It's easy to get distracted by all the things you have to do -- get to and from work or school, business meeting, playdates for the kids, etc., that it's easy to lose things. The digital camera you brought with you to a family gathering gets left on the table at the restaurant; your cell phone gets left in a public restroom; and the report you slaved over the night before gets left who knows where."Or you end up leaving your PDA which is filled with personal information on top of your car, and it falls off as you're driving away," says Ivan Lawing, a junior at North Carolina State University. He is enrolled in the Marine Enlisted Commissioning Education Program at the college, and when the loss happened, he was late leaving a meeting to pick up his daughter.
"I thought my PDA was gone forever, but two girls out jogging near the school found it, saw the label on the back that said to call for a reward, and followed through," says Lawing. Less than a week later, he received a phone call from the company that provided the label, Boulder, Colo.-based StuffBak, the nation's largest loss protection service provider; and paid a modest fee to get his item back. (Log on to stuffbak.com to view an online report explaining how the service works).
Lawing is among the growing number of Americans who are registering their valuable portable items with services designed to help them get them back if lost or stolen. "As a society, we are increasingly dependent on our laptops, cell phones, PDAs, MP3 players and other digital media to conduct business, keep in touch with friends and family, provide enjoyment and manage our lives. Redoing a lost report would take hours; so would reprogramming your cell phone; and if you lose those irreplaceable photos, you'd be heartbroken," says Karen Edwards of StuffBak. "Replacing and reprogramming these devices if they're lost is a huge hassle. That's why services like ours are becoming so popular."
According to a report that appeared in the Wall Street Journal in November 2003, 140,000 personal items are left annually on Southwest Airlines flights; 50,000 items at Enterprise-Rent-A-Car; and 20 a day at some Avis Rent-A-Car locations; yet because they lack identification, only one percent of the belongings are returned to their owners.
"Common sense tells you that if you have a form of identification and attach a reward to an item's recovery, you're more likely to get it back," says Edwards. Everyone who calls StuffBak after finding an item will receive a $20 StuffBak product reward, plus the owner's optional cash reward.
"I guess I could have just put my name and number on the back of the PDA and hoped for the best, but in this day and age with identity theft running so rampant, I was afraid if I lost it, I'd be giving thieves access to my personal information. Getting a third party involved gave me peace of mind," says Lawing.
"StuffBak boasts a 75 percent recovery rate, so protecting valuable gear with our service has the potential to save significant time and money. When it comes to your important traveling companions, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." says Edwards.
To learn how to get started, log on to stuffbak.com or call (800) 800-8257.
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