Saturday, May 12, 2012

Air Travel: What's Hot Now: My Passport Was Stolen

Air Travel: What's Hot Now
These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week // via fulltextrssfeed.com
My Passport Was Stolen
May 12th 2012, 11:06

My passport was stolen a little more than five years ago. It happened at an airport in North America. When you hear stories about a stolen passport you automatically think that it happens somewhere else, somewhere less developed, and most certainly not at home. But here I was, I had just returned from a trip to Eastern Europe, and passed through customs. I don't remember the exact moment that my passport was stolen, but in an instant it went from being loosely held in my hand (having just finished speaking with a customs officer and declaring the goods I had purchased), to being gone.

At first I thought that I had passed it over to one of the friends that I had traveled with on the trip. Minutes later I realized that I was the only one missing a passport. I went numb. I chastised myself, angry that I could let this happen, that I didn't take enough care with my most important identity document. And I moved to disbelief, calling the airport's lost and found incessantly over the course of the following days. But my passport was gone. In my home country, and the airport I worked at, my passport was stolen. Here I was, a seasoned traveler and airline worker, and in the jet lag of returning home, and not paying enough attention after customs, my passport was stolen.

I was set to travel to Southeast Asia only weeks later, so I almost immediately filed a report with the police. I next went to the Passport Office to apply for a replacement passport, and to report my previous passport as lost or stolen. After presenting all of the necessary documents to prove my identity, I completed my application and soon received a new passport without incident. I worried that someone might try to use my stolen passport, but I had filed reports and assumed that I would be contacted if there were any further problems. The fact that I was able to travel on the replacement passport for the next four and a half years eased me into believing that there were no problems with the old passport. I would soon find out that I was sadly mistaken.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com.

If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

No comments:

Post a Comment