By Scott Meeker

smeeker@joplinglobe.com

PITTSBURG, Kan. — It’s been nearly two months, but Jon Clark hasn’t given up the search for his missing cell phone.

He can’t afford to, he said.

Clark, owner of Pittsburg Appliance, lost the phone Sept. 4 at a travel center at highways 71 and 76 in Anderson, Mo. The phone — a metallic gray Cingular 8525 HTC — was loaded with information he needs to conduct his business.

“It had model numbers, serial numbers, names and addresses for a couple thousand customers,” he said. “It has (information about) a lot of jobs that have not been completed because we took calls requesting service, and there are a lot of jobs that have been completed but haven’t been billed yet. The information on it was of no value to anybody but me, but it has really put me in a bind.”

Clark has had advertisements printed in The Joplin Globe and other regional publications offering up to $5,000 for the return of the phone with all of the information still intact and some assistance in backing up the data.

He said that because of the thousands of dollars he stands to lose without getting those records back, it would be well worth paying $5,000 to have his phone again.

Clark said he was feeling distracted on Sept. 4, as he was on the way to the funeral for his older brother, Jeff Clark, the pastor of a church in Noel, Mo., who had died unexpectedly. He set the cell phone down on a handrail in a restroom, but it was gone by the time he remembered where he had put it.

He said he has spent a lot of time talking to the phone company representatives to see whether they might be able to help him track the signal from the phone, but he has been told he would need a court order for them to do so. He also has been watching the billing information for the phone, but there has been no usage on it.

“It’s a likely possibility that it has been pitched and is in a landfill or river somewhere,” he said. “But it’s an AT&T phone, so a person could also take the SIM card out and put their own in.”

Clark said business at Pittsburg Appliance has been slow going since he lost the phone last month. He said he’s spending part of each day trying to make sure that the situation never arises again.

The lost phone has demonstrated to him that while technology is convenient, it’s no substitute for some old-fashioned record keeping.

“I’m working toward going completely to paper files and eliminating electronic files,” he said. “They’re quicker, but it can be very risky. If I can get paper files back in place, I might try electronic files again, as long as there are several backups.”