How To Retrieve Phone Left In Lyft

Losing your phone — or wallet or keys — in a cab or ride-hailing service is i of the 21st century'southward minor miseries. But don't panic. There are steps you lot tin accept to retrieve your items.

File- This March 31, 2016, file photo shows a driver for Uber Technologies Inc., arriving at an authorized customer pick up area at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Seattle. Uber will start keeping a closer eye on its drivers by tracking their speed and sudden acceleration or braking using data from the GPS and other motion sensors in their smartphones. The tests are new for Uber, which is eager to show that it's making safety a priority, at a time when authorities want to impose stricter rules on its hiring and operations. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren/File) — Lose your phone in an Uber? You can use a estimator or a friend's smartphone to navigate to how to recall it. (AP Photo/Ted Due south. Warren/File)

Lyft will invest $350,000 to establish its new regional headquarters in Crystal City. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) — Lyft allows riders to contact drivers about lost items, but it helps to take your phone. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 28: A women rides a bicycle past parked District of Columbia taxi's protesting in front of the D.C. Council's Wilson building, October 28, 2014 in Washington, DC. District cab drivers are protesting as the D.C. Council is set to give final approval to legislation that will allow app-based car services like Uber and Lyft to continue operating in the District. Taxi drivers argue that the app based services have an unfair competitive advantage because they don't have to follow the same rules and regulations as cabs. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) — Items left in D.C. taxis are supposed to be turned over past drivers, but there are many more than hoops to jump through to go that telephone back. (Getty Images/Mark Wilson)

WASHINGTON — It'south a idea that strikes fright into the hearts of many of a tech-obsessed urban traveler. A few minutes afterwards exiting a taxi, you pat your pocket and feel an unfamiliar emptiness. Your smartphone isn't there and the taxi has already sped off down the street!

Losing your phone — or wallet or keys — in a cab or ride-hailing service is 1 of the 21st century's minor miseries. Just don't panic. There are steps you lot tin accept to retrieve your items. And as it turns out, popular high-tech ride-hailing services that are powered by mobile technology, such as Uber and Lyft, actually make getting your lost phone a little easier.

Uber

The practiced thing about losing an particular in an Uber (if you can call annihilation about losing your phone good) is fifty-fifty if you lot don't know or can't remember your driver'southward name or the proper noun of the taxi company — Uber remembers for you.

First, navigate to Uber.com/lost. You tin can admission this from a computer or a friend'south smartphone, but you'll need to log in to your ain business relationship to contact your commuter. (If y'all lost another item, such as your keys or wallet and still accept access to your phone, you can access this feature from the Uber app direct from the "Help" department).

Once you're logged in, Uber will display your most recent trip. If that's the trip during which yous lost your phone or other item, enter a telephone number that y'all can use to contact your driver. Uber will call that number and then connect yous directly with your commuter.

From at that place, you tin bank check with the driver to make sure you did, in fact, exit your particular in your Uber and not at the bar or in the burrow cushions of the tertiary holiday party you attended that night — and and then coordinate a time with the commuter to render your misplaced detail.

If the driver doesn't pick up, y'all should go out a detailed voicemail message, and Uber says to be prepared to expect as long as 24 hours to hear back from the driver. If you withal haven't heard back, y'all can contact the Uber support team.

Lyft

Lyft, another popular ride-hailing app, as well allows riders to contact drivers nearly lost items. Still most of those options require y'all to use the Lyft app — and, therefore, still have your phone with you.

Without your phone, you tin can message your driver via the emailed ride receipt documenting your trip. So, open your email and look for the bulletin for your virtually recent ride receipt. At the bottom of the electronic mail, click "Find lost detail." One wrench in this plan is that you lot typically just get ride receipts after yous've rated your driver at the end of your trip. If you left your telephone in the Lyft before you got out, you probably haven't received the ride receipt email message.

In that case, you tin contact Lyft directly through its "contact us" page.

You'll want to provide Lyft with a phone number you can be reached at; your driver name or the time and date of the ride; and a description of the lost item.

The Lyft website has more than details about using the Lyft app to contact a commuter about a lost item.

Taxi

Items left in D.C. taxis are supposed to be turned over by drivers to the D.C. Section of For-Hire Vehicles (the new name for the D.C. Taxicab Commission).

Practiced luck. Unlike with Uber and Lyft, the section has no idea what cab you were in on your style home from the club final Saturday or the proper noun of the driver. And if you notify the department of a lost phone, you lot'll exist asked to plough over a agglomeration of very specific information about your telephone that you may not readily take.

If you're reporting a lost phone, the department wants to know: the model, series number, the 15-digit International Mobile Equipment Identity number, and the telephone number and even the Pin number.

The department also will ask if you lot know your driver's proper name, the driver's Face ID number and the vehicle license plate number.

Some of these details may exist a little … fuzzy. Still, do your best to provide as much information as yous tin.

You lot can report a missing particular 24 hours a solar day at 855-484-4966 or fill up out this online form.

If an item matching your description is turned in, the section will contact you lot. All items non claimed inside 5 days are turned over to the holding division of the D.C. police. At that point, you'll have to call them at 202-727-3230.

Jack Moore

Jack Moore joined WTOP.com as a digital writer/editor in July 2016. Previous to his current role, he covered federal government management and applied science as the news editor at Nextgov.com, part of Government Executive Media Grouping.