Thousands leave laptops, mobiles in cabs

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands (Reuters) -- An estimated 11,300 laptop computers, 31,400 handheld computers and 200,000 mobile telephones were left in taxis around the world during the last six months, a survey found on Monday.

Taxi drivers in nine cities also said they had found a range of other items left by passengers, including a harp, 37 milk bottles, dentures and artificial limbs. One driver said he even found a baby in his taxi.

The survey of some 1,000 taxi drivers said that passengers had lost three times more handheld computers in the second half of 2004 than in 2001, when the research by security software company Pointsec was first carried out.

Most of the items were returned to their owners, cab drivers said. Four out of five mobile phones and 19 out of every 20 computers found their way back, they said.

Londoners appear more careless than others with their laptops, while Danes are most likely to forget their mobile phones, the survey found. In Chicago in the United States, passengers often left behind handheld computers on the back seat.

The survey"s findings were extrapolated to reflect the total number of taxis in each city.

One customer, who later turned out to be the girlfriend of actor Hugh Grant, left her iPod music player, mobile phone and purse. When the lady taxi driver was asked to deliver the items to Grant, she received an autograph as a thank-you