Goodness of strangers: return of lost item

[shootingstar]

After resignedly thinking I would never recover a hardcover book that I absentmindedly left behind in a busy food court eating area at market, it was returned to the lost and found office today. After 1.5 wks. of missing item.

Strange, but I'm thrilled. Am always thrilled when a stranger does return to lost and found: the following things I left accidentally behind over years:

*wallet with ID, charge card, some money...on a ferry going to Nantucket island. It was mailed to me 1 month later from ferry company.

*my purse...twice. lst time left on hook in public washroom. Returned to security desk in a office building. 2nd time in a food court area. It was there...1/2 hr. later.

*my SLR Nikon camera on subway train seat. I saw woman getting off at lost and found stop to return it. Too bad I couldn't reward her abit by the time I got to the office.

:)

[Tri Girl]

Yay for the kindness of strangers and people who think of others other than themselves. :)

[Eden]

I wish all people were so kind. I left my phone + wallet on the counter at a grocery store once. Probably set it down to load up bags. The next person along took it. Used my debit card to order $90 worth of pizza and kept my phone - and started using it. When I got my number transferred to my new phone a friend of hers called and said "oh your that stupid b&^# who lost her phone". Delightful people......

[OakLeaf]

Many times... but the one that really stands out in my mind, kind of a long story, but I was out of town trying to raise some money to keep my apartment, and my wallet full of cash and checks fell out of my pocket. Someone turned it in to Security without even taking a dollar. I sent her a big bouquet of flowers...

[shootingstar]

I was 19 yrs. old, finishing an evening shift as a cashier at a shopping mall on edge of town. Got onto bus and found a small plastic bag full of cash and cheques. It appeared to me like some sort deposit for a bank. It was all neatly bundled up and counted.

I gave it to the bus driver. Must have been at least worth in high hundreds of dollars or more.

Never occurred to me to get a reward or whatever.

[pumpkinpony]

I managed to lose my ziplock baggie with my driver's license, credit card, and a couple other items while on a bike ride... I was out of town on a business trip, so my hotel room key was also in there. A homeless guy picked it up and went to the trouble to track me down at the hotel and return it! Very nice of him. :)

[solobiker]

My Mom lost her camera on one of the trips we took as a whole family. I think it was about 30 years ago..pre digital camera days. She was pretty upset about it and sad that she did not have the pictures from our trip to the western states. Well..about 1 month after our return home my Mom recieved a package in the mail. It was of her camera with the developed photos!! Someone had found her camera, developed the pictures and was able to see the license plate numbers on one of the pictures. She said she went to the police department to track down our address.

[Ritamarie]

Wow, Solobiker, that's quite a story.

We were on our honeymoon, a self guided bike tour through France, Italy, Germany. After arriving in the Paris airport, putting our bikes together and cycling out (almost getting killed in the Paris traffic) we went for supper in a Paris pub where I left my small bag. It had all of my cash, credit card and passport. Went back 2 hours later and it had been turned in to the bartender, untouched. Saved my new marriage I think.

[wackyjacky1]

I wish I had a happy ending lost-and-found story to tell. :(
I accidentally left a very nice fountain pen at one of the registers at Whole Foods on Sunday. When I got to my car, I realized the pen was missing, so re-traced my steps back to the register. The guy who had been bagging groceries said, "Oh, yeah, I found it and turned it in at Customer Service." He goes with me to Customer Service, and the two women there claim to have never seen it. He questioned them and looked all over for it, but they stuck to their story and the pen wasn't found. Looks like one of those Customer Service girls decided to give herself a nice fountain pen for Christmas. :(

[shootingstar]

I managed to lose my ziplock baggie with my driver's license, credit card, and a couple other items while on a bike ride... I was out of town on a business trip, so my hotel room key was also in there. A homeless guy picked it up and went to the trouble to track me down at the hotel and return it! Very nice of him. :)

The homeless guy had a heart of gold.
Compared to the customer service staff who might have kept wacky's fountain pen.

Here's another story that just happened last wk. A story more about a dog saving the day..

My partner's daughter came home from work and found the police examining her apartment :eek: and taking forensic evidence:

A burglar had broken into her place, but took nothing ...because her dog barked its head off and guarded the rm. where there was the computer, etc. So person fled.

He was caught several blocks elsewhere...because a neighbour across the street noticed the illegal home entry, barking dog and phoned 911. The guy already had a record of break and entry, theft from previous incidents elsewhere.

:)

I picked up my recovered bk. from lost and found office today.

[Aggie_Ama]

I have a good one. A few years back I had gone to the apartment gym and forgotten to take my rings off. So I could do weights I set them down and then forgot them. Not just any rings, my Aggie Ring, my engagement ring and my wedding band. A day and half went by and I was devastated, then the apartment manager called and said they were turned in. I got the kind guy's phone number and he said he had been at work when the office was open so he had them longer than he wanted, knowing if it was his fiancee she wouldn't sleep until they were found. He had tried to look me up by my Aggie Ring inscription but it was my maiden name inside and he wouldn't accept the reward I offered.

I didn't have the same experience in Seattle last month. We had bought me a really cute purple beanie at REI when we got there. One night we were eating and sampling beer at Pike Brewery. We got up to the street and I realized I left my beanie on the booth. Went back not 10 minutes later and it was no where to be found, none of the staff could say it was turned in. We even went back the next morning and still nothing in the lost and found. Who wants a worn hat? It even had some of of my make-up on it! My husband bought me another one a couple weeks ago since I was so disappointed. I hope whoever didn't turn it in has a warm head!:(

[krisl6]

My partner dropped her wallet while walking the dog in a big park near us. Thankfully someone brought it to the police station and they gave it back to her. I could never take anything I found like that. Once we found 50euros in an envelope on the street. We also notified the police and a few hours later a sweet old man showed up at the door with flowers to say thanks. Made me feel really good. We were slightly tempted to keep it as we had no money ourselves at the time, but doing the right things just feels good in my opinion.

[redrhodie]

My boyfriend was once in the dentist's office getting work done when he got a phone call there. It was a guy who found his wallet in a cab. BF hadn't yet noticed it was missing. Luckily the appointment card was in there, and he got his wallet back.

I also once found a wallet by a pay phone, and went to the address on the driver's license, and returned the wallet to the owner. The guy was really happy to get it back.

[katluvr]

I don't have a story to share. But I will say that this thread was really nice to read, especially this time of year!
There really are nice and honest people out there. You just don't hear enough about them!:)

[omachine]

I was in Super Fresh on Saturday and I took out my ATM card and sat it on the ledge above the conveyor belt. Why, I have no idea!?? Anyway, the customer in front of me was having an major issue with the cashier so I decided to switch lanes. I grabbed my groceries but some how, like a flake, over looked my ATM card. When I went to purchased my groceries, I of course couldn't locate the ATM card and so instead, I used my credit card. My roommate who happened to be with me pressed on locating my card, so I pawed through my timbuk2 bag a couple of times, still not remembering that I had left it in the other aisle, when a woman asked my cashier where could she return an ATM card she had found. I looked up and told her it was mine! I must have looked so relieved because the woman who had found my card gave me two great big hugs as if she were trying to comfort me. I managed to hug her back just as hard, repeatedly thanked her and we each told each other to have a happy holiday!!

[Irulan]

DH was on a semi wilderness boating excusriosn (10 days of touring remote Idaho locations with whitewater boats on trailers) and his wallet fell out of the truck when they stopped to scout a rapid. This road is about 4 hours in off the pavement.... A lady who lives back there and was hunting found it and called us. She is a school teacher back in there, and sent it back intact.

The funny thing is, she had contacted us (via a business card) and mailed the wallet back to me before he'd even figured out he'd lost it.;)

[shootingstar]

Nearly forgot this incredible lost and found story plus stranger. And it's cycling-related. :)

We went for all-day group bike trip with 10 people on Vancouver Island. At the end, we piled into someone's car with 4 bikes in total. Included all panniers of 4 people.

Then we arrived at home of couple to overnight. My partner suddenly realized he had mistakenly left behind his pannier with his clothing, etc. on the pavement in the parking lot.....50 kms. away! Even after they drove car back. No pannier. It was gone.

When we got back to Vancouver, dearie phoned police to report missing pannier. A woman returned in his packed pannier to the local police station the next day!

So dearie, following wk. took the 1 hr. ferry ride and did 100+ kms. bike ride to recover this pannier. :)


Morale: Not only there are sometimes good strangers, but please, please check all around the car that you have put all your gear into the car.

[Maxxxie]

This thread reminded me of a story. I'd been out for a ride with a mate, and when we finished our ride we returned to the carpark where we'd stashed our cars. We fiddled around for a bit, putting our bikes in the back of our respective cars etc. There was a football game in the adjoining sports field and a few spectators were leaving. One of them was in the car next to mine. He drove off, leaving his baby's bag behind!

It was full of nappies, food, clothes, toys, his wallet .. everything bar his mobile phone. We rifled through his wallet, and found his driver's license. Looked him up in the white pages, only to discover his phone had been disconnected. He had an unusual last name, so we called all the other entries in the white pages - nobody had heard of him. Finally, my friend found a card in his wallet for a local church. She called them, asked if they knew him, and they did. They called his wife (they'd moved and he hadn't updated the street address on his license, and of course the white pages were out of date), who in turn called him on his mobile phone.

Twenty minutes later, he was back, flustered as hell, and happy to have all his stuff back.

I feel good about that day :)

Max