Take an Uber often enough, and you’ll probably forget a personal item in the car at least once. Because this happens so frequently, Uber has a system that allows customers to report a lost item, contact the driver, and arrange for pickup.
As you can imagine, however, this does not always go smoothly.
A Florida woman’s recent TikTok story shows exactly how messy the process can get. When she couldn’t reach the Uber driver whose car her friend had left her phone in, she says they had to go to extreme lengths to finally get it back.
What Went Wrong With The Uber Ride?
In the clip, TikTok creator @kewch777 says the whole thing happened after she and her friend Nikki went to a baseball game at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.
After the game, they went across the street to Ferg’s, a nearby restaurant, then decided to take an Uber to a bar before heading home.
The situation unfolded as soon as they stepped out of the Uber.
“She’s like, ‘Oh, f—, I forgot my phone,’” the creator recalls.
By the time they turned around, she says, the Uber driver had already left.
At first, @kewch777 says she tried to contact the driver through the Uber app. According to her, the call went straight to voicemail, but the driver did not have a voicemail box set up. After several attempts, the app temporarily stopped her from calling again.
“You’ve maxed out the amount of times you can call this number,” she recalls the app telling her.
Meanwhile, Uber support reportedly told her the company had notified the driver and that the driver had up to 24 hours to respond.
Luckily, Nikki says she shared her location with @kewch777, so they could still see the phone moving around St. Petersburg. At first, the driver was only a few blocks away. Then she got on the highway and stopped at a Domino’s Pizza.
“So while we’re walking a couple blocks away, I’m like, f— this sh–. I’m calling the Domino’s,” she says.
Her plan was to ask a Domino’s employee to go outside and tell the woman in the Ford to check her phone. But by the time someone picked up, the Uber driver was already pulling out of the parking lot.
“I’m so sorry to the guy who had no idea what was going on,” she says.
They Track Down The Uber Themselves
At that point, the driver started heading back toward downtown St. Pete. So instead of going all the way back to her own car, @kewch777 and Nikki tried to intercept the Uber on foot.
“I can see the car is, like, within a couple blocks of us,” she says.
Eventually, they spotted the car stopped at a red light.
“We f—— sprint,” she says. “No f—— way we’re gonna see her sitting at this red light and miss the car.”
When they reached the Uber, @kewch777 says she slowed down because she did not want to scare the driver. Then she showed her the Find My location and explained that Nikki’s phone was in the back seat.
“My friend left her phone, and your car is in the back of the car. We were tracking it,” she recalls telling the driver.
According to @kewch777, the driver denied having it.
“She’s like, ‘I don’t have anyone’s phone,’” she says.
But @kewch777 says she pushed back.
“I’m not saying you took it, but it’s in your car,” she recalls.
Then, a passenger in the back seat handed the phone through the seats.
The Uber driver allegedly called the moment “an act of God.”
“No, it wasn’t an act of God,” @kewch777 says. “It was an act of FBI surveillance. We have been chasing you. We have called Domino’s. We have blown up Uber.”
After that, she says she left her first-ever negative review for an Uber driver.
“Because you don’t have your voicemail box set up, you don’t have your notifications on,” she says. “I see on her profile she’s been a driver for eight and a half years. No one has ever left anything in your car?”
What Did Uber Reportedly Have To Say?
The next morning, @kewch777 says she received an email from Uber.
According to her, the email said the driver reported that she met them at an agreed-upon location on her own time and claimed the $20 lost item return fee.
Uber did not charge @kewch777 the fee, she says. But that was not the point.
“She did not meet us at a location of her choosing on her own time,” @kewch777 says. “She met us at a stoplight because we chased her down because she would not respond to anybody.”
She says she could not believe the driver still got the fee.
“She got $20 out of that whole debacle?” she says. “Uh oh. I was pissed.”
She ended the video with advice for drivers.
“If you’re an Uber driver, get your f—— voicemail set up,” she says. “That sh—- not safe.”
So You Lost Your Phone In An Uber. Now What?
Not everyone can track a phone the way @kewch777 did for her friend. In some cases, the person traveling alone may leave their own phone behind, which means they need another way to contact the driver.
According to Uber, riders should use the app or website to contact the driver directly about a lost item. If the driver does not answer, Uber recommends leaving a voicemail with a description of the item and the best way to reach you.
If more than 24 hours have passed and the rider still cannot connect with the driver, Uber says it can step in to help.
However, Uber also makes one thing very clear: The company says neither Uber nor drivers take responsibility for items left in a vehicle after a trip ends. It also says it cannot guarantee that a driver has the item or can return it immediately.
Unfortunately, that means even when the item is valuable, retrieving it can still become complicated. Uber drivers often pick up back-to-back passengers, so even if a phone or wallet stays in the car for a while, proving exactly who had it at any given moment can get difficult.
Commenters Were Split
In the comments, some viewers argued that the driver may not have seen the messages while working.
“Sometimes we can’t see the messages until we have nobody as far as a ride,” one commenter wrote. “And sometimes if we have another passenger the app won’t let us receive a phone call through the Uber app.”
Still, they agreed the driver should have checked the back seat when the riders got out.
Others had a less generous read.
“She was trying to keep the phone,” one commenter wrote.
@kewch777 some of the most fun ive had in a long time cmon side quest nation! #fyp #uber #storytime
BroBible has reached out to the TikToker via Instagram and TikTok messages for comment. We’ve also contacted Uber via email.