Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Other subjects
Original poster

aaaaarrrgghh, sh*te, passport missing

25 replies

berolina · 03/08/2007 21:52

I'm not travelling anywhere but sometimes need it as identification (live in Germany). Have looked everywhere and can't find it. The last time I think I used it was about mid-May. Am off to German police to report it tomorrow morning, but will prob have to wait until Mon to report it to the embassy. Quite apart from the fact that this is going to cost me nearly 200 euros, am worried someone will have got hold of it and be committing fraud in my name, which I will then be done for... How likely is this - anyone? TIA

OP posts:
Original poster
berolina · 03/08/2007 22:25
OP posts:
Novacane · 03/08/2007 23:48

personally I wouldn't think likely- Fraudsters I would have thought would buy them already made etc (I've watched those documentaries like panorama lol), the chance that as 'opportune fraudster' would come accross it would be pretty slim.
How would they use it?

Don't worry i'm sure it will be fine.

Original poster
berolina · 03/08/2007 23:50

thank you dh is also pretty calm about it. Also nobody could get away for long with pretending to be me in person atm, they'd have to be at the same stage in pg Could still do without the bureaucracy and enormous bill - why on earth are they so expensive? Only had it renewed last year

OP posts:
hotchocscot · 03/08/2007 23:54

ummm just to say i remember being 34 weeks pregnant and really really forgetful and walking around in a semi daze. Don't mean to sound condescending but might be worth asking dh to have a good look too, including where you've already searched, just in case... no offence meant!

Original poster
berolina · 03/08/2007 23:57

None taken We've both turned the flat upside down about 3 times, though

Tbh I suspect it got left (and lost) in hospital during one of my three emergency admissions in this pg or I left it on my desk at work before ending up in sick and then mat leave. I don't think anyone could have taken it from my bag or something similar - I'm much too paranoid about thieves and pickpockets.

OP posts:
DrunkenSailor · 04/08/2007 00:02

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

DrunkenSailor · 04/08/2007 00:07

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Original poster
berolina · 04/08/2007 08:22

thanks DS Thing is I simply don't get how this could have happened. If it's not at the hosp I have to assume it's got lost/slipped in somewhere here at home - but we have looked everywhere.

Just had a very, erm, helpful phone call to the German police (he was obviously thinking 'ditzy woman who'll find it was in her drawer all along an hour later') so the fun begins.

OP posts:
Original poster
berolina · 04/08/2007 08:30
OP posts:
duchesse · 04/08/2007 08:35

Are you sure you didn't accidentally leave it at the hospital on one of your admissions? (am assuming you need it as id on admission) If so, do they have a lost and found place there?

Original poster
berolina · 04/08/2007 08:38

Have just rung the last one, duchesse, and they weren't much help

OP posts:
DrunkenSailor · 04/08/2007 13:53

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

MerlinsBeard · 04/08/2007 13:58

its not in with your maternity notes is it?

i don't know what the system is in germany but know that if i needed it each time i went to hosp then i would have it with my notes

MerlinsBeard · 04/08/2007 13:59

also, have you checked the bag that you would have taken with you?

Ellbell · 04/08/2007 14:22

Aw bero... what a hassle. [sympathy emoticon]

I think it's highly unlikely that anyone is committing fraud in your name. Even if someone has found it and appropriated it, they are more likely to try to change the photo and sell it. I had a passport stolen years ago in Barcelona and the police said then that that would be what would have happened. (I had to get another one from the British Embassy in Paris - I was in France on my Year Abroad at the time; only in Barcelona on a visit - which was quite swish, but sadly only valid for a year.)

Is it possible that it got left behind in the house-move, or would you definitely have needed it when you were hospitalised? Can you get hold of anyone at work to see if it has been left there?

Dh is at work at the mo, but when he gets home I'll ask him if he has any good advice (he knows about such things) and will email you if he comes up with something useful.

Original poster
berolina · 04/08/2007 18:04

Thanks everyone for suggestions. It's definitely not in any clothes, ds, and not with my maternity notes (which are, in Germany, ironically called 'mother's passport' ), mom. Bag is checked and rechecked. Ellbell, you are a love - as always

Well, the police were just as helpful in person - the basic attitude was 'bl**dy embassies trying to shift the work onto us, it's a loss not a theft, go away'. One nice man did suggest I submit a report to police via email, so it's done, and then see the embassy on Mon.Hhave already had photos done for replacement, with me looking very tired and frazzled.

OP posts:
Ellbell · 04/08/2007 22:51

Have emailed! But dh no use... he says 'Have you looked under the sofa?'

Original poster
berolina · 04/08/2007 22:52

yes - and unearthed several Mr Men books and some redcurrants which S clearly rolled under there several days ago but no passport

Thank you! Will read in a mo.

OP posts:
Ellbell · 04/08/2007 22:55

Hmm... the Grot of Ages lurks under ours. Met a woman outside school the other day who told me she moves her sofas and hoovers under them twice a week. Made me feel most inadequate I can tell you (... but I still did not rush home and move furniture and hoover under it!)

Littlefish · 05/08/2007 08:13

Just to make you feel slightly less inadequate berolina, I managed to lose my passport, birth certificate and marriage certificate in one go! I realised the night before we were due to go to Germany for a wedding, and one week before our round the world honeymoon.

I missed the wedding as I was driving round the country, replacing the birth and marriage certificate and going to the passport office. Luckily, they came in time for the honeymoon.

A year later I found them in a carrier bag under the stairs!

DH has never let me forget it.

Original poster
berolina · 06/08/2007 23:20

It turned up

dh found it among his stuff. I had suspected him of having it, as he opened a savings account in our joint names a couple of months ago and would have had to take ID from me - but he looked 'everywhere' among his things - then this morning looked again and there it was what a relief - fortunately I hadn't sent the lost/atolen form off or emailed a report to the police, only made a few phone calls about what to do.

OP posts:
tribpot · 06/08/2007 23:23

Oh thank god, bero. I had deliberately held off on telling you horror stories of friends in Holland who'd had their passports nicked for (Dutch equivalent) National Insurance numbers, or in one more memorable case, my friend almost got arrested on suspicion of being an Eastern European drug trafficker. In that case the passport hadn't been stolen, a photocopy taken by a letting agent had been sold on, presumably for the passport number ...

Thank god yours has turned up safely!

Original poster
berolina · 06/08/2007 23:34

trib thanks for sparing me those stories! I think they would have brought on labour!

How are you?

OP posts:
Ellbell · 07/08/2007 01:18

Phew bero.... Have you strangled him? Trying to finish book! Tonight! Aaargh! Conclusion won't go right! But will email very soon.

tribpot · 07/08/2007 06:36

Good thanks - v busy at work and sans childcare again, makes life rather manic!

How are you in the final countdown?

New posts on this thread. Refresh page