Can you help provide a 'lost iPad' story with a happy ending?

So Greg from Australia contacted me on the tip line with a rather interesting story. While vacationing in Italy, he stumbled across a lost iPad in his hotel. He soon realized that the iPad belonged to Leisha, an American lady in Colorado.

He brought it home to Australia so he could try to work with Apple to repatriate it to its owner. Upon calling his local Apple store, he was turned down flat. Apple would not help him ship the iPad back home. So he contacted us here at TUAW.

We made call after call to various Apple support arms to see if anyone could help the iPad travel from its Antipodean perch, all the way back home. Each time, we were flatly denied. If he wants to ship the iPad, we were told, he'd either have to do it out of his own pocket or have the owner pay.

When you hear that the cost of shipping is almost US$200, you'll understand why that could be a little problematic. You might be thinking "Wait, both of these people had the money to travel to Italy, but they can't afford to ship a package?" Think about it -- there's a lot of difference between a trip you save money for, sometimes for years, and a sudden unexpected $200 shipping bill.

Anyway, Apple doesn't seem to have an internal shipping system that allows store-to-store deliveries for parcels like this misplaced iPad -- not even marsupials wearing UPS uniforms -- and they weren't open to our suggestions that Greg could turn in the unit in Australia in exchange for a refurb unit in Colorado.

So we decided to open up the situation to our readers. Do you know of a cheap and reliable way for the iPad to ship from Brisbane to Colorado? Could your company sponsor its trip home?

Let us know on our tip line. If you can help Greg and Leisha, please ping us! We'd love to see this story of a misplaced iPad get a happy ending.

Thanks in advance from the whole TUAW crew.