Police have issued an urgent appeal to black cab drivers across the capital after a father left an urn containing his child’s ashes in a taxi.
The man left a black Adidas bag with the urn in the vehicle after taking a cab from Fenchurch Street to Smithfield Meat Market at 6.30am on Friday.
Steve McNamara, general secretary at the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association, the London cab drivers’ trade union, said he is “not in the slightest bit surprised” by the appeal.
He told The Daily Telegraph: “I’m not in the slightest bit surprised [that these ashes have been left] - the stuff that gets left in cabs literally beggars belief.
This is an urgent appeal to all black cab drivers.
— City of London Police (@CityPolice) July 28, 2023
A man has left an urn containing his child’s ashes in a black Adidas bag in a cab he took from Fenchurch Street to Smithfield Meat Market at 6.30am.
Anyone with any information please contact 020 7601 2222 pic.twitter.com/ico1Mdb48W
“We’ve had tens of thousands in cash left in cabs, the most recent one we had a guy who left £35,000 cash in the cab and the driver handed it back to a police station.
“We’ve had babies numerous times, false teeth, mobile phones by the hundred every day, dogs, prosthetic limbs, you name it, we’ve had it.
“People forget. The husband and wife get out of the cab, he pays the cab or she pays the cab, they think the other one’s going to get the baby.”
City of London Police has urged anyone with information to contact them on 020 7601 2222.
