A field producer’s life consists of packing, travel and more travel, and that’s why it’s always a good idea to be prepared with a unique hard case like the Olive Drab Pelican iM2975. This story begins like any other travel day; I get to the airport, check my luggage, meet my cameraman, get on the plane, watch a movie, land and then get off the plane. Then it’s the slow process of watching cases, tripod bags, light stand bags circle the baggage carousel and make their way to my standing location.
During this trip from Washington DC to Los Angeles, we had some mishaps with the luggage. The first problem that arose was that two of the tripod bags were damaged. They were probably thrown around or got stuck on something. My cameraman asked me to wait a bit longer by the collected luggage, while he inquired with the airline about fixing the damaged bags.
No problem – I can keep myself entertained. While standing there waiting, I people-watched. I noticed one man with golden headphones that I had seen in first class when I was deplaning. I was mesmerized by his golden headphones and wanted to compliment him on them. But he looked stressed. He was searching for a missing bag along with another man. They were collecting what also looked like camera gear. Every now and then I noticed them looking my way, and even looking at the bags surrounding me. But I didn’t think much of it.
Soon my cameraman came back and looked annoyed. He had a piece of paper promising reimbursement for the mending of the tripod bags. Yet he still had to deal with tripod bags without working zippers and we had an important project to work on for the next few days and no time to get them fixed.
We made our way to the shuttle bus to go to the car rental place. As we stood on the moving bus my cameraman had an embarrassed smile on his face.
“Sahar. This one isn’t my case,” He shouted.
“What do you mean it’s not your case?” I replied.
“I forgot I packed lighter and didn’t bring my hard case this trip,” He responded.
There was a couple who were sitting between us and they began to smile at our predicament and exchange.
“Does it say who the case belongs to?” I asked. My cameraman looked all over the case and shrugged back. “Don’t worry. When we get to the car rental, you get the car and I’ll figure it out.”
As soon as we got off I was able to find a tag with a phone number and a company name. I called the number and explained to them what had happened.
“Does it have a name on the case? LAX? This could be any of our guys.”
I was starting to piece things together… I’m in LA, the name of the company sounded well known… Maybe this case belongs to someone famous? Maybe it belongs to that golden headphone guy? I don’t have the time or energy to keep up with pop culture to recognize him. He could be someone famous and we have his case.
“No sorry… all I could find was this phone number.” I started to look all over the case and realized there are security tags on here that may clue me in on who this belongs to. I found a last name. “Oh wait. I found a last name!”
“Okay, we know exactly who that belongs to. Please hold and we’ll transfer you so you can arrange to meet them.” I waited.
“Hello this is Roger.” A voice on the phone popped up.
I explained the whole spiel to Roger and apologized profusely. I offered to return the case to the airlines, find him and return it to him or he could meet us where we are. He decided he’d like to meet us. We exchanged phone numbers in case we needed to reach each other. It was supposed to take 15 minutes. That 15 minutes took over an hour. After going back and forth with Roger for that hour on his wher abouts, him getting lost and finally being by a Burger King close by, I offered for us to drive to him instead. As we approached the parking lot of Burger King, I saw two men. One looked very much like a bodyguard. The other man was in a nice gray suit and was able to spot us right away based on my description of the car.
We parked and I got out to introduce myself to Roger. I apologized again, while he kept thanking me.
“Follow me. I want to show you something.” Roger said as he took me to the passenger side of the car and opened the door. “Steve, these are the kind people who returned your case.”
In front of me was a man in sunglasses named Steve. For a second I wondered, “Steve? Stevie Wonder? No, it couldn’t be. He looked different from what I remember of him last on TV.” It had to be 15 seconds of me not doing anything but staring at him. Then it sunk in, this guy isn’t looking at me back and is probably wondering why I’m not saying anything. And I thought to myself, “THIS IS STEVIE WONDER! Your cameraman accidentally took Stevie Wonder’s suitcase and now you’re meeting Stevie Wonder!!!”
I was finally able to make words…“Oh my gosh, it’s an honor. It’s Stevie Wonder!” I motioned my cameraman to meet him.
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