Doing The Right Thing Isn’t Taxi-ng

(It is around 8:00 at night. I have just taken a cab to Port Authority to get a bus back home. The cab drops me off at the corner right before the station. I suddenly have a feeling that I’ve forgotten something and reach into my purse… to discover that my cell phone is not there. I begin frantically trying to find the cab I was just in, but there are at least a half dozen cabs in front of the station. After asking one cabbie if I was just in his taxi, I ask another, who, seeing my distress, asks what’s wrong.)

Me: “Was your cab the one I was just in?”

Cab Driver: “No, I don’t think so.”

Me: “Oh. Um… I’m sorry.”

Cab Driver: *sees that I am in distress about something* “What’s wrong?”

Me: *trying not to cry* “I can’t find my cell phone and I think I left it in a cab. I don’t remember the cab number and I have to get a bus back home soon and I don’t know what to do…”

Cab Driver: “Okay, why don’t you give me your number and we’ll call and see if the driver answers, then have him come back here to give you the phone.”

(I give the cab driver my cell number and we call several times, but there is no answer. We start figuring out an alternate plan so he can get my phone back to me if he finds it after I’ve left, which freaks me out even more because I don’t live in the city and have no idea if I’m ever going to see my phone again. We’re about to try calling my phone once more when the cab driver’s phone rings. It’s a random number. The driver puts his phone on speaker.)

Caller: “Hi, I found someone’s iPhone. Is it yours?”

Me: “Yes!”

Cab Driver: “Yes, it’s hers. We’re in front of [Bus Station]. Where are you?”

Caller: “In front of [Bank that I was dropped off nearby my original cab driver].”

Cab Driver: “Okay. We’ll find you. What is your cab number?”

Caller: “My what?”

Cab Driver & Me: “Your taxi number?”

(This goes back and forth for a few minutes, as he seems to have no idea what we’re talking about. Not wanting to wait any longer, the driver gets out of his cab, and we walk not even half a block to the bank, trying to find this cab. A man is standing in front of the bank.)

Caller: *sees us* “It’s you!”

(We all take a beat to realize that he’s the one who called the cab driver. We’d thought he was a cab driver himself, but he was a stranger who had found my phone on the street, where it must’ve fallen when I got out of the cab. He still has his phone up to his ear, and in his other hand is my phone, which he holds out to me.)

Me: “That’s mine! Oh, my God, thank you so much!”

(I nearly sob with relief and give him a huge hug. I profusely thank him and the random cab driver for helping me, and apologize to the driver for all the trouble. And to top it all off, I still made my bus, with two minutes to spare. There really ARE good people in this world…)