Eddie Vedder has shown his appreciation in a big way to a fan who recovered his girlfriend's mobile phone in the back of a New York taxi. The unnamed person discovered the iPhone -- which contained private pictures of Vedder, his pregnant girlfriend, model Jill McCormick, and their family -- last week.

"Suddenly, the phone started ringing," a source told the New York Post. "The caller ID said 'Eddie.'" The fan was clicking through pictures of Vedder, McCormick and their 4-year-old daughter at the time the Pearl Jam frontman called the phone in an effort to recover it.

The good Samaritan on the receiving end of the call promptly rerouted his taxi to Vedder's Midtown Manhattan hotel. In exchange for the phone, the fan was repaid with a handwritten thank you letter from the famed rocker, Vedder's personally engraved Zippo lighter and $500.

Having recently wrapped a string of Pearl Jam gigs in the New York area, Vedder will return to the Big Apple on August 4 and 5 for two solo gigs at New York 's historic United Palace Theatre. The shows are part of an eight-city trek.