Tuesday, January 8, 2013

The misadventures of iGor the iPad

iGor was a happy, if not slightly battered, iPad who traveled frequently with his friend, ME. He got to go to exciting destinations like Alpharetta, Ga., Hershey, Penn., Ann Arbor, Mich, Chicago, Ill., and Cleveland, Ohio. Granted most of the trips involved long hours in cold ice rinks, but iGor passed his time playing Angry Birds, Words with Friends and posting witty status updates on Facebook.

And iGor had a bitchin' red leather jacket that made him look good.

But, alas, due to an owner with an exceedingly short attention span, in August 2012, iGor the iPad was mistakenly left in the seatback pocket of an airplane. ME left him behind when making a connection in Atlanta and didn't realize it until she was aboard the next flight.

A Delta flight attendant calmed the slightly hysterical ME, who was already experiencing the DTs from iPad withdrawal and gave her the 800# to call. ME got on the phone and called the Delta Lost and Found, gave them her flight number, gate number, seat number, a full description of iGor the iPad, specifically mentioning the bitchin' red leather jacket. She gave them her cell phone number, office number, email address, mother's maiden name, the name of the street she grew up on and the name of her first pet. 

She was told that they would contact her if they recovered her iPad. Standing nearby, the flight attendants rolled her eyes, wished ME luck and quietly whispered, "that iPad is gone for good."

Being a person of little faith, no patience, no ability to delay gratification and a borderline psychotic iPad withdrawal, ME waited one whole week (and payday) before venturing into Best Buy to buy a replacement for iGor. Determined to stay on budget, ME vowed that she didn't need a iPad 3, and would replace the lost one with a iPad 2 (exactly like iGor). However, ME also lacked impulse control at Best Buy. When she learned they had an open box iPad 3 that was only $50 more than the iPad 2, she gave in to temptation. iRene the iPad went home with ME.

Months went by and iGor was given up for forever lost. Then, in the early days of 2013, Shanna, the lone part-time employee who works in the Delta Lost and Found office, contacted ME to let her know that they believe they have her lost iPad. Shocked and feeling like she had been caught like a cheating spouse, ME carefully answered Shanna's questions.

"Was your iPad in a case?"
"Yes, a bitchin' red leather one."
"Was there anything else about the case?"
Being bitchin' red leather isn't enough?

"Does it have a white stripe on the case?"
"Yes," ME replied excitedly. "And a magnetic latch."

Shanna continued, "Now I need you to tell me what's on the iPad."
"Well, you'll first have to enter a six digit code."
"Oh, no. Your iPad is dead and needs to be recharged."
(Shocking that the battery didn't last five months.)

Shanna informs ME that she'll have to call her back when it's charged. As ME hangs up the phone, she is slightly stressed as she tries to remember what she was using for a code five months ago.

About an hour later, Shanna calls back with iGor the iPad fully charged. "Now, Miss Harty, I can see the pictures you have on the iPad, can you tell me what pictures are on here?"
Inside her head - "you're high Shanna - you can't see the pictures, you're just looking at the home screen."
Verbally, "Can't remember - but it should be asking you for a passcode."

"What is the code?"
"Um, I think it is 111111" (a hacker's dream)
"It worked! And it says it's Elizabeth's iPad." (And there was much rejoicing in the land.) 

"We'll ship it back to you. Do you have a UPS or Fed Ex account?"
Seriously? I'm a normal person. I don't have my own UPS or Fed Ex account.

"You'll have to set one up before I can ship it back to you." She gives ME an phone number to call to set up a Fed Ex account and tells that she would be calling her back in 15 minutes.

By the end of the night, ME had her own personal Fed Ex account and owned two iPads.

Hello? eBay?


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