Lost in the lost and found

A person in my family left a suitcase on a bus three weeks ago. Since we don't have a car, he has to take the bus. A since there's limited train service in Israel, he has to put his bag in the baggage compartment in the bottom of the bus (unlike on a train where it's next to you). And since getting off the bus is usually a stressful matter as you rush from your seat to the door, he forgot.

We tried to intercept some buses on the way back to Jerusalem, asking three of them to open their baggage compartments. None had the bad. This took two hours. 

Israel likes to pretend that it's a civilized country with actual lost and found departments, but I have never succeeded in retrieving anything from the lost and found.

Staff is not helpful. We have made calls and they have promised for weeks that they'll get to it.

So I tried to take matters into my own hands. I went to the end of the bus line where the buses are parked and asked if they had a lost and found. I was told, not here. Then where? Derech Chaim? Where's that? Not here. 

So I spent some time figuring out where Derech Chaim street is, and then spent an hour on buses getting near it. I also had to walk half a mile in the heat. I got there are 12:15 as the last car was pulling out of the lot. This all took place in Hebrew:

What do you want?

Is there a lost and found?

It's closed. Come back Sunday.

Do you have any suitcases in there?

We have many.

I came back on Sunday. That took me another hour. I took a bus and waited for another bus that never came, so walked the half mile in the heat once again. 

When I got to the lost and found, I discovered that it would have been very easy for the guy on Friday to get out of his car and look in the lost and found room and save me all this trouble. But OK, he wanted to go home. But it turned out that there were only 2 suitcases in the room, not many suitcases as I had been told. But not only that, I found out that I had the wrong bus line. They pointed to a guy who is at the right bus line and he told me there's no lost and found for that line here, only in Jerusalem.

So I still don't have the bag. We have spent hours, about six of them, trying to find it, and still we don't have it. So I still don't have the bag. We have spent hours, about six of them, trying to find it, and still we don't have it. That's bitul Torah for all of you Litvacks. 

And Hershel Schacter continues to assert that Israel is a wonderful country in which to live and has all the modern conveniences. He's dreaming, and misleading.