If you’ve ever realized halfway through your flight that your sunglasses are in the back of the car that drove you to the airport, you’re not alone — at least according to new data from Uber. The rideshare company recently released its 10th annual Lost and Found Index (Uber’s version of the well-known Unclaimed Baggage Report), and with it, announced an improved way to help reunite owners and their items.
Photo: antoniodiaz/Shutterstock
Uber Announces New Lost and Found Service (and Shares Weird Items Left Behind)
The headline findings will surprise no one who has ever sprinted back to a curb: Phones topped the list of most-forgotten items, with more than a million reported left behind. Phones were followed by other extremely common travel items, like wallets, luggage, keys, headphones, and clothing. The collection of items reads like a packing list for someone on the way to the airport, which it may be, as the next-most-forgotten items were passports.
Some cities are more forgetful than others. New York City once again claimed the title of America’s most forgetful city (though it probably has the most Uber riders, too), trailed by Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. (DC, Dallas, Boston, Atlanta, and Newark, NJ, round out the top 10). Uber posits this could be not because people in these cities are more scatterbrained, but because these cities have high tourist numbers. “when travelers are off-duty, so is their memory,” suggests the report.
Timing is also a factor. Lost items spiked between 9 PM and midnight (peak social hours) and Sundays are the single most forgetful day of the week. However, what items are left behind vary by day, too. IDs and wallets vanish most on Mondays, headphones on Tuesdays, phone chargers on Wednesdays, bags on Thursdays, keys on Fridays, phones on Saturdays, and glasses on Sundays. On special occasions, riders seem to lose their belongings most frequently on St. Patrick’s Day, Halloween, and New Year’s Eve.
Within the last 12 months, at least 70 people were disappointed when their friends forgot to bring the tiramisu. Photo: Goskova Tatiana/Shutterstock
When it comes to what’s actually being left behind, the list gets a little more and more unhinged the further down you scroll. Uber’s list of the year’s 50 most unique lost items includes an oxygen tank, a 75-gallon fish tank, a child’s prosthetic eye, 20 pounds of duck sausage, a package of live butterflies, and, though it seems like something you’d remember you were carrying, two wedding gowns. The 75-gallon fish tank earned a place of honor as 2026’s entry in the decade’s most-unique hall of fame, joining past classics like a lobster (2017), a salmon head (2019), 500 grams of caviar (2022), a taxidermied rabbit (2025), and a “fake butt” (2024). Other noteworthy items left behind include 70 tiramisus, 420 donuts, and tickets to an Atlanta Falcons game.
Looking back on past years, the list reads partially like a roundup of what items are dominating US culture. AirPods have continued to be left behind more frequently as they become more common, and in 2021, vaccine cards and masks were among the most forgotten items. In 2025, Ozempic weight-loss injections started turning up, as have Labubus — small, collectible monster toys that have been having a pop-culture moment in the last few years.
After 10 years of creating the list, Uber has come up with a way to reunite riders with lost items (while also profiting off their forgetfulness). The company is rolling out an updated “Lost Items Experience” that lets riders request their driver make a return trip directly in the app. Now, riders can report the missing item, get a notification when the driver confirms they have it, then book that driver for a return trip, using a secure PIN to record when the item has been returned. It’s currently available in most of California, Texas, Illinois, Pennsylvania, DC, Georgia, Minnesota, and Massachusetts, with a nationwide rollout planned for all 50 US states by the end of 2026. 