He Lost His Phone in Barcelona—Then His Family Launched a 10-Day International Search

Michael Hewitt, a 65-year-old lifelong Leeds United supporter known to everyone as “Little Mick,” set off from England on the trip of a lifetime. He was heading to Boston to watch England play Ghana at the World Cup, with a short layover in Barcelona along the way.

He never made it to Boston. And then he went silent.

Soon after landing in Barcelona, Mick lost his phone. On it were all his travel tickets and every phone number he knew. Suddenly he had no way to reach home and no idea how to contact anyone. But he still had his passport, his money, and, crucially, tickets to nothing in particular and a city full of bars showing the football. So he made a decision. He stayed, and he enjoyed himself.

Back home, it was a very different picture. When Mick vanished without a trace and his phone went dead, his family feared the worst. They launched a desperate appeal that snowballed into a 10-day international search, pulling in Interpol, Spanish authorities, and the British Embassy. His brother later admitted he thought he would never hear Mick’s voice again.

Mick, meanwhile, was sitting in Barcelona pubs watching the England matches, completely unaware that half the world was looking for him.

He was finally found in almost comically perfect fashion. An off-duty British police officer, on holiday in Barcelona, spotted Mick’s Leeds United shirt in a bar and struck up a friendly chat. Only later, back at his hotel, did the officer see the viral missing-person appeals and realize who he’d been drinking near. At the same time, the embassy traced Mick’s hotel through his recent card payments.

His family got what his brother called “an embarrassingly simple but happy ending.” After all the fear and the frantic searching, Little Mick had never been in danger at all. He’d just lost his phone and gone to the pub.