Today while on the way to History of the Bay Area class, I stumbled upon a book in the seat that I was about to occupy when I entered the car; apparently somebody had forgot it. Before I could shout out something, the doors to the car closed and I was on my way to Oakland. Now that I am in possession of this book I think it would be an excellent chance to see if it would be possible to return this person’s book.
Upon returning home, I inspected it for any identifying marks; there are none. The book is recently published and brand new. There are however two things wedged inside the book: a bookmark from a corporate team-building seminar group, and a recent San Francisco to Salt Lake city morning plane ticket. These clues tell me that the owner of this book must be in the corporate world somehow; perhaps he was going to a meeting. The most important thing, however is that I have a name. I attempted to backtrack through the airline website using the ticket’s confirmation number, but unfortunately nothing turned up; most likely any information regarding the trip has been erased.
I am inclined to simply give the book to the station attendant, but I feel that by now the owner may not be looking for the book anymore. How might I go about returning this book? Since the person uses the BART, he surely lives within the San Francisco Bay area. The BART train was heading eastbound when the man got off at a major Market Street station: that tells me that the man probably lives on the peninsula, and goes to work in downtown San Francisco. I have heard other people use the internet to great effect in identifying owners of lost cameras.
Social networking is an absolutely fascinating phenomenon. It has made the world a much smaller place. The novelty of pen pals has given way to real time posts on forums, even live broadcasts. Finding information is far easier now than before. I will continue my search for this man as soon as school ends.
Upon returning home, I inspected it for any identifying marks; there are none. The book is recently published and brand new. There are however two things wedged inside the book: a bookmark from a corporate team-building seminar group, and a recent San Francisco to Salt Lake city morning plane ticket. These clues tell me that the owner of this book must be in the corporate world somehow; perhaps he was going to a meeting. The most important thing, however is that I have a name. I attempted to backtrack through the airline website using the ticket’s confirmation number, but unfortunately nothing turned up; most likely any information regarding the trip has been erased.
I am inclined to simply give the book to the station attendant, but I feel that by now the owner may not be looking for the book anymore. How might I go about returning this book? Since the person uses the BART, he surely lives within the San Francisco Bay area. The BART train was heading eastbound when the man got off at a major Market Street station: that tells me that the man probably lives on the peninsula, and goes to work in downtown San Francisco. I have heard other people use the internet to great effect in identifying owners of lost cameras.
Social networking is an absolutely fascinating phenomenon. It has made the world a much smaller place. The novelty of pen pals has given way to real time posts on forums, even live broadcasts. Finding information is far easier now than before. I will continue my search for this man as soon as school ends.
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