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Help!! Lost my phone in Hong Kong Island taxi!

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  1. #1

    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Posts
    20

    Help!! Lost my phone in Hong Kong Island taxi!

    Help!!!! I have lost my phone in a taxi cab. How can I get it back? No one is answering it.


  2. #2

    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Posts
    33

    Red face some options

    1. Call the Mobile-Lost-In-Taxi Hotline 662453-5678-46-8294.
    2. Every phone that does NOT answer is a likely candidate of being your phone. Confiscate them all. This reduces your search space. Arrange them in a graph. Perform Dijkstra's algo.
    3. Pay visit to Temple Street Triad HQ. Meet boss. Pay $7000 to find your phone and beat up taxi driver.
    4. Go to the nearest police station. (AND file a report with your IMEI no.)


  3. #3

    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Posts
    12,383

    On a slightly serious note.

    If a passenger leaves something on the taxi, he/she can call the Police and provide it with detailed information of the lost and the contact. It is expected that the police can maintain a communication with the passenger in case they can receive the lost. Passenger can also call Road Co-op Lost & Found 24 Hours Free Hotline for Lost Property on Taxis launched by Commercial Radio 1872920 or check through taxi associations to find the lost.
    http://www.qtssc.org.hk/eng/faq/faq.html

  4. #4

    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Posts
    68

    One of my friend lost his phone within 2-3 months of its purchase. It turns out that he bought his phone using credit card and the purchase was insured (partially i guess). I believe that the period is 1 yr after the purchase.

    Also his service provider (Orange) gave him the sim free of cost and continued his plan.

    Other knowledgable aboard, kindly confirm!!


  5. #5

    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Posts
    132

    lol...vivek....not funny........I have lost 600 USD in a taxi......so well tht does it ........


  6. #6

    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Posts
    19

    this happened to me early this year

    you might as well forget about it.
    I called the Taxi Lost & Found number and a very helpful lady took down all the details...i was then asked to pay around 350 or so HKD to arrange for a broadcast.... and there is not guarantee that a taxi driver will turn in the phone....thought i will use that money to buy a new phone instead and did just that..


  7. #7

    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    θ–„ζ‰Άζž—
    Posts
    47,971

    True, with phones running at about $600-800 its not worth spending the money. Way too many street side hawkers buying phones without any verification of the sellers identity -- i.e. your phone can be disposed off in minutes for that extra tip.

    dear giant likes this.

  8. #8

    Hopefully there's a chance

    I've had a different experience worth sharing.

    Like others, I left my iPhone in the taxi. I asked for a receipt, which listed the taxi number. Borrowing a friend's phone, I tried calling my phone number several times but no one answered. I filed a report on the hotline 1872 920 and obtained a case number. They said once they have information they will contact me.

    About fifteen minutes later I called my phone again and the driver picked up and said he is now going to the airport. For the rest of the day I was in meetings and unable to follow-up until after 6pm. At that time, I called all of the red taxi companies I could find (Taxi Hong Kong) and each said that taxi was not working for their company.

    Calling my phone again, the power was off and I figured this meant my phone wouldn't be retrievable. As a last resort, I went to the police station and filed a report. After taking down all the information I had (including serial, IMEI, etc.), and noting the driver picked up one of my calls which confirmed he had possession of my phone, their back room checked a few things while I waited. The police did contact the company responsible for the taxi, but because it was after hours, the company needed to respond later with the driver's information.

    After about 15 minutes the police officer called me back up to the counter and said I was very lucky because the phone had been turned in to the Lost & Found department at another police station and that during the following day during business hours I could pick it up if I supplied proper proof that the phone was mine.

    Here are the tips I have from this experience that I think will help others have success in retrieving their lost phones:

    1. Keep phone sales receipts and original boxes - both of these can prove you own the lost phone when retrieving from the police station.
    2. Record the phone's serial number, IMEI, ICCID, make, model, and any other identifying information in a safe location. This enabled the policy officer to identify that a phone turned in to another station was mine. It would also be important information for making an insurance claim.
    3. Always get a receipt from the taxi, even in a rush. This contains the date, time, and taxi number unique to the driver which would be useful in recovering the phone or in a court case.
    4. Report to the taxi hotline - they fax this information to all taxi companies, which may enable you to retrieve your phone.
    5. Act quickly soon after you lose your phone.

    For iPhone / iPod / iPad owners:

    6. Install and configure the Find My iPhone program, iCloud, and turn on location services. Test to ensure this is working before you lose your phone! If I were able to use the internet soon after I lost my phone, this would allow me to wipe the phone, erasing all information. In my case, I got on the internet 8 hours after I lost my phone, at which point it had already been turned off. The phone itself was left on for at least 2 hours after I lost it, which would have been enough time to wipe the phone.
    7. Turn on automatic lock - this requires you to enter a password after a specified amount of time. This does not prevent anyone from accessing your data (hence the need to wipe, as per above), but it does stop immediate use of your phone. Mine is set to lock after 1 min.
    8. Use a program like 1Password to keep secure information encrypted on your phone, like passwords and account numbers. Because I use this, I knew that if the phone fell into malicious hands, the most information a person would have is my email, photos, music, notes, contacts, and other program data. Obviously this is more than I would want to lose, but it's not a huge security risk.

    I think what I've learned above can greatly increase the chances of retrieving your phone, and minimizing the damage and risk of loss. Ultimately, the main reason my phone was returned was because of the honest taxi driver, but every other action I took enabled the fullest support by the taxi company hotline, the policy, and insurance, if applicable.

    I'd like to reward the taxi driver, but ironically, I don't have any way to contact him.

    Hope others can be as lucky as I was!


  9. #9

    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    Tung Chung
    Posts
    435

    Perhaps you will get lucky and the same taxi driver that returned the $2 million left in his backseat will be the same driver you had. I hope you're not the guy that left the $2 million in that taxi lol.


  10. #10

    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Kent, England
    Posts
    6,728
    Quote Originally Posted by scotfrank:
    I've had a different experience worth sharing.

    Like others, I left my iPhone in the taxi. I asked for a receipt, which listed the taxi number. Borrowing a friend's phone, I tried calling my phone number several times but no one answered. I filed a report on the hotline 1872 920 and obtained a case number. They said once they have information they will contact me.

    About fifteen minutes later I called my phone again and the driver picked up and said he is now going to the airport. For the rest of the day I was in meetings and unable to follow-up until after 6pm. At that time, I called all of the red taxi companies I could find (Taxi Hong Kong) and each said that taxi was not working for their company.

    Calling my phone again, the power was off and I figured this meant my phone wouldn't be retrievable. As a last resort, I went to the police station and filed a report. After taking down all the information I had (including serial, IMEI, etc.), and noting the driver picked up one of my calls which confirmed he had possession of my phone, their back room checked a few things while I waited. The police did contact the company responsible for the taxi, but because it was after hours, the company needed to respond later with the driver's information.

    After about 15 minutes the police officer called me back up to the counter and said I was very lucky because the phone had been turned in to the Lost & Found department at another police station and that during the following day during business hours I could pick it up if I supplied proper proof that the phone was mine.

    Here are the tips I have from this experience that I think will help others have success in retrieving their lost phones:

    1. Keep phone sales receipts and original boxes - both of these can prove you own the lost phone when retrieving from the police station.
    2. Record the phone's serial number, IMEI, ICCID, make, model, and any other identifying information in a safe location. This enabled the policy officer to identify that a phone turned in to another station was mine. It would also be important information for making an insurance claim.
    3. Always get a receipt from the taxi, even in a rush. This contains the date, time, and taxi number unique to the driver which would be useful in recovering the phone or in a court case.
    4. Report to the taxi hotline - they fax this information to all taxi companies, which may enable you to retrieve your phone.
    5. Act quickly soon after you lose your phone.

    For iPhone / iPod / iPad owners:

    6. Install and configure the Find My iPhone program, iCloud, and turn on location services. Test to ensure this is working before you lose your phone! If I were able to use the internet soon after I lost my phone, this would allow me to wipe the phone, erasing all information. In my case, I got on the internet 8 hours after I lost my phone, at which point it had already been turned off. The phone itself was left on for at least 2 hours after I lost it, which would have been enough time to wipe the phone.
    7. Turn on automatic lock - this requires you to enter a password after a specified amount of time. This does not prevent anyone from accessing your data (hence the need to wipe, as per above), but it does stop immediate use of your phone. Mine is set to lock after 1 min.
    8. Use a program like 1Password to keep secure information encrypted on your phone, like passwords and account numbers. Because I use this, I knew that if the phone fell into malicious hands, the most information a person would have is my email, photos, music, notes, contacts, and other program data. Obviously this is more than I would want to lose, but it's not a huge security risk.

    I think what I've learned above can greatly increase the chances of retrieving your phone, and minimizing the damage and risk of loss. Ultimately, the main reason my phone was returned was because of the honest taxi driver, but every other action I took enabled the fullest support by the taxi company hotline, the policy, and insurance, if applicable.

    I'd like to reward the taxi driver, but ironically, I don't have any way to contact him.

    Hope others can be as lucky as I was!
    Didn't the driver have to give his name and contact details when he took your phone to the Police Lost & Found?
    dear giant likes this.

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