As you all know, I took a long weekend trip to Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico back in October and thoroughly enjoyed myself. HOWEVER, on our last night there, I hopped out of a taxi and forgot my phone. The bad part is I didn’t even notice immediately! By time I noticed, the taxi was long gone and I had no information about the taxi number, the driver, nothing! Leaving your phone is bad. Leaving your phone in a spot you can’t easily track or return to is worse. Leaving your phone in a spot you can’t easily track or return to in a country where you know and understand very little is even worse. And leaving your phone in a spot you can’t easily track or return to in a country where you know and understand very little right before you are heading to the airport ready to leave the country is an absolute nightmare!!! At that point, I was in for a month-long rollercoaster trying to figure everything out.
That night, once I realized my phone was gone, I immediately went to the front desk of the hotel to see if they could help. They said they would let me know if they heard anything or if the taxi driver happened to show up and return the phone. Outside of that, they weren’t sure what to do, especially since it was late at night. The next morning, we had to leave to head to the airport but I still hadn’t gotten my phone back. Of course, at this point I was panicking. It was a fairly new phone so I didn’t want to have to buy a new one. Losing my phone also meant I was going to lose a lot of my pictures and any other things not saved to my google account. And the worst part was that all of our flight information was in my email so remembering what time our flight was, not having my confirmation number, not having our mobile tickets, and needing the COVID forms that I completed on my phone made that morning super stressful! We were able to get through the airport and onto our flight but it really sucked not having my phone when I got back to the States.
Luckily, I had a work phone that I was able to use in the meantime. My first attempt to get my phone back once in the U.S. was to spend about a week interacting with my hotel trying to see if they could pull surveillance camera footage to check the taxi number. They were able to pull the footage and gave me what they thought was the correct number. From there, I tried googling the taxi company info to call the actual company but no luck. Then, I googled a lot of random stuff to eventually get WhatsApp numbers for 2 random taxi drivers. I reached out to them and asked if they were able to track down information regarding the taxi I rode in and gave them the taxi number from the hotel, the locations we were going between, and the date and time range of our trip. After a few days, one of the taxi drivers responded saying that he was unable to help based on the information I gave him.
Although I was frustrated, I decided to keep trying for a few reasons. First, because I had the specific taxi information, I felt like the right person would be able to eventually get me to the taxi driver we rode with. Second, because I’m #teamandroid and most people are HATTTEEERRRRSSSS, I felt like it was pretty unlikely someone would actually try to steal my phone. Lastly, I really, really, really did not want to buy a new phone. So I continued my efforts!
The other taxi driver got back to me and told me that the taxi number I had given was for a big taxi shuttle that was for traveling between different cities and would not have been the taxi we actually rode in. So I reached back out to the hotel again and they were able to give me a different taxi number to work with. I sent this number and SUCCESS! After about 2.5 weeks, I finally found the taxi driver with my phone!!!
From there, I thought the taxi driver could simply ship it to me easy peasy and I would be reunited with my phone but I was definitely wrong. For the next week or so, I messaged my taxi driver back and forth trying to get him to ship it to me ASAP. Unfortunately, he said he had to go to the post office around his work schedule that pushed the time back, then said the post office was closed for a holiday, and life just kept happening. He asked if I knew anybody visiting that could pick it up instead at which point I felt really defeated. Like sir, I don’t have a bunch of friends visiting Mexico every weekend! Plus we are in a whole panoramic so international travel is rare right now. I was so frustrated because I finally found my phone but still may not get it.
Luckily, about a week later, while scrolling through Instagram, I saw a fellow rattler tag that they were in Cancun, a city about 30 minutes from Tulum. Although we weren’t close, I was aware that she seemed super nice and happened to live in a city literally 30 minutes from me. I figured closed mouths don’t get fed right? I mean worse case scenario, she doesn’t help and I stay in my current predicament. OR she could help and I could get my phone back in about a week or so! So I immediately DMed her to see if she could help and she said yes! I gave her hotel information to the taxi driver and he made plans to drop the phone off.
The next day, the taxi driver dropped the phone off at the hotel front desk and I felt so relieved! Once I confirmed with the front desk that it was my phone and that my friend had permission to pick it up, it was smooth sailing! A few days after my friend got back into town, I was able to go to her grandmother’s house about 25 minutes away and pick my phone up.
Reunited and it feels so gooood! This whole process took over a month but persistence was key! I was so happy to get my phone back and I did compensate the driver since he had to drive to Cancun. From now on, I’ll be much more careful! Have you ever lost something important while traveling? Did you get it back???
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