What to do, in order
- Sweep from the stairwell on each floor, If nothing appears, that floor is ruled out in under a minute. This is far faster than walking each floor.
- Check the meeting rooms you used, Rooms turn over and items get moved to a side table or a drawer by the next occupants.
- Ask facilities and cleaning, Cleaning staff collect items nightly and they rarely reach any formal lost property system.
- Check the lockers and drawers near your desk, Colleagues tidy things away with good intentions.
Where it usually turns up
- A meeting room side table: Where laptops and chargers get moved to.
- Under a desk in a bag: The bag is there; you are looking at the surface.
- The kitchen: Put down while making coffee.
Worth knowing
- Concrete floors are what make this work. Bluetooth passes through plasterboard readily and through a concrete slab poorly, so a stairwell scan per floor is a real elimination rather than a guess.
Lost somewhere else?
The first hour looks different depending on where it happened.
- How to find something a child left at school
- How to find something you lost in an airport
- How to find something you left in a rental car
- How to get something back you left in an Uber or taxi
- How to find something you left on a bus
- Clap to find your phone, Clap tab
- Find My network: Apple’s crowd-sourced finding
- All places, the complete list
Common questions
How long do I have to get something back from an office?
If nothing appears, that floor is ruled out in under a minute. This is far faster than walking each floor.
Where does it usually turn up?
A meeting room side table is the most common. Where laptops and chargers get moved to.
In the app: A pin recorded at the moment you were last there is what separates these cases. Read about Last-Seen Map.