I Lost My Phone Yesterday

Everybody buckle up because I’m about to tell you the craziest story.

Yesterday, my class (Positive Psychology) took a trip to Hunstanton, which is this quaint beach community about 2 hours away from Harlaxton. There are piers, fresh seafood, and a thousand old people walking their dogs (my paradise). We left the coach at about 10:00 a.m. and were told to be back at the car park at 12:45 p.m. My 2 friends and I started walking around enjoying the cool sea breeze. I took a time lapse, played on a playground that was right next to a crazy golf place and talked to some locals. It was so nice to be in an area where I wasn’t afraid to be pick-pocketed or kidnapped after spending the weekend in Paris.

After a while, my friends and I decided to walk into town to get some fresh seafood for lunch. We sat down at a table outside and they got out their phones to connect to the WIFI (unsuccessfully). I reached into my purse to grab my phone, and I couldn’t find it. “No worries, I’ll check my pockets,” I thought so innocently. My phone was not there either. I then proceeded to check my purse and my pockets about 10 more times and then began to panic. I had lost my phone. I remembered that I couldn’t connect to any service, so I didn’t take my phone out of my pocket. Where could my phone have gone? Did I get pick-pocketed? Did some old lady distract me with her cute pupper and steal my phone out of my pocket???

I immediately left my things with my friends and went back to the playground to look for my phone. I checked the benches, the swings, the flowerbeds. It was not there. I went back to the table about to start crying and I remembered that “Find My iPhone” is a thing that exists. I asked my friends to use their phones, but they were unable to get an internet connection. Our waitress brought our food to the table and she asked what was wrong. I told her the situation. She ran back to the kitchen and brought out her phone for me to use to locate my phone. “Oh, she’s getting a BIG tip,” I thought. After several attempts, I was unable to connect to my phone because it did not have any service.

After lunch (It is 12:15 p.m.), we headed to the Tourist Information Center which just so happened to be right next to the playground where we had spent most of our morning. I walked in to find my professor browsing the postcards and told her the situation. I found the woman in charge, a sweet 75+ year old woman that was no more than 5’2″, and asked her if anyone had turned in my phone. She said that she did not have it, but took down a phone number in case some brought it to her. She said that someone might have taken it to the police station. She then told me to try asking a place called “Oasis”. She said, “If anyone finds it, they’ll bring it there.” She handed me an excessively large map and I was on my way.

When we arrived to “Oasis”, I discovered that it’s an indoor water park, and I was super confused as to why the cute old lady sent me there. I walked to the front desk and asked them if anyone had turned in my phone. They were taken aback by the question as they should because they are a water park; why would they have my phone? The lady at the desk answered, “We don’t have your phone, but if someone found it, they’d turn it into the police station.” I really did not want to go to the police station, nor did I have time to go to there.

She asked me where I had lost my phone and I told her, “I think I lost it by the playground by the golf place.”

The lady at the desk said, “Did you ask the people at the golf place?” When I went to look the first time, I did not ask anyone if they had seen it. I figured that this was all that I had time to do and that would be the last place it could be.

It was now 12:30; I dropped my purse and my friends at the bus and began my trek to the golf place. I had no phone. I left my wallet on the bus. All I had was my camera on a gorilla pod and a few tears locked and loaded, ready for some bad news. I speed walked over to the golf place and slightly out of breath I say to the man at the counter, “I think I lost my phone over here this morning. Has anyone turned in a phone.”

The man stands up, turns to me and says, “Yes! Someone turned in your phone.” I honestly did not think that was going to happen. He had it. He had my phone. I was saved. “But,” he said. “The person who turned it in took it to the police station.”

My stomach dropped. “Where is the police station?” I asked.

He asked me, “Um, are you familiar with the Hunstanton?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Okay, It’s pretty far. You’re going to turn right out of here, take a left down this road, go all the way down, take a right, another left and then it should be on your right.”

“You’re joking,” I thought. I had no idea what time it was. The bus was going to leave at any second, but I knew where my phone was and I had to get to it. I told him thank you, but I honestly had no idea where I was going. So, I ran to the only person that could help me: the little old lady from the Tourist Information Center.

I sprinted inside and there she was in all of her glory. She was talking to this older couple telling them about some nice restaurants they might enjoy, but I couldn’t wait for them to finish. I blurted out, “CAN YOU TELL ME HOW TO GET TO THE POLICE STATION!?” They all looked at me in shock and I see where they might be coming from. A twenty year old American girl sweaty and out of breath asking how to get to the police station would probably make you a little panicked too. “It’s not an emergency! They have my phone and my school is going to leave me!” They all shouted lots of directions at me, but I heared “Go down this street until you get to 149 then take a right and it’s on the left.” I can do that. Can I do that? I was so sure that I was going to get left in Hunstanton and I had no money and not a hope, but I had never been so determined to get somewhere in my life.

I ran out the door and quickly realize how out of shape I am. I was looking for 149, but I don’t see it. None of the streets were labeled. I went ahead and turned right and ended up in a parking lot. I saw a woman pulling out of a parking spot. I had her roll her window down and shouted my new catch phrase at her: “CAN YOU TELL ME HOW TO GET TO THE POLICE STATION!?” She told me exactly where to go, which side note: I am amazed and shocked at how many people in that town know exactly where the police station is, but I’m thankful for it!

Anyways, after more frantic running, I ended up at the police station. I ran to the door. Gave it a hard yank, and it was locked. “Okay,” I thought. “Wrong door. I’ll find the right door.” Well, spoiler alert, I never found the door because there was no door. There was no door open to the public. Not a person in sight. I was thinking “How does everyone in this town know where the police station is if they can’t even go into it?” At a last resort, I just started banging on the doors asking someone to let me in, which in hindsight is probably not the smartest thing to do at a police station, but it all worked out.

After a several seconds of banging, an officer walked out from literally nowhere. I ran toward him and am so out of breath at this point that I can only get out the simplest of sentences. I said to him “I lost my phone. Someone brought it here. My school is going to leave me. Please help me.”

And he said the coolest and most cliche thing a cop can say, “Come with me.”

We walked in through this back door with a code on it, and I am still so dumbfounded like are people not allowed into this police station. This is so bizarre. He tells me to have a seat and he pulls out a card board box and starts digging. “It’s an iPhone in a case with pineapples on it. My school I.D. is in the wallet on the back. It should be really easy to find.”

He then said, “Well, we actually don’t do lost and found here anymore, so I don’t know why they brought it here.”

“What do you mean you don’t do lost and found anymore?” I thought. “Every single person I talked to told me to check the police station. You guys need to send out a letter or something saying you don’t do that anymore because the entire town still thinks that you do.”

“It’s not where we normally keep things, but let me go check the mailbox. That’s the only other place it would be,” he told me as he grabbed a handful of keys. At this point, I was trying to settle on the idea that I was going to be stranded here and that my phone was lost forever. There were worse places that I could be stranded with no resources. The people were nice. There were lots of dogs. I thought, “I could be happy here.”

The officer walks back in and he’s holding.. MY PHONE! I reach out for it and he says, “Wait, wait, let me ask you a couple of questions.” I was literally about to scream. There was my phone right in front of me and he wouldn’t hand it to me. He pulls out my I.D. (that I told him would be in there and has a picture OF MY FACE ON IT) and he asked me my name and date of birth. I answered them correctly, obviously, and he threw me my phone. “What time does your coach leave?” I looked at my phone. Time: 12:55 p.m. Poop.

“Ten minutes ago.”

“Come with me.”

We run out to the parking lot and he says, “Hop in the front.” I took a mental step back. Was I really about to ride in a cop car in the middle of “I don’t even know where England”. You bet I was. Then, I proceed to run to the right side of the car and my new partner yells “You’re in the U.K.!” Then, I proceed to run to the left side of the car where the passenger seat is actually located. I get in the car and he says, “Put on your seat belt. I’d hate to give you a ticket.” I’ll never see this guy again, but I’ll honestly never meet anyone cooler. This guy was swerving in and out of traffic like Vin Diesel in a Fast and Furious movie and making the most polite British small talk all at once.

Before I knew it, he had skidded to a stop right in front of the coach park. “Do you see your coach?”

I was looking for our driver who I remember being distinctly young. He was probably 25 and the youngest coach driver I’d ever had by about 30 years. I panned up and down the coaches, and I saw it. The face of a 25 year old that had waited twelve minutes passed his departure time for a irresponsible 20 year old getting out of a police car. “I see him! Thank you!” I yelled to my favorite British police officer and run onto my coach. I saw 30 Americans staring back at me, I held up my phone and shout, “I found it!”

Time: 12:57 p.m.

I’m excited to explore more and to share more with you. You can check my Facebook, Twitter (@HopeRouse) or Instagram (@HopeRouse) to see when I post more on the blog. If you would like to watch my trip in video form, you can subscribe to my YouTube Channel (Hope Rouse) to watch my vlogs. You can watch my most recent vlog here: