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Taxi GPS Helps Recover $500K Violin

by Thomas Houston on August 24, 2009 at 10:38 AM

While GPS is sometimes criticized for killing the art of map-reading (and for sending tourists hundreds of miles in the wrong direction), the navigation technology recently made headlines by helping one man recover a $500,000 violin.

Returning from the Hamptons last Monday, musician Hahn-Bin accidentally left his 18th century Giovanni Francesco Pressenda violin in a New York City taxi cab. Returning home, Hahn-Bin realized it was still in the cab, and he contacted the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission. The New York Post reports that the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) was able to track the violin via the taxi's GPS-unit, standard in city cabs since 2007. The AFP quoted him as saying, "Losing an instrument is a greatest fear, even more than making a mistake on stage."

Don't get your hopes up, though, about recovering an iPod or cell phone left in a cab. TLC chief Matt Daus told the Post, "We have to prioritize. For some items, we drop everything -- items of high sentimental value, like a wedding ring, or something of religious value." [From: New York Post and AFP]

Tags: gps, hahn-bin, music, top, violin

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