Has This Happened To You? Tale Of Pen Sadness.

[deacondavid]

I am embarrassed to admit that I have lost a Pilot Custom 823. I was shopping yesterday and was using it to mark off the items I had already found. Absent-mindedly, I put the pen in the glasses area of the cart. When I left the store, I forgot to remove it from the cart. Once I realized, I called the store - nothing was found or turned in. I went back, I looked through as many carts as I could - a supermarket has far too many! I spoke with customer service. No luck...

 

Of course, it's my fault for using such a nice pen to do a mundane task and not keeping track of it. From now on, I guess I will be using a less-expensive pen for tracking shopping lists. It was an expensive lesson to learn!

 

Sad to say, it was one of my favorite pens. I have already ordered a replacement.

 

[Bounce792]

Sorry to hear of your loss. We can only hope it has found its way to someone who will enter the hobby because of it.

[deacondavid]

I can only hope. My fear is that it has been thrown out or fallen out of the cart and run over in the parking lot.

[Parker51]

I suggest that you do a detailed search of your vehicle. I have found my memory will play tricks on me and I will think I left something in one location and will discover it later in another and then recall that yes, I did leave it in the other location. Many years ago I misplaced my wallet in a friends vehicle. He searched it and gave up. I replaced the wallet and everything in it. A few months later he called me and let me know he found it. This happened to my daughter last year who thought she had lost her car key at a Museum she was visiting. Last month, she cleaned her car and discovered the lost key. So, if possible, hunt in every place in your vehicle imaginable, twice.

[FOUR X FOUR]

Hey Deacon. It's good that you've already gotten the ball rolling on getting a new one. I have 2 823s I love them. The 823 is a great pen. Just keep your eyes on the new one, alittle better.😀👻

[Driften]

It might still turn up. Maybe it was left in the cart. It could be after you left someone turned it in. Or it might turn up in the car or someplace you would not have thought for it to hide.

 

Good Luck!

[amk]

That's a sad tale.... remember to check all the pockets of all clothes that go into the washing machine for the next while, just in case. You don't want to find you pen and lose all your shirts! (And yes, I know someone who did that, though it wasn't me.)

 

Hope it turns up. It might be a while till someone sees it, if you left it in the cart.

[deacondavid]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. I went back to the store and tried to go through as many of the carts as possible. It's a good-sized supermarket, so they have a lot. No joy so far. I have given them my info and a picture of the pen, just in case...

[jar]

What is "the glasses area of the cart"? Just curious?

[Tas]

I'm sorry to hear your news.

Have faith. Human kindness is a lot more prevalent that people think.

[inkstainedruth]

I feel your pain.

I've lost several pens, including both a Pelikan M200 Café Crème and its replacement (for which I had gone and bought a replacement B nib, since the IM nib the second one came with was a firehose even by Pelikan standards -- even IG inks were too wet ). For the second one I keep thinking that I set it down somewhere in the house and that I'll find it eventually, but I haven't so far (and it's been the better part of a year). The first one I lost last year driving down to MS. We had stopped for the night in Bowling Green OH, which is where I last remembered having the pen (and the really nice 3 pen zipper case it was in, which also had a Noodler's Konrad). I called the hotel (twice!), I called the Alabama Welcome Center, even the place we stopped for lunch. Plus I tore the car apart, on the assumption that the case had failed down somewhere. God only knows what happened to the replacement. Which had been filled at the time with, IIRC, KWZI Grey Plum, just to add insult to injury.

Of course I'm the one who misplaced a $9 Parker Vector in my house for the better part of a year and then found it in a desk drawer while looking for something else (at least THAT time I had just flushed the pen out...).

Fingers crossed that your pen turns up -- it's a HORRIBLE feeling that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[deacondavid]

What is "the glasses area of the cart"? Just curious?

 

It's a shallow wire frame close to the pushing handle of the cart. In Texas, a lot of people use them to put their sunglasses cases while they're indoors (at least, I know that I do). Many people also put shopping lists, coupons and pens there.

[jar]

 

It's a shallow wire frame close to the pushing handle of the cart. In Texas, a lot of people use them to put their sunglasses cases while they're indoors (at least, I know that I do). Many people also put shopping lists, coupons and pens there.

Okay, that I am familiar with; just never heard it called "the glasses area of the cart". And I thought drinking glasses anyway since we were talking about a grocery store.

 

I never had put anything other than stuff I bought in that place.

Edited May 9, 2017 by jar

[deacondavid]

Okay, that I am familiar with; just never heard it called "the glasses area of the cart". And I though drinking glasses anyway since we were talking about a grocery store.

 

I never had put anything other than stuff I bought in that place.

 

Yeah, they do have cup-holders, too. I never bring a drink into a store, though. I guess how we consider the name is based on what we do with it... Sorry that I missed that you are also in Texas - I guess that I do not need to explain the need for sunglasses to you!

[deacondavid]

I'm sorry to hear your news.

 

Have faith. Human kindness is a lot more prevalent that people think.

 

As a Catholic deacon, I have plenty of faith in human kindness. Unfortunately, I also know that the overwhelming majority of people wouldn't even know what to do with a fountain pen if they found it. My hope is that the lack of recognition of what exactly they have found paired with the perception of value will result in the pen being turned in.

 

Assuming that the pen didn't just fall out of the cart onto the pavement.

[Tas]

 

As a Catholic deacon, I have plenty of faith in human kindness. Unfortunately, I also know that the overwhelming majority of people wouldn't even know what to do with a fountain pen if they found it. My hope is that the lack of recognition of what exactly they have found paired with the perception of value will result in the pen being turned in.

 

Assuming that the pen didn't just fall out of the cart onto the pavement.

 

(teaching my grandmother how to suck eggs - ooops)

[deacondavid]

I feel your pain.

I've lost several pens, including both a Pelikan M200 Café Crème and its replacement (for which I had gone and bought a replacement B nib, since the IM nib the second one came with was a firehose even by Pelikan standards -- even IG inks were too wet ). For the second one I keep thinking that I set it down somewhere in the house and that I'll find it eventually, but I haven't so far (and it's been the better part of a year). The first one I lost last year driving down to MS. We had stopped for the night in Bowling Green OH, which is where I last remembered having the pen (and the really nice 3 pen zipper case it was in, which also had a Noodler's Konrad). I called the hotel (twice!), I called the Alabama Welcome Center, even the place we stopped for lunch. Plus I tore the car apart, on the assumption that the case had failed down somewhere. God only knows what happened to the replacement. Which had been filled at the time with, IIRC, KWZI Grey Plum, just to add insult to injury.

Of course I'm the one who misplaced a $9 Parker Vector in my house for the better part of a year and then found it in a desk drawer while looking for something else (at least THAT time I had just flushed the pen out...).

Fingers crossed that your pen turns up -- it's a HORRIBLE feeling that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Yeah, this one had a fresh fill of KWZ Iron Gall Green #2. I still have most of a bottle remaining to load up the replacement when it arrives...

 

For as many years as I have had fountain pens, this is the only one I have lost - even for a few days. Most of my pens are safely stashed in Nock cases. It's the ones that are in active use (say, checking off items on a shopping list) that appear to be in danger. My wife asks me why I can't use a ballpoint for the task and then rolls her eyes when I try to explain. As a compromise, I'll be using something that won't be as painful to lose if I do something as boneheaded on a future shopping run... maybe a TWSBI...

[senzen]

Sorry to hear about it, hasn't happened to me with pens, but with just about everything else: eyeglasses, phones... It's a horrible feeling. At some point I even thought of buying a bluetooth gizmo that tells your phone where the item it's attached to is located, but it's not very practical and they don't seem to work well.

[Sasha Royale]

 

As a Catholic deacon, I have plenty of faith in human kindness.

 

"But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one." Luke 22

 

" . . . . . but, tie up your camel."

Carry your sword !

Don't leave your fountain pen in the cup holder !

[EricTheRed]

Consider going back and checking with the store again. Someone may have found it, thought it was just an ordinary, inexpensive plastic ballpoint pen, and pocketed it. A day or two later, upon opening it and seeing it was a fountain pen with a 14k gold nib, realized it was a valuable object and returned it to the store. Some people are very honest and conscientious about things like that...