Thursday, March 7, 2013

When your guests lose their camera in a taxi

One of the interesting adventures of the trip for Brian's mom & dad was losing their camera in a taxi. We went to the Lebanese Flower restaurant for dinner and took two taxis. Shortly after we arrived, my mother-in-law realized she didn't have her camera and while we all hoped that she had left it at the hotel, sure enough, she had forgotten it in the taxi. It was day 2 of their 2 week stay.

Luckily, we had a spare camera she was able to use, but they were still upset about losing the camera - mostly because inside the camera bag were some memory sticks with photos of the grandkids that hadn't yet been backed up. (lesson learned, I'm sure)

Now there is something you need to understand about Abu Dhabi. It is extremely safe and most of the people living here are extremely honest and helpful. Clearly if you left your camera in a taxi almost anywhere else in the world, it would be gone forever - in fact, you might not even bother to look for it as you'd be so sure that it was now stolen. But here, there is a very good chance of recovery. There have been several stories in the papers over the last two years of taxi drivers returning cell phones and even one where a driver found a bag of cash and returned it to the owner.

So, we had some hope and called the taxi company to file a report to see if the camera could be recovered. The hotel (shout out to the Staybridge on Yas Island) also helped by filing their own report and following up almost daily with the taxi company. And, you guessed it, the camera was found - the driver had turned it in to the Police.

Bummer. We were really hoping the driver would return it to the hotel and that would be the end of it. Getting the police involved created a bit more adventure. But hey, the camera was found, right?

Two trips to the police station later, my in-laws had their camera back and a really good story to tell back home.

No comments:

Post a Comment