Recently, after having dinner in Midtown Manhattan, I put on my AirPods Pro as I walked to the subway station. I began getting hot, so I gently pulled off my red beanie while at 58th Street and Broadway. Then it happened.

The AirPod in my right ear fell out. By the time I realized it, the headphone was about to hit the concrete. I tried to catch it, but it fell past my reach.

It bounced off a metal chair, then disappeared through a subway grate and into the abyss.

Many New Yorkers have nightmares of a fire escape ladder or scaffolding falling on them, or even falling into a pothole. But more and more often, the average New Yorker worries most about losing their AirPods, the ubiquitous white wireless headphones from Apple that cost at least $159.

From September to December of last year, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said that it had recovered 2,194 items dropped through subway grates — 1,220 of them earbuds or AirPods.