A frozen turkey, goalie pads and a fish: What Canadians left behind in Ubers last year

The Uber app is seen on an iPhone near a driver's vehicle in Vancouver, Friday, Jan. 24, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

While it’s common to misplace a phone or a wallet, some Canadians forgot considerably larger things inside their Ubers over the past year.

The ride-hailing company released its annual “Lost & Found Index” on Tuesday, which revealed “both the common and not-so-common items left behind by Canadian riders over the past year.”

While phones, wallets and bags continued to top the list nationally, like other years, Uber noted a few standout items that riders left behind.

“(They) include a 15-pound frozen turkey and an aquarium fish and supplies in Toronto, a full set of goalie pads in Edmonton, a violin in a hard case in Montreal, and two humidifiers in Winnipeg,” Uber said in a release.

“Someone in London, Ont., left behind a single bed leg and an old smoke alarm, apparently mid-errand to find replacements. We hope it worked out.”

The index also found that Uber XL riders were more than twice as likely to forget something in a car than UberX riders. “Bigger groups, more chaos, more lost stuff,” Uber said.

Saskatchewanians are some of the most forgetful people in the country, the index suggested, with Saskatoon and Regina coming in at first and third respectively on the list of most forgetful cities in Canada, Uber said.

Windsor, Ont. (2), Victoria (4), and St. John’s (5) rounded out the top five, while Ottawa, Toronto, and Calgary “continued their streak as the country’s least forgetful cities,” the release said.

The days in the past year that saw the most items left behind in Ubers were Saturday, Nov. 1, Friday, Oct. 31, and Thursday, Jan. 1, suggesting riders were the most absent-minded about their belongings over the Halloween weekend and following New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the most forgetful hour was Sundays at 1 a.m., according to Uber.

Other unique items left behind in Ubers in the past year were 12 pizzas in Brantford, Ont., a turtle shell in Toronto, and a “blackish grey” switchblade knife in Regina that had been “passed down from (a rider’s) great grandpa.”