When I moved to Los Angeles last year, I decided to give up my Sprint cell phone and switch to AT&T. Do you remember this? It was a decision I was not completely satisfied with. My year-long contract with AT&T was up on September 5th, and all through July and August I’d been dreaming of going back to Sprint, getting a fancy new phone, and ditching AT&T.

A few weeks ago, I received a phone call. On the other end of the line, a man introduced himself as Lou. Lou was a little nervous, because he had a strange request. You see, he was buying cellular service for his whole family, and he really wanted all the phone numbers right in a row. He already had -9218, -9217, and -9216, but -9215 was already taken — by me. He stammered a little, “I realize this is a very strange question, but —”

I cut him off. “I know what you’re going to ask, Lou, and your timing is perfect. My contract with AT&T is almost up, I’m switching back to Sprint, and I’d be more than happy to give you my phone number.”

He was sort of shocked. I mean, what are the chances (especially in a cell-obsessed city like Los Angeles) that you can call an absolute stranger on their mobile, ask them for their number, and have them agree?

I explained to Lou that I was heading out of town for a couple weeks, but that come early September, I would be more than happy to sign my phone number over to him.

When I returned from Burning Man, there was a nice message on my voicemail from Lou, welcoming me back, asking me if I was still interested, and asking me to call him at my convenience.

Wednesday, I went to Sprint and got set up with new service and a fancy new phone. With the nice promotional deal, the phone cost $108, which included tax. There was also a $35 activation fee.

As compensation for the switch-over, I’d asked Lou to pay for the activation fee, which was actually just on principal: Sprint had waved the fee for me. But hey: that meant I would get the phone for $70, which is cool!

Then Lou called and asked me if he could also buy my AT&T Nokia phone. Why not? I wasn’t going to use it anymore. I bagged it up nice for him, and met him at a nice public coffee shop today to do the exchange. The Nokia isn’t worth very much — you could probably buy one for $20 on eBay. I was expecting Lou would give me maybe $50, total, to cover the phone and the activation fee. That meant I would be getting my new Sprint phone for only $50, which is really cool!

When I met Lou today, he insisted on giving me $100 for my old phone. That means that I got this gorgeous new phone for a whopping $8, and that I don’t have my old Nokia rattling around. Both Lou and I were stunned at how easy and nice and friendly and well the whole thing had worked out.

See how nice things can happen sometimes?