Lost & Found: Uber’s 7th Lost & Found Index

Most of us have forgotten something in a mode of public transport – be it a smartphone, sunglasses, or a jacket hastily flung onto the seat whilst fumbling around with luggage. Heck, a former managing editor of this place once managed to inexplicably leave his passport on an airplane, stranding him in a foreign country whilst he frantically sought a replacement.

In that vein, ridesharing company Uber has complied its 7th annual snapshot of riders’ most forgotten and most unique lost items. 

To no one’s surprise, smartphones make their way well into the top ten of commonly forgotten items in Uber cars – though they aren’t number one. That honor is bestowed upon the catch-all category of clothing. Since this is a term which can encompass everything from hats to jackets and belts to shoes, it makes sense at the top of this list. Backpacks and purses are at number three, wallets at number four, and headphones round out the top five.

Hilariously, the stats nerds at Uber also list the top ten “most forgetful” cities, with Jacksonville and San Antonio duking it out for the American city whose residents left the most items behind after departing an Uber ride. Further abroad, Forgetful Canadians reported losing everything from a bed sheet to an Apple pen to a bathroom shelf. Londoners lost some pesto, a plastic Halloween sword, ankle splints and a jet washer. French folks left behind a breast pump and Peugeot car keys. We’ll leave it to our readers to opine on the regionality of all these items.

Diving even further down an all-too-specific rabbit hole, Uber says some of the most forgetful days of the week in their rideshare cars are Saturday and Sunday, though they don’t specify if this is by volume or per capita. Either way, we’re willing to bet an outsized number of rides occur on those two days, so it makes sense for a lot of gear to be left behind on weekends. Oddly, the month of April – specifically, the 5th and 9th – were two of the annum’s “most forgetful” days; we’d have banked on New Year’s Day when all hands are stumbling home from a party but January 1st apparently only ranks third on the list. 

Hey, we’re all human. Except for that former managing editor, of course.

[Image: Uber]

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