Passport Recovery

I lost my passport when changing planes in San Francisco. Arrived from Seoul, Korea, on the way to Denver, Colorado. Deplaning was fast and immigration even faster. The bag was already on the carousel. I headed to the United bag re-check area, then visited a bathroom and cleared the US security screening with ample time to reach my connecting flight. 

Re-checking my belongings after the security I realized the passport was missing. And immediately I remembered I had it in my hand when exiting the customs and put it on a shelf in the bathroom at the bag re-check area. I would have realized earlier as security checkpoint requires passports, but I had Clear+, so breezed through the checks without any documents.

I made an attempt to get back to where I left it, but it just did not work. San Francisco airport undergoes heavy modernization and terminal patterns are not what they used to be. Suffice to say the United flight from Seoul arrived at gates B, which is T2 (the Delta terminal). So asking the staff on how to get back, everybody was directing me to either F or the international terminal. I gave up and went to lost+found instead. But nobody turned the passport in there yet. With 20 minutes to the Denver flight check-in, I decided to continue flying. Passed the security passport-less with the help of Clear+ again and boarded the aircraft. Just as we started taxiing, I canceled the lost passport through the Polish mObywatel (e-Citizen) app. This is a one way street. Once you cancel, it is gone. Forever. Global Interpol databases are updated immediately and whoever tries to use it wherever, gets stopped.

Then my phone rang. It was the SFO police officer: "we have it, someone has just brought it in". But it was too late, as I had already canceled it.

On the way to Denver I was building the recovery plan. It was worse than I expected. To get a replacement, I had to go in person to the Polish General Consulate in Los Angeles. Seemed OK, except that without a valid passport I could not fly anymore, renting a car was probably not possible either, and LA was a mere 1000 miles away. So a Greyhound or hitch-hiking? Ah and later I even realized they did not want to check me in a hotel without a passport. So hitch-hiking and sleeping in a tent...

My Gemini AI friend gave me a hint: at Enterprise rent-a-car you may get away with a national ID. So that was my next step. Took some effort to convince the manager, but ultimately I got a car. And a 2-day drive ahead. Except that checking the Polish Consulate page, the nearest available date was in two weeks. But again Gemini advised to ignore this and just write an email describing the situation.

To my amazement they were very helpful: "we welcome you anytime, bring a photo and your passport will be ready in 2 hours". And I was already on my way. Would be a great sight seeing trip, just if I had more time. Nevertheless all ended up well and especially the Polish Consulate staff have been super helpful - probably the best government service I have had so far.