Musician's guitar found using Taxi GPS technology

(New York - WABC, November 6, 2007) (WABC) -- A professional musician's guitar was lost in the back of a New York City taxi. The odds of recovering it were not great under the old system. But we now have a new system -- GPS technology.

And so now there's a happy ending.

Eyewitness News reporter Joe Torres has the story.

"And I woke up yelling at the top of my lungs caused I realized it was true," Nik Munson said.

That's how Nik reacted to his real-life Monday morning nightmare. He left his precious acoustic bass guitar in the trunk of a cab. So he grabbed a phone and started calling cab companies, the police, taxi suppliers.

"It suddenly occurs to me as we're making the phone calls there was a GPS in there, because we've been hearing all the brouhaha about GPS," Nik said.

Working with just Munson's Midtown pick-up location, Amos Tamam of the GPS supply company Verifone Transportation Systems tracked down the cab's medallion number.

He then passed Munson off to the Taxi and Limo Commission. They sent a text message to the driver, who safeguarded the guitar at home before returning it to the happy owner.

"He drove in and I said turn on the meter and I'll gladly pay the fare for my guitar ... I just want it in my hands," Nik said.

"This is the first time the new technology systems have been put to use in a very public way, to reunite a guitarist with his instrument," TLC Commissioner Matthew Daus said.

While the end result worked out well, the commissioner says Mr. Munson could have saved himself some time, some aggravation and some phone calls simply by dialing 311 -- a good tip to remember the next time you forget something in the back of a cab.

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