i lost my iphone (m)

Went to a meeting in Boston today to make a fundraising pitch for the new rink we are planning to build. The prospect is a hedge fund manager. We got $2 million from him.

In a good mood, we all go to lunch at a little sandwich shop.  After lunch, I retrieve my car from the parking garage, validated ticket in hand. 

Productive meeting, excellent low-calorie lunch (veggie burger wrap); free parking.  My kind of day.

And then....

I get in the car and can't find my cell phone.  Not in my pockets.  Not in my purse.  Not anywhere in the car.  I could have sworn I put it in the charger in the car.....

I drive around the corner back to the sandwich shop and search the place.  Did I drop it in the trash when I cleared my tray?  I ask a woman to call my number.  It's on vibrate, so we had to take the lid off the trash barrel and listen hard.  No dice.

I leave the sandwich shop and find a policeman at my car, writing a ticket ( I parked illegaly, I was only going to be five minutes).

I walk down to the fourth level of the garage.  Did the valet attendant see it?  No.

I drive home and email the hedge fund manager.  No, I'm sorry, you didn't leave it here.  Didn't I see you with it at lunch?

Ugh. Now what?

I Google "lost iphone" and it tells me to install an app to search for the phone.  Oh, you need your password.  My password is on my iphone.  Sh-t.

I call Apple and plead with them to help me solve this. We crack into my apple account and set up a new password and then install the application for the "find my iphone."

The Apple genius person is on the phone as I am looking on my screen to see where the phone is.  I see a map of a city in California.  "Oh...your phone is in California!" she says.

That's physically impossible, I say.  I just left Boston and it was with me there an hour ago.

All of a sudden, the screen switches from California to Massachusetts.  How odd.  I look again.  The little green light signaling my phone is beeping.  The woman from Apple is asking me what I see on my screen. "Do you see it?  Do you recognize the location?" she asks.

How do I tell her that the green light is flashing my home address?  The phone must be in my car.  I tell her that I think I know the address and that I will go to try to retrieve the phone.

I get the house cordless phone and dial my cell phone.  I walk into the garage and hear a dull Buzz, Buzz sound.  The phone is there, under the seat on the driver's side.  It must have gotten knocked over by the valet when he moved my car out of the tight spot.

Two hours of stress and one $35 parking ticket later, my phone was safe in my hands.