Lessons Learned-- what to do if you lose your Passport

[serene56]

What a mess that was.
I had my Passport when I went through Aruba Customs/Immigration. Joe needed to wait for his luggage and I just had to go outside to smoke. Hunny thinks that when I went outside-- i had my passport in my hand and laid it down while I rummaged through my stuff for a smoke and a lighter.
I noticed when I checked in at the Occidental-- and got to the room I wanted to put the passports in the safe-- and saw it was missing.

Sending emails to ArubaLisa and other family friends-- what do I do??

Lisa finds the nearest US Consulate is in Curaco.

Occidental people made numerous calls to the airport lost and found. Aruba immigrations told me I needed to go to the Police station and file a report on the loss. So we took a taxi there on Monday afternoon. The police were very helpful and it took almost 2 hours for Mr Wing to fill out the paper work. (he was not a good typist--lol)

I was to take this report when I was flying home. and use this report instead of a passport. So I went back to the Occidental and put it out of my head so I can enjoy the rest of our Aruba vacation. (sigh-- it was bliss-- )

Ok- Saturday comes--flight is at 1:30- Bully picks us up at 10:15. Wow so many people are already there. (shoulda known that it was gonna be crowded when 3 DePalm buses pulled out before Bully arrived and they were packed to the gills)

I got through Aruba Customs/immigrations using my report with no problems. They wrote the information on the report on back of Hunnys immigration page.
It took me almost 1 1/2 to get from check in to the US Immigration- to where I ran into the problem. I needed to take a seat while they did a search in the data base for my passport-- which took another 1/2 hour.
They did find my information-- which I needed to answer security questions on my passport before they would release me. They gave me the information and the telephone number to report it missing.

We got to the gate as they were boarding--- no time to pee.

My most valuable lesson learned--- Quit smoking-- and keep your hands on your passport at all times

[KATH2ME]

hi cheryl

Thought you had quit...oh well, not a way to start off in paradise, glad you took care of it and was able to enjoy the rest of your trip, can't wait to hear

[Andrea J.]

yup lesson learned i guess. sorry for your troubles.
next time, make photocopies of your passports and other important documents AND keep them separate.

was going back to the airport an option once you realized the passport was missing?

did the US Consulate offer no good help? (i know they are on curacao, did you call?)

US Customs is very thorough and had to double and triple check i am sure.
by this time having to use the ladies room you must have been dancing in your chair....omg.

if you had the copy of the passport much hassle could have been avoided i would think.

i do not know much about identity theft procedures........but i think that if i were in your shoes, i would contact ALL applicable and tell them your identity could be compromised due to the loss of the passport. (credit cards, banks, stock brokerage accts, etc)

then again, i may be wrong.

aside from the passport situation, was your trip to aruba wonderful?

[LaCabanaGirl]

Wow!!!! I know the feeling. Had a somewhat similar experience and I was totally panicking. I was in Aruba for a month this yr. When I got to the airport to go home,I a got my ticket, went thru customs etc, got my suitcase and put it on the appropriate belt for the airline and proceeded to the last checkpoint. Dummy me, instead of holding onto my pasport and tickets I placed them in one of the buckets with a sweatshirt, dumbass I was ha ha ha. I went thru and picked up my stuff, proceeded to put my shoes on and than it dawned on me that I did not have my ticket or passport and started freakin out. I went to the the security people who were checking everyone and told them that I did not pick up my passport from the tubs that had recently went thru, they told me that they were not checking passports or tickets and that really annoyed me. They were very layed back and were in no hurry what so ever to help me. Yeah, I was pissed, no one was moving or concerned with my problem. Now I was goin outa my mind, ok, who was behind me and could they have picked it up? So Im standing there thinkin omg this is not happening to me, I have been here a month and now I can't even go home because I am at the last checkpoint and my documents are missing, thought I was gonna pass out when here comes the couple, who I remembered were behind me and the husband has papers in his hand. When he gets to me he said that they picked them up by mistake and didn't know how they got into their bucket. That was one of the happiest moments f my life. Scarey feeling, well um yes. From now on I will hold onto my documents, I don't know what posessed me to put them into the bucket, maybe I was fried from being there so long lol!!

[ricky59]

if you ever need to expedite or lose your passport call roman, @ rushpassports, great service and also roman is a vacation owner at the occidental.

[danadog56]

So my question is this.....as you said Andrea...make copies of your passports...will that be acceptable when going back through or just helpful when trying to fill out paperwork..and showing US customs ???

[dogwriter]

Wow! What a nightmare scenario! I would need a smoke.(At the very least) And expect the peeing thing would happen by itself!
Walt

[Andrea J.]

at least by showing the "photocopies" the aruba immigration agents and the usa custom agents have "something" tho work with.......a starting point.

QUOTE=danadog56;211963]So my question is this.....as you said Andrea...make copies of your passports...will that be acceptable when going back through or just helpful when trying to fill out paperwork..and showing US customs ???[/QUOTE]

[jeffnev]

We are headed to Italy next week and thanks to the advice on this BB I have both made a copy of our passports and scanned and emailed a copy of them to myself. Hopefully I won't need the copies, but better safe then sorry.

[serene56]

i did not have copies- but just filled out my cruise information online before we left so I was able to access numbers and dates from that page.

Wonder what would happen if I did not have that information