Jordanian police officer’s act of kindness ‘restores Italian tourist’s faith in humanity’

AMMAN — Alida Caiello, a 73-year-old woman from Orvieto in Italy, experienced “a personal adventure” during her trip to Jordan, which restored her “faith in humanity”. She recounted the story in the Italian daily La Reppublica earlier this month.

During an excursion in the desert of Wadi Rum, some 300 kilometres southwest of Amman, Caiello used her cell phone to “capture the magic of the place”. 

While in the car back to her hotel, she realised she longer had her phone in her pocket and was convinced that she had lost it forever, according to the article.

However, when she arrived at the hotel, she received a call from her son who told her that he had been contacted by the Jordanian police. At first he was worried about being called by the police with his mother’s number, but “a very kind agent had immediately reassured him” and explained that his mother had just lost the phone in the desert and left his number so that Caiello could contact him.

Despite Caiello’s “broken English”, she was able to explain to the policeman that she would leave for Israel early  the next morning and she couldn’t come back to Wadi Rum to pick up her phone. 

However, the policeman did not give up, but asked to talk to her Jordanian guide. Thanks to his efforts, Caiello was able to collect her phone a few days later from the tourist police at the Amman airport upon her departure to Rome, according to the article.

Caiello ends her article saying: “When people ask me how this would have gone in Italy, I don’t know what to answer.”

According to primary data released by the Central Bank of Jordan, during the first seven months of this year, the total number of tourists rose by 6.3 per cent, compared to the same period in 2018, with over 2,970,000 visitors arriving in the Kingdom.