Gary Hewitt was beyond excited for his brother, Michael. An absolute diehard soccer fan and supporter of Leeds United, Michael was fulfilling a dream: He was on his way to Boston, via a quick stop in Barcelona, to catch a World Cup match between England and Ghana.
Only Michael never made it to Boston. His family lost touch with him shortly after he arrived in Barcelona, and the situation quickly grew dire.
Family reports him missing after eight days of no contact
Gary posted a desperate plea to social media on June 29, about eight days after he’d last heard from his brother.
“Our last contact with him was from Barcelona in the early hours of Sunday morning, 21st June. Since then, his phone has been out of service and he hasn’t posted any updates on social media. As you can imagine, we are now very worried for his safety,” Gary wrote.
Michael was officially reported missing. The British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office got involved. Local police in Spain were on the case. Interpol (the International Criminal Police Organization) launched an investigation. Concern was high, and Michael’s family began to fear the worst.
Luckily, tips began pouring in, in part because Gary’s posts went viral. Law enforcement also began pursuing some promising leads: A few eagle-eyed citizens were sure they had seen Michael alive, one Facebook user commented that they’d seen him at the airport, and his bank statements indicated that someone was using his credit card.
Michael Hewitt walks into a bar…
On July 1, Gary shared the best possible update: Michael had been found.
He was safe and completely unharmed. He’d just lost his cell phone shortly after arriving in Barcelona and wasn’t sure whether he’d be allowed to board his flight without his digital tickets. Worse, he couldn’t remember any phone numbers for friends or family.
The entire time, a grand total of 10 days without any contact with the outside world, he’d simply been bar-hopping around Barcelona while watching World Cup games.
Gary said his brother was “blissfully unaware” that an international search and rescue operation was happening in his name.
People pay good money for the kind of unplugged adventure Michael stumbled into
The story has gone viral and struck a very particular chord with people. It’s rare for any of us to be so off the grid, so disconnected, and so absorbed in what we’re doing that even our own family doesn’t know where we are.
At least in Michael’s case, it sounds awesome.
“Absolute Legend!” one Instagram commenter wrote.
“Let the man be,” said another.
“If going wherever the wind blows me was a person,” joked another.
Consider that people pay thousands of dollars for cruises, with one of the biggest appeals being a complete lack of contact with the outside world. They rent remote cabins where their devices won’t work. They arrange pricey digital detox retreats that force them to lock their screens away and reconnect with nature, journaling, and their own bodies.
More than a quarter of adults say one of the main things they want to do on vacation is use social media and their devices less.
‘An embarrassingly simple but happy ending’
Michael lost his phone by accident, but his decision afterward was anything but accidental. He likely weighed the hassle of trying to check in for his flight without his digital tickets or finding a cell phone shop somewhere in Barcelona, and he simply decided to carry on living his life without it.
He could have visited the British embassy, but Complex reports that, since he still had his passport and money, Michael believed it was unlikely they would help him without a great deal of hassle.
So he just stayed put and pivoted his plans. Instead of catching the game in Boston, he hung out in Barcelona, watched a bunch of games, and saw the city. As for his family? Eh, they’d catch up later.
“As a family, we desperately wanted an embarrassingly simple but happy ending to this horrendous episode, and we now have that,” Gary wrote. “A million thanks to each and every person who has helped to bring Mick home safely, and for all the good wishes. It’s amazing what can be achieved when the good people of the world go Marching on Together.”
