Posted by
Oceanview
19 yrs ago
Yesterday, I left my mobile phone in a taxi in Repluse Bay area. I even have the taxi's license plate number - HB5571. I called the taxi hot line and police station but they won't track the vehicle. They say that they can only wait to see if the driver reports it in. I can't believe that I can't retreive the phone when I have the license plate number. Can anyone suggest what I can do?
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I called the number and I get a message that the phone number is temporarily unavailable. What frustrates me the most is that I have the license plate number of the taxi and yet I can't get police to track down the taxi driver.
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This list was posted by xmandan a few days ago - hope it helps...
Try these... good luck..
Useful Taxi-related Telephone Numbers
Transport Complaints Unit hotline +852 2889 9999
Transport Department enquiries hotline +852 2804 2600
HKTB multilingual visitor hotline
(open 8am-6pm daily) +852 2508 1234
Airport Authority Hong Kong +852 2181 8888
Road Co-op Lost and Found 24-hour, free hotline for property lost in taxis +852 1872 920
Hong Kong Police Force hotline +852 2527 7177
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The police wouldn't track down a taxi which a male jumped into after sexually assaulting a friend (she got its number). So what makes you think the police will bother with a mobile phone which was not "stolen".
Besides, if the next passenger picked it up the driver wouldn't have noticed it.
Back up your SIM card regularly. Or tie it around your neck.
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This has happened to me too. As has been pointed out already, the driver probably did not even realise that it was there. The next person that got in would have just taken it. One of the few places in the world where honesty prevails amongst it's citizens is Japan! You could drop a 1 yen coin on a busy railway platform, and someone would pick it up and chase you all over town to give it back!! I make a habit now of hanging on to the cab door until I'm sure nothing is left on the seat or floor.
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Thank you for sharing the story Foolonahill. The police refused to help me but gave me a hot line number for lost properties and when I called them they said that if I dposit $300 to their account, they will connect me to the driver and also translate but I felt weird about paying for such service and declined. I'm glad that I did after reading about your story.
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Yes, sad but true. Expats get targeted more than you think in this enviroment. I heard recently of a guy who was pulled over by a motorcycle Policeman for spending too much time in the right hand lane! He was just over-taking another car and claims he was not exceeding the limit. Go figure?
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On a more positive note, I just left my cell in a taxi last week, and the driver actually screened the phone and called the the recent numbers that had been placed trying to get a hold of me. When I retrieved the phone, he refused a reward. I guess I was just lucky. This sort a thing never happened to me when I lived in New York for the past 20 years, I can tell your that. And one more thing, lets all give the police force some credit here, I had a more then a few encounters with them
here and they are probably one of the most efficient law enforement unit in the world. There might be a few bad seed, but I think over all, they are very good.
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MJ1
19 yrs ago
Well Pumpkin did mention he was a "wan&er banker", does that explain it all?
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A UK wan*ker banker, not a thanker! Yes, that figures!
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Eddy
19 yrs ago
I found a pda once, found the guy by screening his contacts... he was pissed off first because I looked through his files, and secondly, because i refused to come and meet him where he was at the time. The guy was refusing to come to meet me somewhere convenient for me! I actually told him to come to meet me according to my schedule or he wouldn't get it back....he came but never got a thank you! should have kept it!
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Yup, sholdve kept it, but then again I believe in Karma. However I can totally relate to you in other experiences. Many times, I gave up my valuable seat on the MTR after a long walk in the hundred degree heat to elderly citizens and all I got in return was a stare without even a thankyou. You might blame it on my western looks, but after discussing with local freinds, they have similar experiences. It really made me want to just say f**K it and ignore them next time...but then again its the right thing to do regardless. Again....Karma might kick in when I am old.
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I too left my phone in a cab once. I called my number and the driver answered. He agreed to bring my phone back to where he dropped me off, but with the condition that I had to pay him the cab fare. That was fair enough. It turned out to be about $70. And that's what I paid the guy. And he visibly wasn't very happy with his "reward." I don't know what I was thinking...should've paid him at least a couple hundred.
And Carmine, understand that you may feel a little put off by these old ladies not saying thank you. But just because they don't say thank you doesn't mean they don't appreciate it. They just don't know any better, plus they probably don't speak English anyway. But you are spot on in thinking it's the right thing to do regardless. Good on you.
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I would have been be more than happy to pay reward to get the phone back. I was thinking about $300 reward plus the meter. But I was quite irked when the hotline operator's first question was "are you willing to offer reward?" followed by "If you make a deposit of $300, we can connect you to the driver so that you can talk to him directly".
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I found a guy's phone in a taxi, everything was in Chinese so I couldn't read it. I took it into work and one of my colleagues managed to ring round the numbers and track him down. He was so grateful that he came to my office to pick it up and brought me a beautiful box-set of videos of the 97 Handover ceremony (he worked for TVB) and a box of chocolates for my colleague who had rung him. I didn't expect anything and almost felt it was over the top - he was just so grateful.
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My husband left his phone in taxi also and we were directed to the HK Lost Property phone no from the taxi co.(useless!) The taxi co. was very quick to hang up on me. My husband then got on the phone, quoted the no. of the taxi and ranted and raved until finally the taxi co. radioed the man. Hubby did get back the phone and taxi man asked for a reward which is fair. Unfortunately it took some agression from hubby to get the taxi co. to do something, they weren't keen to help if you were polite. Sad hey but worth a try.
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