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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Entertainment
Katie Fitzpatrick

The Apprentice star travelled 4,000 miles from Manchester to the Middle East to track down AirPods he left on a flight

A Manchester entrepreneur embarked on an extraordinary journey to be reunited with his Apple AirPods after he left them behind on a flight. Lewis Ellis, who starred in the BBC One business contest The Apprentice in 2019, flew 4,000 miles to track down his wireless earbuds which he was parted from five months ago.

After stepping off the plane from Thailand to Doha, the capital of Qatar in the Middle East, he was told that he couldn't go back onboard to retrieve them. But Lewis, who travelled with Qatar Airways, says he was reassured they should still be there on his return flight to Manchester.

But marketing agency owner Lewis, 31, was disappointed to return home without them. And from that moment on it appears his AirPods enjoyed the holiday of a lifetime, travelling around the world including to a village in Nepal.

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Using Apple's Find My app on his iPhone, Lewis embarked on a mission to get them back and booked flights for himself a pal to return to Doha. He said in a YouTube video documenting the adventure: "It's probably the pettiest thing I've done in my entire life. For the cost of flights, accommodation, car hire, I could have bought these AirPods four times over."

After a four hour flight to Istanbul, a four hour stop, another four hour flight to Qatar Lewis hired a car to get to the building where his AirPods had been located by the tracker at an apartment building. All the time he was using the tracker, which beeps as you get within fifteen metres.

There was a heart-stopping moment as they saw the AirPods get on a boat and head into the ocean. "They've just landed back on the island. It's the first time they moved in three months so my heart sank," he said

But when they returned to land he seized the chance to get them back. And the reality star was jumping for joy to be reunited with his cherished AirPods Pro.

"We got them back," he cheered. "So basically we knocked on loads of doors, went into loads of people's apartments and I was getting shown around and we were getting closer and closer and we could see it clicking and clicking. Apple Find My Works. Four thousand miles travel. When I say I'm elated I did not think in a million years it would work."

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