A five-hour search for an abandoned bag ended well after a railway station superintendent used Google search to locate the owners, even as the woman, who forgot her bag, was frantically searching for it.
Having found an abandoned bag containing videography equipment at Bandra railway station, station superintendent Subhash Mehta (49) used the search engine to locate the address of a private company mentioned on the only sheet of paper found inside the bag.
While the railway officer was making effort to trace the owner of the bag, 25-year-old media professional (name withheld on request) was searching trains to find her bag.
On Tuesday, the Borivali resident boarded the second-class compartment of a Borivali Churchgate local at 7.33 am. At 8.31am, when she deboarded at Churchgate, she forgot to pick up her bag kept on the upper rack.
Meanwhile, inside the train, three women commuters noticed the bag and handed it over to Mehta. He only found a conveyance bill, mentioning the name of a private company, inside the bag.
“When we looked inside, we found videography equipment, but there was no name, mobile number or address to contact. We used Google to trace the address of a company. We even sent a railway staff to the address we found on Google. A message about the missing bag was also sent across to all stations,” said Mehta.
The woman tried to board the train first at Dadar and then at Andheri, but missed it at every junction. When she finally boarded the train at Borivali around 11 am, she did not find her bag.
Disheartened, she left for Churchgate station to make inquires and lodge a missing complaint. At Churchgate station, much to her relief, she was informed that her bag was with station authorities at Bandra station. “I am thankful to the station staff, especially Mehta for taking the effort to return my bag,” said the media professional.