That said, the survey also reveals that a licensed London taxi, of the 'black cab' variety, is one of the safest places you can lose a mobile phone in the UK. Apparently some 80% of the cabbies which took part said that owners were reunited with phones after the driver found them and handed them into the lost property service. Lose a mobile phone in the back of a New York taxi and, a parallel survey suggests, the chance of you getting it back drops to 66%. It's not all good news for Londoners though, a similar survey three years ago reported that you had a 96% chance of getting your lost property back, so it looks like cabbies are getting less honest as the recession bites.

Conditioning yourself to always put your phone or whatever back in its holder and not laying it wherever is convenient will also go a long way toward preventing your losing it ...