On telephones and taxicabs.
2 mile run in Noe Valley. (I've been failing to log my miles lately. Not that there have been all that many...)
Should you be unfortunate enough to leave your cell phone in a taxicab, it's worth noting that Yellow Cab's official policy, (as posted on bulletins all over their main office) is that their drivers are not to answer any phones they find abandoned and ringing in their cabs. They are to turn them off, and hand them in to Yellow's lost-and-found department at the end of their shift. (Apparently there is a law requiring them to turn in any found items at the end of their daily tour of duty.) The reason for this, (as opposed to say, answering the damn thing and driving around the block to return the thing to its rightful owner, for a healthy tip) is that "we've had some problems with driver's trying to return the items on their own."
?!?!? What kind of trouble could they have had? And, if some cab driver ran up a few charges calling the numbers in your phone looking for you, would you really make a big deal about it if you got it back and didn't have to buy a new one? "Oh, no, you called my mom in Des Moines, and it cost me seventy-five cents. I'm calling your dispatcher to complain. Wah." Are people really that douchey?
In any event...if you lose your phone in a cab, you need to call the cab company and ask for the lost-and-found department. (Or, in my case, a number of probable companies that it might have been...) Don't expect anybody to call you first, or for the driver to pick up when you're desperately calling him a couple hours after you notice it's gone. Trust me on this one.
(All that said, hurray for Yellow Cab for returning my cell phone to me. It only took them four days to call me back, but in these troubled times, not having to replace my handset is pretty awesome.)
For what it's worth, the Yellow Cab Co-Op offices have all the warmth and charm of a bail-bondsmen's office, or maybe a check-cashing place in a particularly derelict ghetto/junkyard. But they got me my damn phone back, so hurray for them.
Steve