Florida woman left her phone inside an Uber. The extent she had to go to retrieve it is splitting the internet

Losing your phone in a rideshare vehicle is not a good experience, but one Florida woman recently turned a simple mistake into a high-stakes hunt. TikTok creator @kewch777 shared her experience after a night out in St. Petersburg, Florida, turned into a mission to recover a device left behind by her friend, Nikki, BroBible reported.

The trouble started after a baseball game at Tropicana Field. After stopping at a local restaurant, the pair took an Uber to a bar. As soon as they stepped out of the car, the realization hit. “She’s like, ‘Oh, f—, I forgot my phone,’” the creator recalls. By the time they reacted, the driver was already gone.

Attempting to follow the standard protocol, @kewch777 tried to call the driver through the Uber app. It went straight to voicemail, but there was a catch. The driver hadn’t even set up a voicemail box. After a few attempts, the app blocked further calls, leaving them with no way to communicate. Uber support was no help either, simply stating that the driver had 24 hours to respond to a notification.

This one is a cautionary tale for your next Uber ride

Fortunately, technology was on their side. Nikki had shared her location, so they could watch the phone moving around the city. When the driver stopped at a Domino’s, @kewch777 tried calling the restaurant directly, hoping an employee could alert the driver, but the car pulled away before that could happen. Deciding they had enough, they tracked the car to a downtown red light. “We f—— sprint,” the creator says. “No f—— way we’re gonna see her sitting at this red light and miss the car.”

When they finally caught up to the vehicle, they didn’t want to cause a scene, so they approached carefully and showed the driver the location tracking. Despite the proof, the driver allegedly denied having the device. It was only when a passenger in the back seat handed it over that this version of the story came out.

The driver allegedly called the moment “an act of God,” a claim @kewch777 flatly rejected. “No, it wasn’t an act of God,” she says. “It was an act of FBI surveillance. We have been chasing you. We have called Domino’s. We have blown up Uber.”

The aftermath was just as frustrating as the chase. The next morning, the creator received an email from Uber stating that the driver had reported meeting them at an agreed-upon location and had claimed the $20 lost item return fee. While Uber didn’t actually charge the riders, the fact that the driver received the fee for a recovery that only happened because they hunted her down was infuriating to many commenters.

The incident highlights a massive gap in how these situations are handled. While Uber advises riders to use the app to contact drivers or leave a voicemail if they don’t answer, they also explicitly state that neither the company nor the drivers take responsibility for items left behind. Some commenters on the video suggested the driver might not have been able to check the app while working, but others were more skeptical about the driver’s intentions.

Ultimately, the creator offered some blunt advice for any drivers out there. “If you’re an Uber driver, get your f—— voicemail set up,” she says. “That sh—- not safe.” It’s a fair point, because when things go wrong, clear communication is the only thing that saves the day.