This is how the incident unfolded: Deven Bharat Doshi of Ayanavaram, a private firm employee, on Friday night tweeted, tagging Greater Chennai Police, that his father had lost his mobile phone on an Ola cab. The driver was unreachable after dropping him off.

Commissioner of Police Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal, who saw the tweet, immediately alerted the social media team to follow it up and directed the traffic police to trace the cab as Doshi had mentioned the cab’s registration number. A police team swung into action and the car was traced to Tirumangalam. The personnel in Tirumangalam secured the vehicle and the retrieved phone. The cab driver was let off as he had not intentionally avoided the phone calls of the victim. Much to the surprise of Doshi, the phone was handed over at his doorstep in three hours. He took to social media to thank the police.