It all started when Andy Howard's wife Jo rang him at work, in a bit of a panic...
 Andy with the right passport |
The day before Andy was due to go to Malaga, his wife Jo discovered that Andy didn't have his passport - in fact, he had someone else's. She phoned him at work to tell him that they had in their possession a passport belong to a Mr Miller.
With less than 24 hours to go, this was clearly something of a problem. Andy telephoned the passport office where he was told that due to the Data Protection Act, they weren't able to give him Mr Miller's details.
The next day Andy went to the passport office in person to try and get an emergency passport. But unfortunately, Andy's passport was, technically speaking, not lost. The London passport office were incredibly helpful. They realised that if Mr Miller registered in London, he might be on their system somewhere. It turned out that he lived in Brighton and they eventually got through to him.
But Andy had to go to Brighton to pick up his passport and hand over Mr Miller's. They met underneath the clock at Brighton station. Obviously Andy had no problem recognising Mr Miller. He jokes, "His face is burnt into my memory".
It was a complete mystery as to how this had happened in the first place. During Andy and Jo's last holiday to Tenerife, Andy had twisted his ankle and had to be driven through immigration on a buggy with another man who had a bad leg. This, he realised, must have been Mr Miller. They both gave their passports to the buggy driver who must have given them back the wrong passports.
Unfortunately, Andy and Jo weren't in time to make their original flight. But fortunately, it didn't spoil their holiday.
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