all! Looking in cars and gutters we realized…it was in the bushes. Digging through dirty diapers, empty bottles and leaves, we found it…my phone was actually there. I could not believe it- what started out as a crazy idea resulted in a successful recovery of my phone. Sure I could have gotten another but I had three days left on my trip, kids I needed to stay in touch with and a business to run. I wanted this phone.
The elation we felt was indescribable. Even more powerful was the feeling of adrenaline, adventure, fear, spontaneity, and ultimate victory! Pulling away, we were laughing so hard that we could barely catch our breath! The highlight of our week, Shamim and I felt like Starsky and Hutch- in that moment we were not working women, wives or mothers, we were best friends on a crazy adventure of a lifetime.
While it might not have been the smartest thing to do, it was by far a memory I’ll never forget. Sometimes, as grownups, we can play it too safe, hold back due to potential consequences or fear of the unknown. Othertimes, we can act like kids, take risks, go for it and be downright bold- that’s exactly what we did and to the day I die, I’ll never forget this victorious moment.
Actual moment of badassness.
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