You read it right, Americans lost enough cell phones in 2011 to account for $30 billion. That’s outrageous and if you’ve ever lost your phone you know it is a completely aggravating experience. I’ll tell you, I lost my phone once. No clue where it went, but I was really upset. First I wanted to call my friends and bitch to them about the whole thing, but guess what? I didn’t know any of their phone numbers. How could I have been so stupid?

I haven’t memorized anybodies number since I got a cellphone years ago. To make matters worse, I had to call the insurance company to have them send me a new one. How am I supposed to call those folks, I don’t have a phone? I had to find a pay phone, which as you know isn’t as easy as it used to be. So do yourself a favor, keep a hard copy of those numbers in a deferent place. Also back-up the other information you store on there.

Anyway, back to the study that delivered us this interesting bit of information. Lookout Mobile Security conducted the study and they broke the loses down by city, and included colorful fact like when the devices were lost and how. One interesting stat is most users misplaced their phones between the hours of 9pm and 2am. I wonder what was happening there?

Regardless, most things are lost in the dark despite our dispositions at the time. It’s also interesting to note that Philadelphia and Seattle, along with Oakland are the top three losers of cell phones. I am sure there’s no causal relationship here, but just in case I would leave your cell phone at home when visiting these cities. Actually, you better keep them on you in case you get mugged.

To be honest, the cities that were the biggest losers of cell phones were the ones with the largest concentrations of people, so others who made the list include Boston, New York, Cleveland, and Detroit. All that money we spend on phone insurance might be worth it. Statistically speaking, it is very likely to happen.

What can you do? Many companies, including Lookout, who published the study, offer recovery services for your phone. In fact, I bet almost all of us have heard of Apple’s ‘Find My iPhone‘ app. For Droid users there’s the ‘Where’s My Droid‘ app. If you haven’t considered some of these solutions, they could save a you a lot of aggravation for something that will inevitably happen.

I’m still waiting for Apple to come out with the ‘Find My Wallet’ app., but in the meantime I can only hope that it’s with my phone once I track that thing down. Keep an eye on your phones after 9pm and stay out of Philadelphia. Thanks for reading.