'Til The Cows Come Home

Gold Medallion

Late yesterday afternoon, my cell phone buzzed. The display read "Blocked ID" and, against my better judgement, I answered (you never know when it's going to be an international drunk dial).

The caller introduced himself as Anwar, a cab driver, and proceeded to explain that my number was on the list of recent incoming calls on the cell phone he found in the backseat of his car earlier in the afternoon. He told me where he picked up and dropped off his fare, and asked if anybody on my recent outgoing list might have lost their phone.

Anwar asked if I could look into it, and that he was going to try some of the other numbers in the phone. He explained that his shift runs from 4:30am to 4:30pm, that he was already back home in Queens, but that he'd drop the phone off to the owner the next day, provided we could figure out who it was. He gave me his home phone number and said to call anytime, day or night.

Most of my outgoing calls are to the same three numbers (K., my mother and the Chinese restaurant down the block), so it only took me a few seconds to figure out who else the phone's owner might be, call him at work, and give them the good news that his phone wasn't lost after all. As it turns out, he didn't even realize it was missing. He called Anwar, who happily dropped it off at his office this morning.

It's a simple little story, but it's nice to know that every now and then we can depend on the kindness of strangers.