A self-driving Apple Car may not yet be a reality, but that didn’t stop a Bangkok taxi driver from travelling two hours to return a passenger’s lost iPhone, which they had left in the back of his taxi cab.
“On my birthday on Wednesday just before midnight, [the driver] showed up at my hotel to return my phone. He’s a badass good guy,” said grateful iPhone owner Fraser Morton, after being reunited with his handset.
Photo: Coconuts Bangkok
Morton tracked down the taxi company by getting the cab’s license plate from the hotel’s CCTV camera. He notes that the driver was under no obligation to return the device — and could just as easily opted to keep it himself rather than driving to Bangkok from his home in Pattaya, two hours away.
“I thanked him repeatedly for about 10 minutes when he turned up at the hotel,” Morton said. “I asked him if he wanted a beer, but he was driving so declined.”
In the end, the taxi driver accepted a reward of THB2,000 ($55) for returning the device.
Sure, it’s not exactly as significant as the launch of the new iPad Pro or the latest rumor about the iPhone 7 — but coming at a time when the majority of the news seems to deal with the latest atrocity or international act of terror, it’s still great to have a “faith in humanity restored” type story here and there.
Source: Coconuts Bangkok
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
2 responses to “Kind taxi driver travels two hours to return lost iPhone”
Lesson to be learned, Western World.
The power of Apple. When you know a lost iPhone can be remotely deactivated and is practically useless, the best option is honesty. ;) Oh, and due credit to surveillance cameras, driver registration records etc.
But all that notwithstanding, there are honest people everywhere in the world. Years ago, i lost a few important documents in a cab in Boston, and it was mailed back intact and neatly packed, to the address that was on one of the documents. Not even a personal returning, which one might argue may have been for expectation of reward. No ‘From’ address, nothing. Just my documents.