Being that guy who stood in line for a period of 18 hours awaiting the release of the very first iPhone, I've come to own, loose, and break several of them in the past 4 years. Loosing an iPhone, a Droid, a Blackberry, or a Windows Phone (does anyone in their right mind actually own one?), is a catastrophe now-a-days. Sure your info might be backed up on your laptop, desktop, iTunes, soon the iCloud, or Outlook (ughh windows), but replacing the actual phone, smart phone, smart device is not cheap.

Exiting the Path in Hoboken late last night, I managed to drop my iPhone in between the the train and the platform. Such a tiny gap. As the phone began to slip from my hand, I watched in horror praying that the narrow gap would not swallow it whole. I stood there on the platform, heart-broken, dumbfounded.. do I wait for the train to pull out of the station, jump on the tracks and retrieve the phone? What's the voltage of the third rail again? Is it the one closest to the platform or is it the one on the far side? DO I really want to be that guy that jumps on the tracks and makes the headline: "A Local Jack-a** Jumps on The Tracks to Retrieve an iPhone".

I turned and noticed a NJ transit employee and explained the predicament I was in. I was instructed to pick up the land-line phone on the platform and inform them of what just happened. The operator on the other line instructed me to stand on the platform close to the area of where I dropped the phone until the train pulled out of the station. On numerous occasions, being the Apple fan boy that I am, I demonstrated to several friends the infamous key-scratch-demo on my iPhone. You take your keys and begin scratching the surface of your iPhone to demonstrate that those silly little glossy screen protectors serve no purpose as its extremely difficult to scratch the thing. I doubt the phone's screen, let alone the device itself would survive the train pulling out of the station.

Fifteen minutes later, the train pulls out. I frantically began looking down on the tracks searching to see if the phone survived. Bank of America Credit Card, a Driver license, an empty bag of Doritos... ah there.. my iPhone! its in one piece! I look around to see if a NJ transit employee was going to retrieve the phone for me. There's hardly anyone on the platform. Perhaps I should jump down and get it, its right in front of me. A new train begins to pull onto track 1 of the station. Before I had time to react, the train itself came to a complete stop, the conductor opened the door and yelled... "Where did you drop it?".

Long story short, I delayed the incoming train by a minute, the conductor was informed by the dispatcher to assist me in grabbing my iPhone and my iPhone is in one piece without a single scratch on it. The conductor also retrieved the Bank of America Credit card and the driver license. If anyone lost one late last night coming back from the city and exiting the train on Track 1 be sure to retrieve it at the station's Lost and Found. During the cab ride home I enjoyed a quick game of Angry Birds..