Ham radio helps woman find her belongings

Kolkata: A group of ham radio enthusiasts successfully completed their maiden attempt in returning the belongings of a woman from Kullu who came to soak in the Durga Puja fervour in Kolkata. The lady, by mistake left her bag containing cash, mobile phone and three ATM cards in a cab in which she had gone pandal hopping on Navami.

Rani Walia of Kullu had hired an app cab to go pandal hopping along with her friends in the city but when she returned to her lodge at New Town, she realised she had left all her belongings in the cab. One Koyena Maity, who hired the same cab immediately after Rani got down, saw the bag lying in the rear seat and asked the driver to call the cell phone of the passenger. However, the call response came from the very bag as she had left it inside.

Koyena opened the bag and found the phone, ATM cards and some cash. She called the Lalbazar control room and was directed to deposit the bag at the nearby police station. However, Koyena called up the West Bengal Radio Club and sought their assistance. “On the basis of the ATM cards that Rani was carrying, we traced her family members at Shishamati in Kullu with assistance from our counterpart Sohan Lal. From there we received the contact of her friend in Kolkata and managed to return the lost belongings to Rani,” said Ambarish Nag Biswas, secretary of WBRC.

“I did not lock the ATM card, with the hope of some miracle. It seems that the ham radio friends have come to me as a messenger from God,” said Rani.