THUNDER BAY — Misplacing a cell phone isn't an uncommon occurrence for most of us, but fortunately our devices usually turn up in short order.
A Thunder Bay woman, though, found herself in a predicament on the weekend when her phone somehow fell into a box of pop cans she'd emptied into a recycling bin.
By the time she'd figured out where the device was, the depot had closed for the weekend.
Bev Perigord eventually recovered her phone, thanks to GFL Environmental Inc. and the workers who stepped forward after-hours to assist her.
The incident happened Saturday at the recycling depot on Mountdale Avenue.
When Perigord realized she didn't have her phone, she thought she might have left it back home inadvertently.
It turned out that it wasn't there, so she used the an app to trace its location, and it pointed her back to the Mountdale Avenue yard.
Knowing the gate to the depot was now locked until Monday, she phoned a local GFL number and luckily was able to reach a person in management.
"This is after hours, and he is not on site. He is far from it," Perigord told TBnewswatch. "He tried to reach the attendant at Mountdale, but got a hold of his wife, who's an attendant at the Front Street recycling depot. God bless her, she agreed to go back with her husband to Mountdale."
She learned this when the GFL district manager, Darren Jewell, called her back to inform her "This is your lucky day."
The couple, Perigord said, returned to Mountdale "out of the goodness of their hearts on a Saturday evening."
She drove back to the depot to meet Brenda and Kevin Reed, bringing two ladders along in her vehicle to provide access into the container.
Fortunately, the bin turned out to be only 1/3 full, and the smartphone – which had been set to vibrate – was still relatively easy to locate among the discarded pop cans.
Perigord said she was touched by the Reeds' willingness to take time out of their Saturday night to come to her aid.
"I was overwhelmed," she said. "It was just a cell phone ... but to have the help, the compassion and the successful outcome means a lot to me."
Jewell said this isn't the first time GFL has helped people in a jam like this, but the company "tries to be a good corporate citizen."
Perigord said she's sharing the story because she'd like as many people as possible to know about the impact that a simple act of kindness can have.
