Do I Chennai?

Once in a while I get asked to find something or someone that is missing. It is a bit of armchair detective work I do to keep up my skills. I was contacted via facebook from a former priest who lived in Missouri for a few years them moved back to Chennai,India to continue his mission work. He served our parish and was known to me. He bought a US cell phone that was promptly stolen from him in India. Since he was now out of the country tracking this phone information down would be impossible. He needed the phones original imei number and with that would be able to track his phone. The problem is he no longer had the receipt as it was long disposed of in his move. He told me he had purchased the phone in St. Louis area from a Best Buy (there are about 6). I called two and the second store person in mobile services was able to tell me what I needed to track down this number. I needed the original credit card number, date of purchase, etc, used and they would have a copy of that receipt. Also, I could contact the provider he used and they should have the same info. I have to tell you the cell providers were useless in getting any help.
Luckily, the priest provided me with the now expired credit card information and even the month of the purchase. Since the Best Buy mobile service guy was so helpful I called that number again. The young man I talked to previously was off that day but the young woman was helpful. She not only gave me the imei number she also e-mailed me a copy of the receipt with the imei on it. Something our church secretary was at a loss to locate. With this number I sent the private message quickly. As it was 11pm his time, he was overjoyed with getting what he needed. It took three days to track this information down and I learned more than I ever wanted to know about cell phones. I have yet to hear if he got his phone back or located. But he was happy to have all of his missing required information at his disposal.