Ubuntu in London?

We all know the drill – lock up your stuff at the gym, keep you handbag in the boot, close your windows and never leave your valuables unattended. Of course, everyone has a story of a Good Samaritan who tracked them down and returned something of value, but the the overwhelming majority of lost goods stories end the same way: the phone, wallet or ring was never seen again.

Imagine for a moment catching a ride on a Metro Bus or Rea Vaya and leaving your snazzy new Samsung S6 on the seat and only realising after the bus is long gone. Do you expect to see the phone again? Of course, someone may hand it in to the driver, who may hand it in to his supervisor, who may hand it in to management, who may know what you are talking about when you call the lost and found department. However, it is not the drivers or operators we are worried about – it is our fellow human beings. 702 ran a discussion a while back where people called in and said they were traced down after leaving valuables in taxis – heart-warming stuff.

But what about a big global city such as London. Surely humanity has seeped down the drain pipes of the big smoke many decades ago? Think again. What follows is a personal story that just goes to show that no matter where you are in the world, humanity has a way of renewing your faith in human kind.

My brother and his girlfriend were on a bus in the centre of London last week and disembarked and went on about their business. Now, like many people, my family has a Family whatsapp group, that we use to stay in touch and keep each other abreast of things or to raise flags if someone is missing – or whatever. I was sitting at work and the phone lit up, and what followed was the most amazing whatsapp discussion I have ever witnessed.

Someone had picked up my brother’s girlfriend’s phone – she is Kimi – and whatsapped the family group to alert us he had found the phone and was typing a message to us while sitting on the bus. Then, he used the group to document where he was travelling and took a photo of the WHSmith shop where he handed it to a staff member. This staff member proceeded to give her shift times over the whatsapp group, and if Kimi could not get there by close of shift, she explained who she would leave the phone with.

My brother has the group on his phone, and so between my sister in Cape Town and brother in London, they tracked down Kimi’s phone because of amazing citizens of one of the biggest and greatest cities in the world. Humanity lives and people like that give us a renewed faith in people as the world’s tensions continue to rise.

Well done London. Well done WHSmith. Well Done Laura and well done humanity.

Here are screengrabs of the conversation: