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Mobile phones top items left in taxis

A member of staff at the Police Radio Station displays mobile phones that have been left at its lost-and-found service as it celebrated its 54th anniversary in Taipei yesterday. PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES

Do you know which item is most likely to be left by passengers in a taxi?

The Police Radio Station's (PRS) lost-and-found service has helped retrieve more than 3,800 lost items for passengers last year and it found that the most forgotten item was the mobile phone.

A total of 1,245 mobile phones were turned in by taxi drivers last year, accounting for 33 percent of all the items found.

The next most common lost items were wallets and handbags, accounting for 17 percent and 15 percent of the items retrieved.

Meanwhile, the station also received about NT$2.5 million in lost money last year.

Since 1992, PRS has found more than NT$100 million in cash and about NT$21 billion in checks through its taxi lost-and-found system.

The findings were unveiled yesterday at a ceremony celebrating PRS' 54th anniversary.

The station is best known for its traffic reports and on-the-road service for motorists. It has set up a service hotline (02-2388-0066) that allows taxi drivers to report lost items found in their cars. Drivers can send the lost items to the station for the owners to pick them up. Likewise, passengers can also call in and ask the station to broadcast an announcement about a lost personal item on their behalf.

The lost-and-found service has found many special items over the years as well, including miniature gods, bone ash urns, lizards and even a broken finger.

PRS' director general Shen Pao-yang (沈伯陽) said that the taxi driver who found the finger heard the PRS broadcast and quickly delivered it to a hospital.

All the lost items are placed in an designated room at the station. In addition to those mentioned above, the room also accommodates things such as baby trolleys, umbrellas and luggage.

Shen said finders get to be keepers if an item has not been claimed by the owners for more than six months. If the finders did not wish to claim them, the company puts them up for auction, he said.
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