Clark’s tale of a lost purse at the airport

Recently while traveling, my wife Lane found a woman’s purse in the restroom at the airport. And you wouldn’t believe the chain of events that set off!

When Lane came out of the bathroom, she held up the little red purse saying, “What do I do with this?” I suggested she go to the gate to get them to make an announcement. But the gate attendants were totally disinterested and wouldn’t do it.

So I start digging through the purse and found the woman’s smartphone, passport, boarding pass — the whole thing. Then I had to walk to another concourse to deliver the purse to her gate!

Once I got there, I got the blow off again from the gate agent. He just took it and laid it down and didn’t plan to do anything with it. So I stand there staring at him, and he begrudgingly picks up the mic to make the announcement.

“Great, mission accomplished,” I think as I set off to return to my own gate.

Lane and I get on our plane and we’re getting settled in when suddenly two police officers entered with a picture of my wife from the security cameras! They were able to use facial recognition software to figure out who Lane was and what flight she was on.

So we explain our story to the satisfaction of the officers, but wow…I was as floored by the level of sophistication of the recognition software as I was by the apathy of the gate attendants. The airlines involved, you might wonder? It’s not really important and I’m opting not to name them.