It was a quiet Tuesday morning at the IT helpdesk when the call came through that would be remembered for years. The employee on the other end sounded genuinely concerned but also a little puzzled.
“Hi, my mouse is missing. I can’t find it anywhere on my desk or around my workspace. I checked under papers, behind the monitor, even inside the drawer, but it’s just gone. Can someone from IT help me locate it?”
The technician, used to all sorts of quirky requests, thought this was just another case of the notorious “mouse disappeared into the desktop abyss.” They politely asked a few questions, like whether the mouse was wireless or wired and if any recent changes had been made to the setup.
No unusual answers. The mouse was wireless, and no one was around who might have borrowed it. The employee sounded frustrated, so the technician decided to come down to the situation in person.
Arriving at the employee’s desk, the technician noticed something odd—every time the employee moved their hand, the “missing” mouse moved with it. After a quick, amused glance, the technician pointed out the obvious: the mouse wasn’t missing at all. It was stuck to their palm with what appeared to be a glob of sticky candy residue.
The employee looked down and laughed, realizing the culprit was leftover bubble gum that had hardened, turning their hand into a walking mouse holder. After a quick wipe-down with some cleaning wipes, the mouse was “found” and functioning perfectly, and the employee thanked IT for the unexpected detective work.
That day became a favorite story among the helpdesk team, a reminder that sometimes the solution isn’t technical at all—it’s just a sticky situation.