I lost my driver's license at the Covelli Centre sometime before the Vice President Joe Biden and former President Bill Clinton rally began there on Monday.
What a sinking feeling.
I don't know how I misplaced it. I put it in chest pocket of my jacket with my iPhone, thinking, the likelihood of losing that was slim, so chances are good that I wouldn't lose my license.
This, unfortunately, was not the case.
At events like this, I try to limit what I take inside to a couple pens, my notebook, voice recorder, phone, press pass, license and maybe a small snack, like a granola bar, because it's just easier to get through security with fewer items.
At the checkpoint, I emptied my pockets and stepped toward the security officer to be scanned with a metal detector. After I checked out OK I began filling up my pockets again, which is when I found that my license was missing.
That was the ''oh, shoot'' moment.
I looked on the floor, nothing. I checked all my pockets and found nothing but empty pockets. I looked on the floor again, and again, nothing. I checked all of my pockets again, and still empty pockets.
I flipped through the pages of my notebook, hoping it had accidentally gotten lodged inside. That was not the case.
I retraced my steps as far back as the main entrance to the Covelli Centre. I found nothing.
So I largely resigned myself to the fact that my license was gone, vanished into thin air, and that I would be spending some time and money at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles office the next day.
Yet, I still checked with security at the check point later to see if it had popped up. Nope, it had not.
Tuesday morning I called the Covelli Centre and a pleasant woman there took my name and telephone number. She said she would call if my license turned up after crews finished cleaning the center.
I thought, ''not a chance'' and collected all the items that I thought I would need to get a new license issued; my birth certificate, Social Security card and a utility bill.
But then something surprising happened, the woman at the Covelli Centre called to say my license had turned up and that I could come get it anytime.
What a pleasant feeling.
I asked her when I went to pick it up where it was found. She didn't know. It was in a pile of items the cleaning crew had collected, she said.
My co-worker who came with me to the event to take pictures said it was a miracle.
I tend to agree. I certainly was fortunate that in such a large place with so many people - about 4,800 attended the joint campaign event - that my identification had been found and returned.
So I guess the BMV will have to wait until I renew my license in another couple years to see any money from me. Now, where did I put that birth certificate?