Just found someone's driving license on my garden wall

[SoupMode]

There's a european health insurance card and a finnair card too. All in the same name. I imagine they were stolen and then dumped? Do I need to tell the police? Or just post them back to the address on the license?

Drop them in at the police station, in case. Are you near a bus stop? They could have fallen out of a purse. Just don't post them on Facebook, etc.

Hand them into the Garda station. They'll deal with it.

Sorry, police station. Or whatever it is where you are!

When my DD lost her driving licence someone posted it back to her. She was just relieved to get it back. It hadn't been stolen though. It fell out her pocket. I had my purse stolen once and would have been pleased to get those items back. It would have been no use taking them to the police at i was 400 miles from home when it happened.

I think that was a long way of saying to just pop them in the post.

Are you able to find the person and PM them on facebook?

I had a PM from someone asking had I lost my purse. I had and hadn't realised. They tracked me down via facebook and we arranged to meet (in a public place) so I could get my purse and cards etc back.

Sorry meant to say, if nothing else, it meant I didnt have to cancel my cards/order a new licence

I wouldn't pop them in the post in case the address on the licence is an old one, just take to the police station, as it is most likely that the person will report it to the local police anyway, they can post it to the person if needs be.

No bus stops on my road. They could have been dropped I suppose, but then someone picked them up and propped them up on my garden wall.
The address is about 10 mins drive away, it would probably we quicker to go and post them through the letter box than to go to the police station!

The person has a very common name, there's loads on Facebook!

No guarantee they're still at that address though.

Even if they aren't at that address any more they would probably have left a forwarding address. If it's not too much hassle just pop them through the letter box.

My local police (London) won't accept lost property any more.

If the address is 10 mins away i'd pop round - no harm done if they've moved or something and you might help them out massively.

Don't just stick them through the letter box - if nobody is in, put a note through with your phone number and they can get in touch.

What would you hope someone would do if the situation was reversed?

Hand them into the Garda station. They'll deal with it.

No guarantee they're still at that address though.

In which case, what would the police be able to do about it, other than prosecute them for failing to update their licence?

Good point. But at least you'd have done your bit.

If you leave the country you don't have to update your address.

So if I dropped my purse with my driving licence, EHIC and finnair card, I would lose my things if sent to my very old address, as there is no way the current inhabitants would know I ever lived there as it was a rented property at that time.

However once I noted they were missing I would notify the police, and if they had details, then there is a chance I could get everything back. Please notify and/or hand into the police, do not post to the address. However since you live so close, perhaps a note through the door to let them know you have handed it into the police, or how to get hold of you to pick them up?

Update: Decided it would be best to hand into police station, so did that yesterday. Thanks for your advice.