To think people who keep lost property are idiots?

[cantgetanickname]

Local Facebook page... Yet another person has found something lost by somebody else. It's a mobile phone this time. They say they will keep it for 2 days and then hand it in to the police.

Why, oh why, do people not hand lost items to the police straight away? It really winds me up when I see these posts. If I lost my phone or my car keys or something, my first thought would be to call police lost property. Not to check Facebook on the remote off chance that the person who posts a photo of my missing item will somehow appear on my Facebook page even though they have absolutely nothing to do with me. So irritating. Many people do not have Facebook and if their mobile phone was their only means of accessing Internet then they have absolutely bugger all chance of seeing the posts anyway.

Rant over. Aibu?

It depends on the item and the context. I'm on a local parenting group and people often post that they've found teddies etc in the park. With a small geographical area and 600 parents on the group, it's a very good chance that the item will get back to the owner and someone's bedtime will be infinitely improved. Would you really bother the police with this??

Come off it, I have to look after you by taking care of your irresponsible losing property, and you want me waste more of my life going to police and filling in the paperwork. Grow up, you are the idiot.

Police stations round here are not open to the public. YABU.

Our local police station is no longer open to the public so handing lost property to the police involves a 30 odd minute drive or 2 trains. That is why social media posts are useful round here.

YABU.

*It's all attention seeking I think- ooh look at me, how nice and great am I for finding a phone/piece of jewellery/purse and not keeping/selling it......

Bunch of self praising wankers*

^^ Do you actually think this Squishy? Would you not try FB to reunite people with their lost possessions if you had no police station? I'm struggling to express how I feel about your comment without using the word 'sad', which always sounds a bit passive aggressive on here, but I'm afraid I do find your comment very sad. You must have a very low opinion of other people.

I handed in a bag that had been snatched and chucked in my garden. There was nothing of value or any ID left but there were some photos I thought someone might want back.

The desk sergeant didn't want it and eventually accepted it very reluctantly. He probably binned it.

These days I'd scan the photos and put them on FB.

Our local police station does handle lost property, but they are only open 9-5 Monday to Friday, so if I found something on a Friday evening I'd have to keep it at least two days and then try to get to the police station in my lunch time. By which time, if I'd put in on our local FB page, it would probably have been claimed. Ours does seem to have a high success rate, but then it does have over 10,000 members.

Also, there are a huge amount of local FB groups putting strangers in touch with each other in most towns, ours has at least hslf a dozen in a town with pop. 15,000. If you posted on a few of these there's a very good chance word will get back to the owner.

In our village the 'found' item is usually posted up on FB (on the village community page) and everyone is told it's been handed into to the post office/shop or the community centre lost property box. We have a very active community page and lost & found pets & items feature regularly, it seems to work well.
The closest police station is miles away in the centre of the next town no one would hand in lost property there.

I found some keys in the street and tried to hand them into some police that were wandering by. Try didn't want to know, so what lam I supposed to do with them?

The police website says they don't accept lost property anymore so if you find something, what are you supposed to do?

I found an apple lying in a puddle looking like it had been run over.

I had to drive to 3 different places before I could hand it in.

By then I was cheesed off and tempted just to stick it back where I found it.

Someone on mine posted a picture of someone's driving licence that they had found two doors down from the local police station.
When asked why they hadn't just handed it in at the police station they said they were told the police almost never find the right owner. (not sure how as your driving licence must include your correct address)

I saw a post the other day, someone had found a phone and put a pic of the lock screen on. Fine, except it was a pic of the owners children (1 boy 1 girl) nekkid. So 100s of people will have seen it.

I found phones a few times. I just browse through contacts, ring them and trace the owner.

Oh no, willwork the peedos might have seen it. They've been waiting for years in the hope that someone will post a lost phone with naked pics on the lock screen...

FWIW, I'm not sure how much effort "they" put into reuniting things. I think I'd rather a MNetter found my [insert lost item here] and tried to find me if there were any clues to go by than hand it to someone who may or may not give a shit.

if the police get a driving licence handed in, they will do the same as they do to passports, and render them invalid. The owner gets to pay for a replacement.

I'd be really pissed off if someone handed my phone in to the police straight away. If of course they even were able to (you cant here).

Its a phone
Wait a bit and i'll ring it and arrange to come and get it. Jeez.

If i find one, i phone police and leave details then hang onto it and try charging it up/phoning favourites if unlocked. I wouldnt hand it in to a cafe either. It might get nicked

I'm not talikng about "peedos" I'm talking about it is the childrens' right not to have their naked bodies slathered on the internet. (They looked primary age)

Be interested to know if op has tried phoning police recently to see if they had lost property?

I saw a post on facebook where someone had found a buggy outside a supermarket and taken it home, my thought was the parent was probably in the shop and came out to find it gone or left it behind and rushed back for it and it was gone.

Social media is a good idea for some things but if it's at a place where the person will likely come back to look for it then hand it in there. I would trace my steps before checking facebook.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/11859626/Lost-property-rip-off-Passengers-charged-to-retrieve-own-items.html

Todays front page
Do someone a favour and track them down yourself if possible

I found a ten pound note blowing around a public car park yesterday.

It could have blown in from the road as I heard it skipping along the tarmac in the wind. How on earth can I find who it belongs to? No police station I can walk to and Im darned if Im taking 2 buses and paying for mine and Dc fares just to hand in a tenner. Not on facebook either -not that I would be willing to have contact from strangers even if I was.

Im keeping it and might put it towards a charity.

"I recently went to a festival and a load of stuff has found its way back to the people who lost it via the fb page. So yeah, it works."

In fairness, @SilverShins, the OP is not talking about a specific FB page for an event, she is talking about a private individual sharing a picture of something they have found to their own feed, in the hopes that their friends will share it, and eventually the person who lost it will see it on someone's own FB page.

If I lost something at an event or festival, I would check their FB page to see if they had any lost property and if my item was there. I wouldn't be waiting and hoping it would turn up on a friend's page via however many other pages.