Part of my job requires that I travel frequently for business. And, I have gotten into the habit of reading quite heavily while on these business trips. Reading helps to pass the time on flights, in airports, taxis, and so on – as well as to help me catch-up on industry trends and analysis.

Carrying around multiple magazines or books can be quite a hassle, however. So, I recently purchased a Kindle (digital e-book reader). It is an amazing piece of technology and affords me the luxury of storing dozens of books and magazines for review at any time – without the bulk and inconvenience of transporting the printed versions.

My Kindle has become a valuable asset in my business and personal travels. I take it with me everywhere now and it is an essential piece of my carry-on luggage. As a matter of fact, my Kindle has replaced my laptop as the first thing I break out, after the airline pilot gives word that it is okay to use personal electronic devices.

Well, on a recent Alaska Airlines flight, you can imagine my surprise as I realized my Kindle was missing. After de-boarding the plane and walking to the waiting lounge for my connecting flight, I reached into my carry-on bag to take out my trusty e-book reader. But it wasn’t there. After thinking back, I remembered using it and then putting it in the seat pocket in front of me as I got up to stretch my legs before landing.

There was no time to go back to the first gate to ask if anyone had turned in the device before my connecting flight. So, I feared the worst… My Kindle may be gone for good. Just then, my cell phone rang from a number that I did not recognize. I answered the phone and, to my amazement, it was an Alaska Airlines customer service agent. She stated that they had found my Kindle in the seat pocket of my first flight and that she noticed the ID My Stuff label on the back with my name and cell phone number. She asked if I was still in the airport and said she would do her best to get it to me right away.

The wonderful Alaska Airlines agent borrowed an airport golf cart and was able to get my Kindle back to me before my next flight departed. I was thrilled to have my Kindle back in-hand, truly before I could even really miss it. The ID My Stuff label had absolutely saved the day! Without that ID label, it most likely would have been weeks before I got the device back – if even at all.

Take look at some of the law enforcement statistics regarding lost and stolen property:

• a tagged item is 37 times more likely to be returned to the owner than an untagged one;
• 92% of crimes involving stolen property result in a conviction as a direct result of tagged items being found in the possession of the criminal involved;
• a tagged pet is returned to owner 90% of the time while an untagged one less than 10% of the time
• more than 80% of convicted thieves surveyed have responded that they are deterred by tagging of property;
• 100% of convicted thieves surveyed responded they would choose to steal from an untagged property than one where tagging was practised; and
• tagging is estimated to save $17 billion annually in insurance costs due to reduced payouts and premiums for policyholders.

Fortunately, the overwhelmingly vast majority of missing children are located and very quickly with the bulk of cases of missing children resulting from losing a child at the store or fair through to more involved family squabbles and disputes.  Children are generally not exposed to a significantly higher risk of coming to harm in such cases but the impact upon parents and guardians cannot be underestimated and this is vastly increased for the child in question.

Locating a missing child and reuniting them with their family is an urgent and desperate necessity and yet so many children have nothing to identify them, not even a telephone number for home.

Identity bracelets provide a convenient and secure method of ensuring your child can be identified and more importantly has contact information for you or whoever is caring for the child in question.  Many identification kits are available as part of a package of missing child prevention programs run in tandem with government agencies and voluntary organizations.  Identifying your child and getting in contact with the parents is only part of the equation when it comes to reuniting a child with their family; children who have medical conditions for instance requiring regular or sporadic intervention such as diabetes or epilepsy can be carried at all times.

Fortunately, ensuring your child can be identified and you can be contacted immediately they are located is something that you are not likely to need in practice.  Missing children are a common feature in our psyche simply because of the huge apparatus that exists to locate missing children when this emotional and traumatic incident occurs, however it is a rare occurrence that does not affect most children while growing up though the concern is whether it will be our own child who is lost or missing next.

Post provided by Maverick Label, a custom labels printing company