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What Are Penn Staters Leaving Behind In Their Ubers?

For most of us, it’s hard to remember a time when the only transportation option for a night out was limited to one of three choices: the bus, a taxi, or (even worse) our own two feet.

Since its launch in the State College area in February 2015, Uber has completely revolutionized the way college students travel. Is it raining? Are you running late? Feeling lazy and don’t want to walk? The solution is simple: Call an Uber.

For better or for worse, Ubers have become as integral to our lives as brushing our teeth in the morning. And as an everyday part of life, they have fallen subject to the inevitability of being a hotspot for forgotten items. Let’s face it — we’ve all had that stomach-sinking, “oh shit” moment when we realize we’ve left a personal item behind in an Uber.

As a way to pay tribute to all these forgotten items, Uber decided in 2017 to create what they call “the Uber Lost & Found Index.” The index is a snapshot of riders’ most commonly lost and forgotten items, which it compiles on a yearly basis.

Uber recently released its annual list of “Top Forgotten Items” for 2018. The cool thing about the list is the fact that it ranks the number of instances and type of forgotten items in total, as well as on a city-by-city basis.

Without further ado, here are the top 10 things State College Uber riders are most frequently leaving behind in their rides:

  1. Phone and/or Camera: 124
  2. Wallet/Purse: 110
  3. Keys: 47
  4. Vape/E-cig: 27
  5. Backpack/Bag/Folder/Luggage: 21
  6. Clothing: 17
  7. Headphones/Speaker: 16
  8. Glasses: 10
  9. Passport: 7
  10. Cardholder: 5

Uber based all these statistics on the number of times individuals filed reports with them for lost items. Interestingly enough, Uber even aggregated the stats for the most common days of the week when items were lost.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, items were lost on the weekend more than any other day, as Sunday and Saturday were the top two days in terms of losing items. This was consistent with Uber’s national statistics, which report that you’re most likely to lose something between 10 p.m. Saturday and 1 a.m. Sunday.

As far as the rest of the week is concerned, Monday and Friday checked in at the No. 3 and 4 spots, respectively, while Thursday, Tuesday, and Wednesday rounded out the list as the days with the least reported lost items.

So the next time you forget a personal belonging in your Uber, at least you can be comforted by the fact that you’re not alone. Twenty-six other Penn Staters have also forgotten their Juuls (and had the wherewithal to file a report about it instead of just chalking it up as a loss).

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About the Author

Emma Dieter

Emma is a senior from the ever-popular "right-outside" Philly area studying labor employment relations and PR. She's also the Student Life editor for Onward State. She has been a Penn Stater from cradle and will continue to bleed blue and white, 'til grave. She loves trashy romance novels, watching Netflix, and crying over cute videos of dogs. If you ever want to talk more with her about how great she is, or simply have other inquiries, feel free to email her at [email protected]

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