<incom> lost in (London taxi) transit

[Heimo Claasen]

During the passed six months (i.e., probably the period Mar-Oct'06) the
following number of devices have been lost or left in London taxis:

54,874 GSM (mobile) telephones
 5,000+ pocket-pc.s
 3,000+ laptops
   and almost
 1,000 USB sticks.

My (ever more sloppy) morning paper which took these numbers from some
unnamed news agency nevertheless mentioned as source a survey of a (British?)
"mobile security" firm, Pointsec, among 2,000 London taxi drivers. And it
said that these numbers applied only to the devices declared as found with
the "authorities", thus, it says, "the real number must even be quite a
bit higher".
[Mumbai and Sydney are quoted as second and third in terms of lost GSMs;
no indication re the other types of lost gadgets there.]

Now, what really puzzles me is the number of lost laptops.
GSMs, USB-sticks (comparably few), even Blackberrys may slide out of
pockets easily.
But laptops ?!?

Notwithstanding sloppy handling of cyphers in to-day's papers - of which
most have "rationalised" proof-readers - and thus, a possible margin of a
factor of +/- 10 (times...), that number is seriously breathtaking.

Two laptops for free for every London taxi driver every year (I never got
that chance in my student years driving taxi in Frankfurt) - by now they
must be the most 'puter literate of my ex-colleagues.

Or is it a new way of "recycling" ?

Regrettably, the paper didn't tell what happens with the devices
"declared" as found, or how many had been reclaimed (successfully).

What about starting up an NG(D)O for "A lost laptop for each school class
(in sub-Sahara Africa or where ever)" ?

<bg>, -heimo