Now came a tense period of tracking down the bus — calling the camp, which emailed the bus company, which had to find the driver….

The Background

I heard this story from the father of a choshuve yeshivah bochur. All names have been changed.

T

his past summer, my son Shaya went to Camp Mechaya in New Bloomfield, Pennsylvania — quite a distance from our home in Lakewood. At the end of camp, he was supposed to return home on a Lakewood-bound bus. But after Shaya loaded all his belongings onto the bus, he thought he had a minute to use the bathroom. When he got back, he found the bus had left without him — and with all his stuff.

Fortunately, Shaya was able to speak to a counselor nearby, who arranged a ride for him back to Lakewood in a camp van. Then he called us to explain what had happened, and to make sure that I would meet his missed bus to collect his belongings. I managed to make it over to the drop-off point and pick up his luggage.

But when I picked up Shaya later from the van drop-off point, we realized the bus driver had unloaded Shaya’s bags from the luggage hold — but not his tefillin bag and hat box. Shaya had brought those items onto the bus and placed them on the rack above the seat, and the driver missed them.

Now came a tense period of tracking down the bus — calling the camp, which emailed the bus company, which had to find the driver….

Finally, the next morning, we were able to contact the bus company, which confirmed they had located our missing items. Then came the next hurdle: Their company headquarters was located in Middletown, Pennsylvania, two-and-a-half hours away. I found someone frum who could bring Shaya’s tefillin bag and hat box from Middletown to Lakewood for $200, the same price as an Uber. He called me from the road to let me know he was on the way with all the items.

Just for my own peace of mind, I asked him to confirm what he had. I was surprised to hear he had two pairs of tefillin, two hat boxes, and a siddur. Upon hearing this, I reached out to the camp office, asking if anyone else had reported missing items, but they had not. This meant that we would now have to try to get all the missing items back to their owners.

I called our courier back and asked if he could send me a picture of the other tefillin. Baruch Hashem, the owner had labeled his bag with his name and phone number. We texted the number a picture of the tefillin and got an immediate return call from the very excited father, who said he lived in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

That was two hours away from Lakewood, which meant that they now had to figure out a way to pick up their tefillin. But in the course of our conversation, we figured out he knew someone from Lakewood who commuted to the Pos Tiv Lettuce factory in Allentown every day. They had their son’s tefillin back the very next day.

The question was what to do with the rest of the items, which by now had been delivered to our house.

The extra hat box was labeled with a name and phone number. We had to call several times before reaching the owner, who told us he had lost it the previous summer at Camp Vermont and had bought a new hat in the meantime. We tentatively arranged a couple of times for him to come pick up his hat, but it didn’t work out.

That Shabbos we hosted my married nephew and his wife, and this whole story came up at the table. When I happened to mention the name of the hat box’s owner, my nephew’s wife piped up, “That’s my first cousin.”

After Shabbos, we were able to return it directly to the owner’s home, thereby meriting to fulfill the mitzvah of hashavas aveidah yet again.

We still had the siddur. It was labeled with a name and number, but the number was no longer in service. Now what?

I was telling the whole story to my chavrusa after night seder. He said he actually knew a few people with that last name, and he asked me to send him a picture of the siddur. The very next night, he sent me the correct phone number of the owner.

Shaya had wondered why that bus had to leave without him. Now we see that Hashem wanted us to serve as shlichim for the mitzvah of hashavas aveidah for numerous people — and we thank Him for giving us the opportunity.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1073)