Lost wallet.How many honest people are out there?

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Lost my purse on a train to Victoria Station. Had found it missing in John Lewis. Went to lost property, revisited the toilets nothing. Got back to Victoria and still feeling desperate I asked the man at the barrier where I could ask if anyone had found it. He seemed to know about it and directed me to a nearby office. I was asked,a couple of questions and I described the store cards in it and gave my name which was on the cards. He gave me the purse and asked if I would like the address of the person who had handed it in. I took it and sent the price of a good bottle of wine and a letter of thanks. I had sorted my freedom pass out and put it in the side pocket of my bag and had obviously had it on my lap. My purse was black and so was my coat so must have dropped it as I stood up. Another time I left a purse in a phone box ( years ago). Went to the police station and it was there. I found a phone and rang the owner. As she wasn’t too far away I wrapped it up and posted it through her door. She arrived later with a box of chocolates which I thought was very kind of her. When I opened them there was a £5 note. Another time I found a train pass and realised it belonged to,a young girl and imagined how upset my daughter would be if she lost hers. I spent a long time going through the local phone book until her mother answered and said she hadn’t realised she had lost it. She turned up to collect it and seemed quite unconcerned but it was the weekend so I imagine Monday morning would have presented a problem. So yes there are honest people but unfortunately not enough of them. So sorry for your experience.

I recently bought a very nice leather handbag in a local charity shop. A few days later in an internal pocket I found some house keys and a driving licence with the persons address. I immediately told the charity shop who said they might know the customer, so it is safely in the safe now. I only hope the owner of the items manages to get them back!

In our town all the police stations in the suburbs have been closed down, only the central station in the town centre remains (just!) But even that is only open for limited daytime hours. Does the local police authority imagine criminals only operate part-time too?

I was going to a large supermarket a few years ago. The shop and car park are in a slight hollow. As I was approaching down the footpath I heard a “howl of dispair”! A young mum had taken cash out at the cash point and it had blown away. She had a young child with her and couldn’t chase the notes. They were swirling round the huge car park. About a dozen people, me included, caught what we could. I think she got most of it back. She was in tears, first in despair then in happiness. So I think most people are honest.

It,s really heartening to read the posts of people being honest and having their money/belongings returned by HONEST people! Alas,no honesty in place when DH lost his wallet with £100 pounds in.He is being extremely careful now!!😊

We went to a recently re-opened village pub now run by the Community. We had a lovely meal but when we got home and checked the bill realised that they had not charged us for desserts or drinks. We went back and explained to the Landlord who was gobsmacked at our honesty to pay the bill in full. It has now become one of our local go to places.

I often see thank yous on local Facebook feeds.

I left my Samsung tablet in the seat pocket of a flight last year and realised as we went through security for our onward flight. Went to the airline desk in the transfers area and when we went down to the new gate, there was a member of staff with my tablet! It would have been easy not to have found it for whoever was checking the plane so I was delighted as it was at the start of a long trip!

I found a bank card on the pavement last summer while on holiday on Mull. After a bit of detective work, I found the owner in a local restaurant. They offered me a drink but I was just glad to have found them. The only other wallet I found in the street belonged to someone I knew who was working as a builder down the road from where I found it.

We’re an honest family I think ….i was in a very large shopping centre when my granddaughter aged about 8 or 9 was looking at some glass animals on a indoor market stall…she dropped and broke one …and we pushed all the pieces to side of table slot stop anyone hurting themselves …then else sat and waited 1/2 hour for the stall-holder to return so we could pay for the object and for granddaughter to apologise to her. Stall-holder was flabbergasted that we’d waited to pay ….shed had things broken before and folk had just walked off! 🤷🏻‍♀️

I like it NotSpaghetti. He was hardly going to return was he?🤣🤣

My parents lived next to woodlands in a house that looked much more affluent than it really was - they had 2 burglaries. After the 1st they fitted locks on all downstairs windows and after the second one (and with nothing left to steal) they fitted an alarm.

The 3rd burglar was obviously startled as he tried to get in - consequently when he ran off he forgot his ladder.
The police said "if he doesn't claim it in x months, it's yours"

I think it used to be 3 months (the lost property thing).

My son was out cycling one day in the middle of nowhere and found a large wallet stuffed with notes and every card you could imagine. It was inside a soft bag with an Ipad. The owners rang the Ipad he answered and reunited it all with owner very quickly after giving them directions how to find him in remote rural location with no signposts as they were in an old car with no sat nav. They thanked him profusely and gave him £10.

Yes, so I gather.
We haven't a police station here, or it closes early, I think.

I should have thought of that.
I'm just frustrated that everything seems to be put on facebook.

MissAdventure

Why don't people take them to the bank or the police?
On the next door app people seem to enjoy saying "message me, and if you can tell me what's in the front pocket, blah blah..."

Just hand it in!

This is fair if you live in a place where the bank & police station are near.
Unlike my DB & SiL, who live in a village that the nearest to them would be 10 miles away!!
So, not everyone has the ability to just pop to the nearest one!

When I was a small child out with my Mum, I spotted a fountain pen on the ground. We took it straight to the village police station (those were the days!) and the policeman said that if it wasn’t claimed within, I think, six weeks it would be mine. It wasn’t claimed - being far too young for a fountain pen, I gave it to Dad. So that was the practice in the 50s and I assume still is, if you can find a police station! That sort of period would give the original owner ample opportunity to try to find their lost property.

I've already posted about this but I've just remembered that my dear , now late father found a Kodak camera in it's case with a kind of carrying strap when we were having a day out at the seaside when I was a child. It was probably an expensive camera at that time and at that time also we were not that well off. Honest to a fault as, I suspect, many of the war generation were, he handed it in at the local police station and was asked to leave his details.The camera was not reclaimed and the police contacted dad after some months and said that the camera now belonged to Dad ( possibly not strictly legally? GSM - I don't know the law on this , then or now) . We had it for years.

Last summer we were going to Cornwall on holiday. We stopped at Exeter service station to get a coffee and go to the loo. Huge queue ( predictably 🙄) for the ladies stretching out of the door. Waited, getting desperate- then my turn came. As I locked the door, I spotted a mobile phone on top of the toilet roll dispenser. I picked it up, rushed out of the door assuming the lady in the yellow top who had been in before me would be there at the handwash. No!! Nowhere to be seen. Ran ( well, hurried) out and spotted her with a man, presumably her husband. Stopped them and told briefly I’d found her phone. Both looked at me blankly and the lady said something along the lines of ‘ oh dear, thank you!’ That was it! They walked off. I joined the back of the queue again 🥴!!

Same here.
I'm living in a time warp, I think.

MissAdventure you'd need to go a good way to find a bank or open police station here, and I'm in the suburbs of a major city, not the middle of the countryside.

So sorry to hear Delia22 that your hubby lost his wallet.

My experience when I have found something is to try and contact the owner themselves, usually in the case of a mobile 'phone hold onto it and within a couple of hours the owner ringing to find out who has it. On each occassion returned successfully to the owner. Found two credit cards and phoned the CC company direct and they have cancelled the card.

But I am sorry to say handing into a shop etc I wouldn't trust the lost item to be returned to their owner.

Our car is ribbed on a regular basis. I can't say it's broken into bc my husband accidentally left it open a few times, but we have camera, footage of people sneaking in at the dead of night and going through our belongings. They took a few things from the glove compartment, including a box of peppermints, but left the Will Smith C. D. Obviously not a fan 🤣

After having my car stolen yesterday I don't think I can give an unbiased reply. Not a postable one.
Car theft is increasing, lack of car parts, and the economic situation are apparently to blame.
Still boils down to theft,

The police don't deal with things like wallets found in the street.

When I found a wallet with several contactless and loyalty cards in it, I was told by a perfectly uninterested police officer to hand it in to the admin office of the mall where I was shopping. I tried that. There was no one there. As it happened, the name on the cards was uncommon and rang a bell with me. I thought it was possibly connected with our local karate club and asked my instructor, who had a class at a local school that day, to ask the boy of that name what his father's first name was. Bingo! His dad's name matched the name on the cards! Miss Marple stand aside!

We have contact details for all the students, so that guy got all his cards back and I didn't go on a shopping spree with the £100 a go contactless ones!

pooohbear the same thing happened to my son when he was about 10 years old. He found some sort of computer which was really important to someone's work. There must have been a name and address with it bc we got in touch with the owner. My son returned the computer and the man who opened the door, took it from him, barely said thank you, and closed the door on him. As you say, you don't expect anything, but some appreciation wouldn't go amiss.