Air Tagging My Identity
I was abroad and lived in Milan, Italy from January 2024-May 2024. I hit 17 countries in Europe, passed an Italian language class with flying colors, and lost my passport.
Lisbon, Portugal.
April 14, 2024.
I had been traveling through Europe with my 2 friends, one from UNC and one from Michigan State.
By the time Lisbon rolled around, we had been traveling every weekend (sometimes during the week too) for 3 months. We were all destroyed. My neck had started to perpetually hurt from sleeping on basically cardboard at hostels, I had maybe $100 in my bank account, and I had one allotted absence left at my Italian school before they auto failed me. I was on thin ice.
Lisbon was insanely cool, we had a man drive us around the city on a Tuk-Tuk, saw Porto, which is a cool little town outside Lisbon, and rode a boat around one night with like 6 different bachelorette parties. Electric.
Our last night we stayed at this hostel nestled on one of the highest point in Lisbon. It was a great spot. One of my friends had lost her purse earlier on in the trip, found the Uber who had it, and was currently summoning him to the restaurant we were eating at to get it back. My other friend had food poisoning. This is relevant to what ended up happening, because a friend we had in Milan told me, "watch your back, bad things happen in 3s."
I'm like yeah, right. I pondered it as a real possibility for approximately 4 seconds then forgot about it. My friend got her purse returned, my other friend recovered from her bout of food poisoning, all was well.
Fast forward to the next morning, after a very mediocre nights sleep in our hostel.
It was hot, my backpack was heavy, all three of us sat on the ground waiting for our Uber to pick us up to take us to the airport. I set my backpack and mini purse down next to me as we all slumped on the dirt curb. We watched people shuffle in and out of little coffee shops across from the hostel.
Our Uber kicked up dust from the road as it approached, I turned and gave Lisbon one last sweep before getting in the car. It was our third to last trip, I had still had Munich and Amsterdam in the next two weeks.
I set my backpack down on the ground of the Uber and shimmy in behind my friends. We were joking about how early we'd be to the airport, a rare occurrence for us as of recent times.
I look down at my phone.
"AIR TAG, ITEM BACKPACK LEFT BEHIND." (the air tag in my purse was named backpack)
The car started moving in slow-mo and I could hear the blood in my ears. I say nothing, open the door of the moving Uber, somehow land on my feet, and start channeling my high school track abilities to sprint back up the hill we just drove down, back towards our hostel.
I had only brought my backpack into the Uber. I left my purse. Which conveniently had both forms of my identity, all my money, and my lip combo (devastating loss).
For context, I had not been intensively exercising at all during my time abroad, there are no gyms and I walked 20k or more steps a day, so I considered that my exercise. I digress, I reach the top of this hill, my lungs legitimately feel like they're bleeding and I'm starting to panic.
I'm able to use momentum from a slight downhill towards the hostel to keep myself moving. No purse.
I check a nearby trashcan.
No purse.
The two coffee shops across the street.
No
Purse.
I'm screwed. I'm actively watching my purse bounce around a nearby neighbor via its Air Tag. I'm playing the sound to see if somehow I could trace it. I ended up inside an apartment building with my ear against doors desperately seeing if I could hear the ping of my lost identity.
My friends had paid off the Uber and carried my backpack up to meet me. I have no money and no identity. We're in the middle of Lisbon, Portugal.
I have to get an emergency passport. Our experience at the Embassy was an interesting one, I basically convince the representative to get me in that day so I could get to class and not fail out of my study abroad program.
Somehow, he's convinced.
I get called into the embassy, have my phone and all other belongings checked in at the entrance, go through a metal detector. I enter the US Embassy with nothing but $5 cash for a new passport picture.
I come to find it's important to memorize either your social security number, drivers license number, or passport number. In the embassy that day, I knew none. (I have since memorized all) Somehow they identified me. Issued me my purple passport of shame, and sent me on my way.
Our Michigan State friend had ordered a Domino's Pizza to the embassy and was taking a nap on a bench outside when I re emerged.
The gate agent for our return flight to Milan looks at my lovely new passport picture, back to me, then back again.
"Wearing the same outfit," I joke.
"Let me guess, this was taken...today?!?" He responds.
I nod, shamefully.
We make it back to Milan. I am in possession of a temporary emergency passport. But we made it out.
I'm scrolling through Instagram on the bus ride back to Milan from the airport, and stumble across the "requests" section of my direct messages. It's an unfamiliar profile, but seemed to be a girl my age.
I click on it.
"Hey girl! My boyfriend and I found your purse, this was the one way we could find you, please let me know how I can get it back to you!!"
My jaw is on the floor of the bus. My friends are happy, but pissed, as we just had a traumatic day at the American Embassy that could have been avoided if I had checked my DMs. But who knew.
Who. Knew.
I scroll up and see a picture of everything; passport, drivers license, cards. My identity was safe. In the hands of a kind Portuguese girl who grabbed and protected my abandoned purse before anything bad could happen to it.
She sent the dm at noon, right when I was in the midst of my frantic hunt. This girl and I organized her shipping my purse from Portugal back to Milan. I had to use my Italian neighbor's phone number in order to use the shipping platform, but alas, a month or so later, I had the purse back.
From this I learned:
1) Expect the best of people.
2) Check your Instagram DMs.
3) Domino's delivers to government property.
4) Wear cargo pants when you travel and keep your passport in the pocket, secured by a zipper or buttons.
And,
air tag your identity. Always.
Great advice