Okay so this morning Esther and me had a meeting here in Singapore. The meeting was one of the highlights of the week. I learned so many things from the people there. After the meeting we hopped onto a cab and headed back to the office. In the cab I was talking to Esther about what the meeting was about, explaining some things to her and all. At one point I even took out my chewing gum, popped one in my mouth and offered one to Esther.
She GASPED…. which was only then that I remembered that chewing gum was illegal in Singapore. Well not really illegal… illegal to sell and illegal to spit around but not illegal to consume. I quickly hid the gum from the taxi driver and didn’t dare chew once on the gum that I had popped into my mouth. A few minutes later we reached the Nuffnang office in Singapore. I rushed out of the cab after paying the driver so I could start chewing on my gum.
We walked into the office building of the Nuffnang office and it was only when I was in the lift that I realized I had left my iPhone in the cab. I darted back out of the lift but the cab was already gone. Fortunately we had taken a receipt so we had the registration number of the cab. I did the following:
1) I tried calling my own phone. It rang for a long time then somebody canceled the call and I couldn’t call it again.
2) I called up my telco to tell them to suspend my line
3) Elisa from the Nuffnang Office helped me call the cab company (Premier Silvercab or so) to file a lost and found report.
We were put on hold in our call to the cab company for a long time but we decided not to give up. Finally we managed to get through and file a report. An hour or so later they e-mailed Elisa to tell her that they haven’t found a phone that matches my description. So well… I had just about given up. I had arranged for My Hello Kitty to bring down a new sim card with her when she was coming down that night and I also considered buying a new phone.
I talked to Lionel of Ripplewerks who used to be a Singapore Police Officer and asked him what were the odds of me getting my phone back. He said that if it was some lousy phone then higher but if it was an iPhone, probably like 3% chance or so. The rest of the Nuffies in the Singapore office agreed that it was a lost cause.
I then made a pledge. I said that if the driver or someone somehow returned by phone I would write a blog entry and tweet that “I love Singaporeans!”
So you can see by the title of my blog post that well… I found my phone!
While I was having my meeting with the JPB team later, Elisa slipped me a note to say that the cab company called back, that they had found my iPhone. I was to go collect it at their office. I quickly hopped on to a cab there and voila! My phone was there! I was really impressed. I mean there were so many people that the iPhone must’ve passed hands from. From the passenger who probably saw the phone after me, who then passed it to the taxi driver, who then sent it to the office. I mean all these people could’ve taken the iPhone and nobody would know! But they didn’t…. they decided to return it to me.
Thank you for the kind act of honesty Mr Taxi Driver. Singapore is a great place because of you!
Thanks again to Esther, Elisa, Yuen Yee and My Hello Kitty for helping me out in getting my iPhone back or my new Sim card. And to the rest of the SG Nuffies who were there to support me. Thank you!
And of course, thank you for all your kind comments in the previous entry guys! So comforting to read!
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space