Lost your belongings in a NYC cab? Here’s the shortcut to getting it back

So you left your __________ in a NYC taxi. Lucky you, what to do next?

While leaving a phone can result in “Find my Phone”, getting in touch with the driver, or a friendly good Samaritan passenger, it is significantly harder to find a non-phone valuable (i.e., a purse, backpack, computer, or watch).

Just last month I went through the painstaking effort of attempting to recover such items (my backpack, notebook, and laptop), and did so successfully – discovering a shortcut to the process.

While the infamous NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) website suggests filing a report using the online 311 service, this is probably the least efficient way to find your item. They suggest reporting timing, drop-off location, etc, but this will most likely not provide results. I filed such a report, and the TLC responded 6 days later with an incorrect taxi medallion #. They also provide 13 different numbers for lost and found locations at police precincts around the city – I tried every single one, twice, to no avail. I also contacted my credit card company – they could only provide me the zip code of the transaction, leading me to try all 14 listed taxi yards in Woodside, Queens: no dice. Here's what you should do instead.