That was my bag, baby

January 5, 2012 2:40 AM

Left fine bag in London Taxi. Crushed.

I left a lovely bag given as a gift in a London black taxi last night and am gutted by the loss. I have already filed a report with the TFL lost property agency.

Wondering if it will be possible to contact black cab drivers directly? Anyone have any success with having returned lost property by TFL?

posted by nickrussell to Travel & Transportation around London, England (8 answers total)

Best answer: Generally, taxi drivers in London have a good record of returning things to TFL lost and found office. It may be worth going to their center in Baker Street to check if anything has been handed in.

Have you tried tweeting to @tweetalondoncab ? This is an informal twitter account used by a number of London cabbies. Send out a tweet to get it on the grapevine....If you dont have twitter send me details of your bag and I will tweet it for you.
posted by london302 at 2:51 AM on January 5, 2012

Best answer: Argh. I left my passport in a black cab when getting out at St Pancras to catch the Eurostar. Desperately tried to hunt it down so I could make my holiday that weekend but it never turned up...

However, you might be luckier. Black cab drivers are required to turn in any lost property to a police station within 48 hours. The police then hand over the property to TFL. It takes a little while for TFL to process rhis before it shows up on the TFL lost property system. As I wanted it back urgently, I tried calling police stations near St Pancras. You could try calling stations in the area near where you lost the bag. Bit of a long shot, though, as who knows where the driver went after you left.

There's so contact system coordinating all black cabs - some drivers are independent and others are affiliated with agencies such as radiocabs. Do you remember whether your cab had a logo on the side? If so, contact that company and they can put a call out to all drivers. I couldn't remember any logo on my cab, but called up a number of the main agencies and they out a call out for me (this was suggested by one of the black cab drivers sitting outside St Pancras, who helped me when I raced back out of the station).

Hope this helps. Good luck!
posted by MrChuckles at 3:00 AM on January 5, 2012

In answer to your question about success stories-- I lost my wallet somewhere on the Tube, and it somebody handed it in, and the TfL Lost and Found office tracked me down to tell me they had it. So, the system does work. Don't give up hope!
posted by yankeefog at 3:15 AM on January 5, 2012 [1 favorite]

No you can't contact directly. I found the TfL service very organised although in the end I didn't need it as I had left a parcel with my name and address on it in the bag I left in the cab and the cabbie tracked me down and delivered it to me. And got a decent tip for his trouble.
posted by MuffinMan at 4:57 AM on January 5, 2012

My wife left her handbag (complete with full purse in it) in a black taxi in London a few years back, when it dropped her at home one night. She was gutted. About 24 hours later the doorbell rang, and there was the driver - who'd remember which door she'd gone into - saying that it was the earliest he'd been able to come back round, but here was her back. (That's only one driver, of course - but I think they are generally a pretty honest bunch). Good luck.
posted by Hartham's Hugging Robots at 6:48 AM on January 5, 2012 [2 favorites]

god, remember = remembered, back = bag back. Sorry.
posted by Hartham's Hugging Robots at 6:49 AM on January 5, 2012

Just wanted to chime in and let you know that a friend had a similar story with a happy ending too. Good luck!
posted by Magnakai at 10:35 AM on January 5, 2012

Response by poster: Have filed report with the Lost and Found office. Apparently they handle 1,500 items per day. They said to keep my spirits up and check in next week.

Thanks all for the direction and support!
posted by nickrussell at 3:41 AM on January 8, 2012