I had the biggest Redbox ordeal ever the other day. I wanted to rent Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2, and I figured I’d pick it up while running some errands on Saturday morning. There weren’t any copies free before I left, and I kept checking while I was out and about, but still nothing.

But after I got home, I noticed that there was a copy at the Walmart by us, so I reserved it. Ruth went to get groceries a little later, so I asked her to swing by and pick it up while she was out.

When she got there, though, the machine told her that my rental wasn’t there—it was at some other machine. She called me to make sure she was at the right machine, so I double-checked my email. Oops. It was at the Walmart in Springville, not Spanish Fork. Obviously I hadn’t paid enough attention to where the rental was when I reserved it.

I told her to not worry about it, since she had ice cream melting in the back of her van at that point. I’d go get it myself.

So I went up to Springville, grabbed the movie, and got a few other things at Walmart while I was there. I got home, unloaded the car . . . and couldn’t find the movie. I’d put it in the top of my cart while I was at Walmart, but I couldn’t remember grabbing it out of the cart before returning my cart.

I raced back to the Springville Walmart and went back to the cart return. The carts had already been brought back inside, so it wasn’t there. I went to customer service and asked if anyone had found a Redbox movie in a cart, and they said they hadn’t seen anything. They suggested I talk to the guy in charge of returning carts.

I talked to him, and he hadn’t seen it either. He said that it would have gone to customer service, not him. I went and looked at all the carts by the entrance, but I didn’t see it there either.

I wasn’t sure what else to do at that point, so I left my name and number at customer service in case anyone returned it. And I really, really hoped someone returned it. If not, I’d be charged 25 bucks for a movie I’d rented but hadn’t even gotten to see.

Before I left, I figured I’d check the Redbox there just to see if they had another copy available to rent. I couldn’t do anything about the lost disc, but I figured at least I could still watch it.

And lo and behold, they had a copy available! I rented it, and suddenly I was curious. I checked the barcode in my email receipt from the first rental. It matched the barcode on the new disc. Someone must have found it in the cart and put it back in the machine.

I headed back home, and by the time I got there, I saw that I had a return receipt from the first rental. It took three trips to Walmart and two rentals, but at least I wasn’t on the hook for the cost of a new disc.

The movie was pretty good, by the way.