THE CASE of the LEFT (as in Lost and Found) BAG

Our guests were checking out and delivered a black sports bag to the Resort Office that was “in the cabin when we checked in.”  The bag had an assortment of ladies clothes, including a pair of patent leather stiletto heels!  They were laughing that anyone would bring such unusual footwear to the mountains in the winter!  I am not sure if they had even found the notebook computer in the zippered case with all the appropriate cords for charging the battery.

I became concerned when no one had CALLED to ask if we had FOUND their missing luggage, missing computer!  I called the previous guest, no response.  Called the next one back, a farming family from the Valley – his daughter was in college and he checked with her and got right back to me – no luck there.  The previous guest - same story.

By this time my computer geek husband had opened the computer and found the welcome screen with the last name of the person it belonged to so I could at least ask these previous guests if anyone with that last name was with them on their visit to the Resort.  No luck there either.

 I love mysteries so just put on my “thinking cap” and thought – is it possible that one of the most recent guests, the ones who FOUND the bag, had accidentally picked up the wrong bag on the bus, on the train, were holding it for “safe keeping”?  So I called the folks who “found” the bag and told them the name of the person who owned the notebook computer.  Oh MY!   They were totally amazed that I had tracked the owner of the bag to them – it only took three days and a dozen phone calls!  It belonged to their son’s girlfriend who was currently out of the country…he had forgotten it was in his car!  When his friends unloaded the car on arrival it was put on his bed just as he said, “this bag was on my bed when I arrived!”

No wonder my housekeeper had no knowledge of finding a black sports bag with or without stiletto heels!

The mother asked if I could box it up and send it to them and charge her credit card.  The father, who had called his son on another phone, said, “OH NO, he will be up tomorrow to retrieve it!”  The son’s face was red when he arrived, after a three-hour drive, to make the pick-up.  But he will have to explain the text message I left on his girlfriend’s cell phone when she returns to the service area – the phone number was in the bag with the notebook computer!   Mystery solved!