The Layout Of A Very Bad Day

This post relates to design in the same kind of way that I'm related to my dog -- not at all. But I still take care of him like he's my child, so I'm kind of like his mother.

It was a surprisingly nice day for the horrible events that would occur later that evening. The sun was shining and there was a cool breeze. I was on my way to FedEx Office (formally known as Kinko's Copy and Print Center) in Owings Mills. After making it through every single green light, I thought "this is going to be a good day". Five minutes later, I headed to the front desk where Lily greeted me. I handed her my flash drive and told her that I needed my project printed on an 11x17 piece of 32 pound paper. She printed it, handed it to me and rang me up for $1.99. I looked at it and it looked great. I didn't spend much time in the store gazing at my project, because I've gotten many projects printed there in the past. The only problem I've ever dealt with is the color of the ink, and the colors looked fine. I drove home.

In the middle of cutting it out, I noticed my project was two inches too long in both directions! This was a problem because my already cut board was smaller than the project. It also looked really weird being so large, making what was supposed to be a magazine layout look like a newspaper page.

I headed back to FedEx Office and Lily was still there (after all, it had only been about 20 minutes). I told her that the page dimensions of my project were supposed to be 9x10.5 and then showed her my neatly cut out 11x12.5 page. She said nothing as she took back the page and held out her hand for my flash drive. She printed it again and it was still too large. She then maneuvered some things on the screen and presented me with my project for the third time. It looked great! It was so much smaller and I figured it HAD to be the right size. It looked right!

Flash forward 20 more minutes and I'm standing back at the FedEx front desk. A bald man wearing a "Devin" name tag tried to help me but I told him I needed Lily. For a short second, I was afraid he was going to tell me she had gone home, but then I saw her. I waved to her from across the room and she stopped what she was doing to assist me.

I told her that it was my fault for not measuring it while I was there, but now my project was too small! After a few more printouts and measuring, Lily was finally able to print my project at its correct size.

Finally! I skipped to my car that was parked roughly 8 feet away from the store. I bent over to delicately place my project on the seat, tempted to buckle it in but resisted after fearing the belt would crease it. As I was bent over, my purse slipped off of my arm and hit the side of my car. I heard a little "bang" noise, but assumed that it was just the contents inside of my purse hitting my car. Little did I know, the noise was actually my cell phone falling out of my purse and hitting the car on the way down, before landing on the pavement.

Unknowingly, I happily drove away thinking that this would be the last time I had to drive in this crazy parking lot. I got home and cut out my project. I held my breath as I measured it one last time. It was the right size! Relief!

That feeling quickly changed when I reached into my purse for my phone. It wasn't there. I called it from my house phone and heard nothing. I called it again and ran out to my car hoping it had fallen behind a seat. Nothing! And then it hit me! That noise I heard earlier in the parking lot was my phone falling out of my purse! I jumped back in my car and sped to the dreaded scene. I checked the spot where my car was parked and all of the surrounding areas. I went inside of each storefront to see if anyone had turned in a missing phone. I looked for broken pieces of navy blue plastic thinking maybe it had been run over. I found nothing.

For the next two hours, I called my phone from my house. Each time I called, the rings were different. Sometimes it would ring 3 times and then go to my voice mailbox, sometimes it would ring 8 times and sometimes it wouldn't ring at all. That is how I knew someone had it.

Approximately 50 calls later a man answered. My heart was pounding so hard. He said "Dang, you called your phone so many times! I wasn't gonna answer, I really wasn't. But then I realized...how much you willing to pay for this phone?"

I was unable to speak. I couldn't even believe this was happening. Why couldn't my phone have ended up in the hands of a nice person? Why did it end up in the hands of this man who is holding it hostage for money?

He kept talking "Look, I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't planning on giving this back to you. But how much are you willing to pay me for it? I mean it's got all of your numbers and pictures and everything. It probably means a lot to you."

I could hear a bunch of people talking in the background.

Finally able to speak, I muttered "I don't know, I just want it back, please just give it back to me."

He said "Give me 20 dollars."

I said "Okay, well I don't know where you are, how am I supposed to get the money to you?"

He said "I'm now at the Plaza off of Reisterstown Road. I'll be waiting for you outside of the Giant. I'm wearing a blue jacket. Come fast, bring the money and come alone. You a white girl, right?"

I said yes, that I would come as fast as I could.

I've watched enough Oprah's to know that going by myself, at night, to a high-crime area to meet a stranger who was was holding my phone hostage for money is a HORRIBLE idea.

So I called my dad and then the police. The operator said to meet the guy with my phone but to call back when I was about 5 minutes away and an officer would meet me there and to make sure I was safe.

25 minutes later, my dad and I arrived at the Plaza. We didn't want to approach the guy until the police got there.

An hour and three more phone calls later, a police car finally showed up. The guy with my phone had already left.

I called my phone from my dad's phone and in the most innocent voice possible said "where'd you go? I came here to meet you and you're gone"

The guy said "you didn't come alone"

He turned off my phone.

4 hours later, at 12:35 am, my Mom's phone rang. She was sleeping but woke up to answer it. A different guy said "I'll be dropping your phone off at a Verizon store tomorrow, I will call then and tell you which one."

12 hours later, he called my Mom's phone again "How much money you gonna give me for it. I bought this phone for 20 dollars, so you gonna give me that and how much more?"

My mom said "Look, we already paid for that phone once, please do the right thing and drop it off at the Pikesville Verizon store, no questions asked."

He said he wasn't sure what he wanted to do yet and said he would call back when he decided.

And that's how it ends. 2 hours later, I'm sitting here writing this post, waiting to hear from the man who has my phone. I may never hear from him again, but he might decide to do the right thing. Only time will tell.

***Update***

After playing stilly games and stringing me along for two days, the guy finally agreed to meet me. He chose the Giant at Old Court Road because it was between us and a neutral location.

On my way there, I got a call from a woman at a store called Mobile Too. She said there was a man who came in and left a cell phone for me and all I had to do was give her 20 dollars to get it. I asked where she was located and it was not at all where the guy agreed to meet me. She said he was still there, so my mom and I went to meet him. I went inside and met the woman who called me. My phone was there and all of my information was still in it, but the guy had left. The woman said SHE paid the guy 20 dollars for the phone, so I paid her the money instead. I was just happy to have my phone back and I didn't care who was paid what amount. And that's how the story ends!