I had Eric’s pager number. That number still worked, and it told me which pager company was providing him with service. I called and tricked an account rep into revealing the specific number that made Eric’s pager distinct from every other: its CAP ("Channel Access Protocol") code. Then I went out and bought a pager from the same company, telling the clerk that I’d dropped my previous one in the toilet while I was peeing. He laughed sympathetically—he’d obviously heard the story before from people it had really happened to—and had no problem programming the new one with the CAP code I gave him.