Lost camera in a taxi in Rome

You could pray to St. Anthony of Padua, the patron saint of lost things. Good luck.

And what if I'm a non-believer? has anyone been in a similar situation and do you have any pointers?

"Do I have any hope of finding it?" asks the OP of the left-in-a-taxi camera. Answer: No. BTW, "filing a police complaint"? About what?

If it wasn't returned by the taxi driver to the taxi company by now, I doubt it. Anyone getting in the taxi that same day could have stolen it as well. I hope it wasn't an expensive camera and that you didn't lose a lot of photos. That's a shame, sorry.

A few years ago I left my camera in a public bathroom on board the Holland America ship Eurodam on the first day of a Med cruise. Now you would think that on a ship mostly filled with North Americans, all obviously able to afford to cruise the Mediterranean, that chances of getting my camera back would be pretty good. Friends, no. Someone has my camera and I can only hope it is one of the underpaid crew members and that he or she enjoys using it.

Bhanu,
Was your name on the camera?

Check and see if Rome has a Lost and Found office. It might be dropped off there. Also, the driver may not even have seen it and his next fare could have pocketed your camera.

Two other strategies to suggest to avoid something like this in the future. Take two memory cards and switch them back and forth every day. That way you lose at most only half the pictures you took. Or take along something like a netbook that will allow you to download all your pictures onto the hard drive as you go. (There are also websites that allow you to upload photos, but that would be too slow and requires an internet connection.) I hope this didn't completely ruin your vacation.

Richard asks a good question re: if your name (and I'd add email or snail mail address) was on it. That question made me realize we don't have our contact info on our camera. Taxi driver may be just as dismayed, wondering how to get it back to you. And, chances are, if you paid cash (as we always do) with a taxi ride, you may not recall the company name for the taxi. I just shared this situation with my spouse who informed me that all of his camera micro cards (photo storage) have a little text file that is the first thing that pops up if someone looks at the photos, which he calls PLEASE READ ME that contains his contact info. (You may have already had something like that in your camera.)He thinks this could be improved by making it a JPeg file. But, that said, someone would need to figure out to do that and to also be able to read English. (If I found a camera, I might or might not look at the photos stored.) Next trip, I'll add an adhesive label with our email address and the word REWARD. I hope that you enjoy the pleasant surprise of having your camera appear at your home or office sometime in the near future. The camera can be replaced, but not the photos you took. Sorry that happened. One last thought, if you were being picked up a hotel, possibly the driver returned it to the hotel?

Thanks for all the great suggestions. No, Richard, I did not have my name on the camera. Camera was in a case and I will from now on slip a business card or id information inside the case. I also like Margaret's idea of creating a template file with name and address info I can copy to new SD cards. I took your suggestion, Anna and sent an email to Rome Lost and Found. We were going from Vittoria Emanuele statue to Via Maruguta for dinner at Ill Margutta Ristorante (great food, until I realized my camera was gone). The taxi driver knew we were going to this restaurant so I left my business card with the restaurant manager, in case he returns. I suppose my hopes are slim and it's devastating to lose over 300 pictures of my family vacation on our last day in Italy. I almost wish I had an old camera with a film roll that could hold only 24 or 36 shots and not ALL of them. Lessons learnt for next time and thanks for the kind words. Maybe others can avoid mistakes I made by posting here.

I know this doesnt help you now but maybe in the future. Before my spouse and I travel to a foreign country we order about 50 flag pins (little lapel pins that have the US and flag of the other country). When we interact (taxi driver, hotel staff, restaurant staff, etc we make a small production of taking off the pin I am wearing and present it as a gift (but not in lieu of any tip we might be giving). So the last time when we were in Rome, late at night while getting out some cash to pay the taxi driver, I dropped my credit card in his cab. Did not discover the fact until we are awakened at 1AM by the hotel front desk saying a person wants to see me in the lobby. When I got there I found the taxi driver had driven back from downtown Rome to Paletine Hill region to return my credit card. Of course I gave him a generous tip considering the impact of a lost card would have had as well as his efforts to return it.
We are going back to Italy in two weeks and again I will have a supply of flag pins.

Someone gave me a great tip just in case this kind of thing happens (it might have been someone on the Helpline). Empty your memory card(s) before your trip and then write or type your name, address, phone number, and e-mail address on a piece of paper. Take a picture of the paper. Do this for each memory card that you'll take with you. In case the camera is lost, your contact info will be on the card in the camera.