MONTREAL — Can the internet help a reconnect a young woman from France with a lost passport dropped in the snowy streets of Montreal?
That’s what Montrealer Daniel Notkin was hoping after he discovered a passport in the snow in Old Montreal late Monday afternoon.
“I live in the Old Port, and I had just left the grocery store I usually go to when I saw this little burgundy passport wallet thing and picked it up out of the snow,” he told Global News.
It belonged to a 30-year-old woman from Paris, who, judging from the stamp in the passport, had just arrived in Montreal that very day.
Knowing how troubling it could be to lose something like a passport while travelling, Notkin thought if there was a way to reach her, it could save some anguish.
It was late in the day, and the French Consulate was closed, so he decided to post the photo from the passport with a message on his Facebook page in the hopes that someone might recognize the woman’s face.
He updated his status with a photo and a public post that read:
“Hi internet world!! Let’s see if we can do this!
“This lovely girl dropped her passport in the awesome snowy streets of Montreal’s old port and I happened to find it. And by the stamp she just even just arrived in today – of all the luck.
“So! If anyone knows a Caroline Rouzieres from belle Paris who’s 30 and visiting Montreal, the passport is safe and sound and will be dropped off at the French embassy tomorrow when they open!”
The response to his call for help was swift and overwhelmingly helpful, with over 150 shares and loads of comments.
“A person who works at Air Canada checked to see if it was a passenger of theirs, and reached out to Air France and Air Swiss,” Notkin said.
It only took a few hours and some internet sleuthing by friends to have narrowed the search down to one very likely possibility.
Notkin reached out via Facebook message to see if she was the same person, but he hadn’t heard back by Tuesday morning, so he turned in the passport at the French Consulate.
“Well! our happy little passport adventure is at an end for now,” Notkin posted on Facebook.
“All dropped off at the French embassy with, ya know, a fair amount of French ‘laissez faire’ … so I hope she gets it and it doesn’t get tossed in a drawer!”
He also thanked everyone who helped get the word out: “Good to see the internet’s good for good, as well as cat videos.”
According to Passport Canada, once a Canadian passport has been reported lost or stolen, it is no longer valid and cannot be used for travel.
The French Consulate’s website advises residents to contact police after losing a passport. In Quebec, a “laisser-passer” would then be issued by the Consulate so the person could return to France.
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