Lost Phone

If I found a lost phone, will I return it?

Yesterday, I lost my phone. I had it in my pocket when I left the house and upon entering the MRT platfrom at the North Avenue station, I felt it gone. I don't know exaclty how I lost it or if it was stolen. Maybe it dropped out of my pocket at the FX or maybe it was taken from my pocket when I was going up the station, the people, the crowd (another reason why I hate crowds) but I know that upon riding the train, I have lost my phone.

The loss caused me an entire day of torment, I had no appetite and I could just feel the blood leaving my face. I hate that feeling. The feeling of regret that I didn't put it inside my bag when I thought about it back home, the feeling of loss knowing it's been with me for a while and now it's gone, and the feeling of doubt and hope thinking that whoever found it could be kind, being very optimistic about the situation while some voice screams "ASA" at the back of my head. The feeling dragged me all day.

I've been calling the phone for the past 29 hours to no avail. It's ringing. It's not. It's confusing. I don't  know if someone already found it refusing my calls and ignoring my messages or if the phone's still out there waiting for its new owner.

I also lost a phone a few years back and I was more than grateful to the guy who found it. I lost it in a bus on my way home and it tormented me all night. Next day though I got a call to meet up. I found out he works as a cashier at McDonalds. I was happy. I gave him reward. I would've treated him to dinner but he was on shift. That was the last time I ever had a phone returned to me.

I'm over it. I called Globe today and checked my charges for the past 24 hours and had it blocked (the line). I'm on my way out to get myself a new SIM card, a new phone and retrieve the IMEI from my files for the report I'm going to file with the NTC.

But now I wonder, if I ever found a lost phone, wouldI return it? Would I be kind and answer the owner's calls and oblige to return it? I already did it once when I did find a phone inside a men's restroom. The owner was somewhat grateful. He did say thank you. But now that I lost two phones this year, none of which came back, would I be able to exert the same level of kindness I had before? Or would I practice the "finder's keepers" philosophy, in much the same way the the people who found my phone did?

I'm leaning towards the latter. I already lost two, it's time that I get my revenge. Pay it forward. Screw kindness, I only have so much and with what happened to me, it's depleted.

If you found a lost phone, would you be kind enough to return it?