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Lost My iPhone in NYC Cab

J

jw nyc

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 31, 2008
854
0
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck! Saturday night I was a little drunk and was using my iPhone 4 in a taxi. Put it on my lap to pay w/ my CC and must have gotten up without putting it back in my pocket first. I realized it right away and began calling it and tracking it with Find My iPhone. First I locked it and then sent messages to it begging the finder to call me. Had it continuously make noises and tracked it all the way to Brooklyn. All of a sudden on the Gowanus Expwy the phone signal goes out and can no longer be tracked (must have been turned off).

I got the medallion # from my CC company and called both lost & found precincts and the taxi management company to no avail. So frustrating and needed to vent. Looks like I'm going to have to spend $400 to get a new one :mad:
 
jw nyc said:
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck! Saturday night I was a little drunk and was using my iPhone 4 in a taxi. Put it on my lap to pay w/ my CC and must have gotten up without putting it back in my pocket first. I realized it right away and began calling it and tracking it with Find My iPhone. First I locked it and then sent messages to it begging the finder to call me. Had it continuously make noises and tracked it all the way to Brooklyn. All of a sudden on the Gowanus Expwy the phone signal goes out and can no longer be tracked (must have been turned off).

I got the medallion # from my CC company and called both lost & found precincts and the taxi management company to no avail. So frustrating and needed to vent. Looks like I'm going to have to spend $400 to get a new one :mad:
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear mate :(

We've all been at that moment before (the "OH SH#T WHERE IS MY PHONE?!" moment) and I wouldn't wish it upon anybody.

At least you can say if you have to spend $ to get an iPhone replacement that it's money spent on something worth it! So many times I see people blowing money on stuff they don't even want/need so at least you can justify it really well :)

P.S. Don't worry about the cab driver, karma's gonna bite him right on the a$$...
 
iPhoneCollector said:
That is really bad. You should try to cntact the taxu driver.
Click to expand...

Yea the taxi management company is trying to get in touch with the driver but since he works the night shift they think he's sleeping now. They will call me as soon as they get in touch with him. I'm not too hopeful though.
 
Take heart brother. There may still be hope. Here is my cool story:

Me and the family took a trip to Maui. On the trip we drove out on the road to Hana to see the black sand beaches. We found a waterfall and I was so drunk with excitement that I got down to my boxers and jumped in! Man I could have stayed there forever. A little more than half way back on the road from Hana I had that "O crap!" moment. Where is my phone? It was gone. Once we got back to FL I bit the bullet and got another phone full retail. Fast forward two months and I get a call from a guy in Long Island, NY. He found my phone at the waterfall, got a friend who had a charger to charge the phone, got my pnohe number from it and called me to return it. (The guy happened to be a NY cabbie.) I sent him the cost for shipping and a little extra for the trouble and gave the Maui phone to the Mrs. once it came in the mail!


***Only thing is it wasn't an iPhone.***
 
Pomeless said:
Take heart brother. There may still be hope. Here is my cool story:

Me and the family took a trip to Maui. On the trip we drove out on the road to Hana to see the black sand beaches. We found a waterfall and I was so drunk with excitement that I got down to my boxers and jumped in! Man I could have stayed there forever. A little more than half way back on the road from Hana I had that "O crap!" moment. Where is my phone? It was gone. Once we got back to FL I bit the bullet and got another phone full retail. Fast forward two months and I get a call from a guy in Long Island, NY. He found my phone at the waterfall, got a friend who had a charger to charge the phone, got my pnohe number from it and called me to return it. (The guy happened to be a NY cabbie.) I sent him the cost for shipping and a little extra for the trouble and gave the Maui phone to the Mrs. once it came in the mail!


***Only thing is it wasn't an iPhone.***
Click to expand...

Ha cool story but two major points:
1. The guy had the money to vacation in Maui so most likely didn't need the money (although him being a cab driver doesn't make sense lol)
2. It wasn't an iPhone, so prob wasn't worth as much to sell.
 
jw nyc said:
although him being a cab driver doesn't make sense lol
Click to expand...

It's called budgeting your money so you can put some money aside and using it on something you really want. Also being able to watch out for deals and knowing how to find the cheaper places to stay. Just cause you don't make much money doesn't mean it is not possible for you to save some money little by little and have enough to go on vacation (or buy something nice).
 
jw nyc said:
Ha cool story but two major points:
1. The guy had the money to vacation in Maui so most likely didn't need the money (although him being a cab driver doesn't make sense lol)
2. It wasn't an iPhone, so prob wasn't worth as much to sell.
Click to expand...

Just because you vacation somewhere often doesn't mean "you don't need" the money.
 
Don't judge people by their jobs.

Some people work to do /something/. If you've enough money from other things (trust fund, stocks, just loaded with money, etc) you can choose to do what you have fun doing. MY job I mainly deliver pizza at the moment, and there's been some cool things I've seen/people I've meet because of it. If I had the money, I would mind doing it a few days a week just to keep me doing something.
 
jw nyc said:
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck! Saturday night I was a little drunk and was using my iPhone 4 in a taxi. Put it on my lap to pay w/ my CC and must have gotten up without putting it back in my pocket first. I realized it right away and began calling it and tracking it with Find My iPhone. First I locked it and then sent messages to it begging the finder to call me. Had it continuously make noises and tracked it all the way to Brooklyn. All of a sudden on the Gowanus Expwy the phone signal goes out and can no longer be tracked (must have been turned off).

I got the medallion # from my CC company and called both lost & found precincts and the taxi management company to no avail. So frustrating and needed to vent. Looks like I'm going to have to spend $400 to get a new one :mad:
Click to expand...
Unlucky dude!
 
Give it another day or 2. A lot of times taxi drivers take the car home with them. The driver might have the phone and will drop it off to the company before another shift. Also call 311 and let the city know with the medallion number. They will also contact people for you. I know a couple people who have gotten things back that way
 
boch82 said:
Give it another day or 2. A lot of times taxi drivers take the car home with them. The driver might have the phone and will drop it off to the company before another shift. Also call 311 and let the city know with the medallion number. They will also contact people for you. I know a couple people who have gotten things back that way
Click to expand...

Worst case for jw nyc is that another passenger picked it up for their own. If so, at least there are a lot of dumb people out there and maybe they'll slip up.
 
If I was a taxi driver, I'd keep that phone. Why the hell would I give up $400+ potential to sell like that?
 
You may still get lucky. A couple of years ago I was riding in a cab in New York and found a Nokia cellphone. I took it with me and left it on waiting for the owner to call and they did. She was an Australian visiting with her family and she left it in the cab without realizing. I met her later that day to return it and she was thrilled. I would always want to find the owner to return something of value that I found since I would expect the same if I was in that situation and you have to keep karma on your side. Maybe the person who has it will turn it back on and get it back to you. Good luck.
 
Steven Jobson said:
If I was a taxi driver, I'd keep that phone. Why the hell would I give up $400+ potential to sell like that?
Click to expand...

Yet you'd be screaming for a cabbie's head if they did the same to you. Gotta love base level hypocrisy. Yet your morals are line with most of the people here....
 
jw nyc said:
Ha cool story but two major points:
1. The guy had the money to vacation in Maui so most likely didn't need the money (although him being a cab driver doesn't make sense lol)
2. It wasn't an iPhone, so prob wasn't worth as much to sell.
Click to expand...
That's cute, you clearly don't know what a NYC cab driver can make in a good year let alone have any respect for the position. Also, just because a lost phone isn't an iPhone doesn't mean it doesn't have some value. Get over yourself.
JASApplications said:
Unlucky dude!
Click to expand...
He is not unlucky. He was careless and is paying for his carelessness. The story begins with "I was a little drunk". You're never "a little" drunk, you're either drunk or sober my dear.
 
cant you ask your carieer (At&t) or Apple to block your iphone IMEI (or its serial number); so the next time your iphone is connected to iTunes it would be locked. in this case your iphone cant be used or sold and you can hope he will return it to you.
 
ikaveh said:
cant you ask your carieer (At&t) or Apple to block your iphone IMEI (or its serial number); so the next time your iphone is connected to iTunes it would be locked. in this case your iphone cant be used or sold and you can hope he will return it to you.
Click to expand...

Nope, AT&T doesn't blacklist numbers as my stolen 4 can attest to.
 
Honestly, I wouldn't hold out much hope (unless maybe your battery was near dead and that would explain why the phone stopped reporting back where it was). The only explanation I'd have why an honest person would turn it off was cause getting annoyed by the messages (but I would also think that person would have called you by now to tell you they had it).

If some one turned it off (and hadn't called it back after the multiple messages), I really doubt they intended to return the phone. I wouldn't say it's necessarily the cab driver, he may never have noticed the phone in his car (but a passenger might have). I'd say it's pretty risky of the cab driver if he kept it even if he didn't care about the ethics of keeping what wasn't his (that could be a way of losing his job if he got found out or his boss doesn't believe he didn't keep the phone. But, some people are shortsighted).

Anyways, whether the OP was stupid or not in losing the phone, that doesn't give the right to the finder of the phone to keep it. Unfortunately, it being the wrong thing to do doesn't stop people (either by not caring or having a very loose definition of ethics) so OP is probably SOL.
 
You'd be surprised how much money cab drivers make in NYC...

And why is everyone blaming the cab driver? he could have easily picked up a passenger who grabbed the phone in the back seat and turned it off....

with the driver sitting up front listening to the radio and the divider closed he could easily not hear a phone beeping on the floor of the backseat..... then a passenger steps in and sees the phone grabs it and turns it off.... the cab driver would never know.
 
Quite wrong to assume the driver actually found it

I drive a taxi in San Francisco (yes, those awesome Ford Escape and Fusion hybrids), and over the years there have been dozens if not hundreds of phones left in my cab. I have always taken the trouble to find the recent call list and would call or leave messages - usually resulting in the phone being reunited with its owner.

That said, the way the OP described the incident, it sounds like it could very likely have ended up on the floor and not the seat, and an incoming passenger grabbed it. While I always scan the back seat at the conclusion of every ride, occasionally a fare will get in and find a phone or wallet that I missed. So far I have only found a few iPhones in my cab, and each time I was able to get it back to its owner almost immediatey (aside from finding it on the seat as they were exiting the cab).

There have been numerous news stories over the years about NYC cab drivers finding and returning priceless items or huge amounts of cash, so I would give the driver in this case the benefit of doubt. My sympathy goes out to the OP, as I've had a few iPhone-related "oh s$&t!" moments myself.
 
bigjnyc said:
You'd be surprised how much money cab drivers make in NYC...

And why is everyone blaming the cab driver? he could have easily picked up a passenger who grabbed the phone in the back seat and turned it off....

with the driver sitting up front listening to the radio and the divider closed he could easily not hear a phone beeping on the floor of the backseat..... then a passenger steps in and sees the phone grabs it and turns it off.... the cab driver would never know.
Click to expand...

Word, I don't think most cab drivers scour the back of their cabs after every fare to look for dropped goods. I'm imagining that most people saying that have never actually lived in a city.
 
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