Uber has released its New Zealand Lost and Found Index, and a few will have you shocked. Photo / supplied
Uber has released its New Zealand Lost and Found Index, and a few will have you shocked. Photo / supplied
What do a chainsaw and a cat flap door have in common? Well, they’ve both been left in the back of an Uber in New Zealand at least once.
Uber has released its annual New Zealand Lost and Found Index: a snapshot revealing the most popular and surprising items left behind by Kiwi riders over the past year, and it will leave a few mouths aghast.
Ranging from some standard losses, such as phones left in between car seats (we’ve all been there) and wallets that fell down the sides, to some pretty concerning ones - a dead fish, really? - here are some stats and facts from Uber’s lost property department.
When analysing the rate of Uber losses in proportion to rides, Tauranga has been named New Zealand’s most “forgetful” region, with Palmerston North coming in second and Dunedin taking third place.
If you’re prone to losing your belongings, avoiding car rides in April would probably prove to be a savvy move considering it is the month in which the most lost items are found in Uber vehicles. For those of you in this bracket, the last day of April is on Sunday so perhaps opt for other forms of transport until then to avoid tempting fate.
Not the biggest shocker, 4am seems to be the worst time for losing things (it’s fair to assume there’s a correlation with alcohol consumption here) and Saturday is the most forgetful day for Kiwis.
4am seems to be the worst time for losing things (which I’m sure is aided with a fair amount of alcohol consumption) . Photo / Getty Images
Among this year’s weird and wacky misplaced treasures are a few Kiwi favourites: cricket bats, sporting merchandise, chilly bins, lotto tickets, jandals, and fishing rods have all been lost in Uber rides.
But the absolute strangest finds have to be chainsaws, false teeth and a cat flap door.
The discovery of wigs, electric scooters and Xbox controllers also pose questions about the average Uber rider. Who are they? What do they do? They had the energy to load an entire electric scooter into an Uber driver’s car - and still managed to forget it?
More peculiarly, the weirdest combination of items left in one Uber ride has to be: A chicken, chocolate, and five medals. This trio of odd items begs two questions: Where exactly were they heading? And did their array of lost items hinder their plans?
Trying to imagine a situation which uses all three of these items is amusing, but we’ll never really know - and maybe we shouldn’t.
What to do if you leave items in an Uber
If you’re one of the people who unluckily lost their belongings in the back of an Uber, there is an easy way to get them back - and it doesn’t include running after an Uber car screaming profanities and throwing your heels down the road (although that does sometimes work).
Look no further than this help page, which outlines the simple steps you can take the next time you leave something behind during your Uber ride.
The best way to retrieve a lost item is to call the driver-partner via the app – but if you leave your phone itself in the Uber ride, you can login to your account on a computer. Here’s what to do:
Tap “Your Trips” and select the trip where you left something
Scroll down and tap “Find lost item”
Tap “Contact driver about a lost item”
Scroll down and enter the phone number you would like to be contacted at. Tap submit.
If you lost your personal phone, enter a friend’s phone number instead (you can do this by logging into your account on a computer, or using a friend’s phone).
Your phone will ring and connect you directly with your driver’s mobile number.
If your driver picks up and confirms that your item has been found, coordinate a mutually convenient time and place to meet for its return to you. "
