A time capsule of the past decade, written in lost things
Each year, the objects left behind in Uber's backseats compose an unintentional portrait of American life — its habits, its anxieties, its cultural obsessions. For a decade now, the company has catalogued these forgotten things, from vaccine cards to LaBuBu dolls, from divorce papers to live butterflies, tracing not just what people lose but what each era carries with it. New York City leads the nation in forgetfulness, Sundays are the most vulnerable day, and over a million phones vanish into rideshare limbo each year. In announcing a new in-app recovery system, Uber quietly acknowledges what its own data has long suggested: losing things is not an aberration, but a condition of modern movement.
- More than a million phones disappear into Uber backseats every year — and that's before accounting for prosthetic eyes, live butterflies, and twenty pounds of duck sausage.
- New York City has claimed the title of America's most forgetful city, with Sunday emerging as the single most loss-prone day across the entire rideshare network.
- The lost items shift with the cultural moment — vaccine cards in 2021, Ozempic bottles in 2025, LaBuBu plushies now — turning Uber's index into an accidental time capsule of American preoccupation.
- Recovering a forgotten item currently depends heavily on driver goodwill and timing, leaving millions of riders in an anxious, uncertain waiting game.
- Uber is rolling out a new in-app lost-and-found reporting system nationwide by year's end, aiming to bring structure and speed to a process that has long relied on luck.
Every year, Uber publishes a catalog of what its riders leave behind — and after a decade, that catalog has become something stranger and more revealing than a simple lost-and-found log. The items range from the mundane to the inexplicable: an ankle monitor, a 75-gallon fish tank, a taxidermied rabbit, a child's prosthetic eye, twenty pounds of duck sausage, partial teeth wrapped in tissue. Together, they read like the inventory of a very confused estate sale — or an unintentional archive of American life.
The company, which holds 76 percent of the U.S. rideshare market, processed more than a million lost phone reports last year alone. But phones are only the beginning. New York City topped the list of the nation's most forgetful cities, and Sunday proved the most dangerous day for leaving things behind. Over ten years, the index has quietly tracked cultural shifts: face masks and vaccine cards in 2021, Ozempic bottles appearing with new frequency in 2025, and this year, LaBuBu plushies joining the backseat diaspora.
The stranger entries carry their own gravity. Divorce papers in 2018. A salmon head in 2019. A real toy poodle left in 2023 with a note reading "MY DOG IS IN THE CAR!!!" — the panic of those capital letters still palpable. A fake butt in 2024. A rhinestoned portrait of Jesus. A large painting of Kate Middleton. These are not items forgotten by accident so much as artifacts of stories that didn't quite make it out of the car.
Recent trends point toward vapes, LaBuBu dolls, various forms of dental work — gold grills, veneers, partial dentures — and Croc sandals. They are the objects of contemporary life, and they paint a portrait of who rides Ubers and what they're carrying in the moment before they step away.
Uber announced this week that a new lost-and-found reporting process is coming to its app, with a nationwide rollout planned by year's end. The practical goal is to reduce the friction riders face when trying to recover belongings — a process that currently depends too much on timing and goodwill. But the announcement also reflects something the data has made plain: losing things is not an exception to modern life. It is, in some quiet and persistent way, part of its texture.
Every year, Uber compiles a catalog of the things people leave behind in the backseats of its cars—a strange and unintentional archive of American life. This year, the company marked a decade of documenting these forgotten items, and the collection reads like the inventory of a very confused estate sale: an ankle monitor, a meat slicer, breast milk, live butterflies, a 75-gallon fish tank, a taxidermied rabbit, a child's prosthetic eye, twenty pounds of duck sausage, and a pair of partial teeth wrapped in tissue.
The rideshare giant, which controls 76 percent of the U.S. rideshare market according to a 2024 analysis, processes an enormous volume of lost-and-found claims. Last year alone, riders reported losing more than a million phones. But the phones are only part of the story. Uber's annual Lost & Found Index has become something unexpected: a cultural time capsule, a record of what Americans carry with them and what they abandon, often without realizing it.
New York City earned the dubious distinction of being America's most forgetful city. Sunday emerged as the day riders are most likely to leave something behind. The company attributed this partly to the rhythms of urban life and weekend travel patterns, though the data speaks for itself. Over ten years, the index has tracked not just what gets lost, but what those losses reveal about the moment we're living in. In 2021, vaccine cards and face masks dominated the list. In 2025, Ozempic bottles appeared in backseats with increasing frequency. This year, LaBuBi plushies—the viral collectible toys—have ridden shotgun more than once.
The most unique items tell their own stories. A George Washington hospital discharge form. A rhinestoned portrait of Jesus. Two pounds of blue raspberry Gushers. Pelvis implants. A Donny Osmond group photograph. A large painting of Kate Middleton, left behind in 2021. A fake butt, abandoned in 2024. A lobster in 2017. Divorce papers in 2018. A salmon head in 2019. A lanyard inscribed with the words "virginity rocks" in 2020. A toy poodle—a real dog, not a stuffed animal—left in a car in 2023 with a note that read "MY DOG IS IN THE CAR!!!" The panic in those capital letters is palpable even now.
Recent trends show vapes and e-cigarettes, LaBuBi dolls, various forms of teeth (gold grills, veneers, partial dentures), and Croc sandals dominating the list of forgotten items. These are the objects of contemporary life: the nicotine delivery systems, the collectibles, the dental work, the comfort shoes. They paint a portrait of who rides Ubers and what matters to them in the moment before they step out of the car and forget.
Uber announced this week that it is rolling out a new lost-and-found reporting process within its app, with a nationwide launch planned by the end of the year. The company framed this as a response to the volume of claims it processes and the difficulty riders face in recovering their belongings. It's a practical move, but it also suggests that the company has recognized something: people lose things constantly, and they want their stuff back. The new system will presumably make that process easier, faster, less dependent on the goodwill of drivers and the luck of timing.
What the index ultimately reveals is not just forgetfulness, but the texture of modern life—the things we carry, the things we value enough to panic about when they're gone, and the things we apparently don't value enough to remember we had them at all. A 75-gallon fish tank is not something you forget by accident. Neither is a taxidermied rabbit. These are items that suggest stories: a move gone wrong, a passenger who changed their mind, a driver who found something so strange they had to report it just to make sense of what they'd witnessed.
Notable Quotes
From AirPods becoming an everyday essential, to vaccine cards and face masks taking over in 2021, Ozempic making its way into backseats in 2025, and viral Labubu plushies riding shotgun this year, the Lost & Found Index has become an unexpected time capsule of the past decade.— Uber, in a press release
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does Uber publish this list every year? What's the business purpose?
On the surface, it's about helping people recover lost items—that's the practical function. But it's also become a marketing tool. The list gets attention, generates stories, reminds people that Uber exists and processes millions of rides. It humanizes the company in a way that quarterly earnings reports never could.
The items seem almost too strange to be real. Is Uber curating these, or are they genuinely the oddest things people lose?
They're real, but yes, there's curation happening. Uber receives millions of lost-item reports. They're selecting the most memorable, the most visually striking, the ones that tell a story. A phone is common. A taxidermied rabbit is a story.
What does it say about us that we lose these things? The prosthetic eye, the breast milk, the ankle monitor—these aren't frivolous items.
It says we're distracted, rushed, living in a state of constant transition. We're getting in and out of cars quickly, our minds elsewhere. Some of these items suggest medical vulnerability, legal trouble, the logistics of keeping a body alive. We're not losing luxury goods. We're losing the things that matter most.
Why is Sunday the most forgetful day?
Probably because people are traveling for leisure, their routines are disrupted, they're tired or distracted. Weekday commutes are automatic. Weekend trips are chaotic. You're thinking about where you're going, not what you're carrying.
New York City being the most forgetful city—is that surprising?
Not really. It's the largest, densest rideshare market in the country. More rides mean more opportunities to forget. But there's also something about the pace of New York that makes sense. People are moving fast, thinking about the next thing, not the thing in their lap.