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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think people who keep lost property are idiots?

72 replies

cantgetanickname · 10/09/2015 21:28

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?

OP posts:

Flowerpower321 · 15/02/2017 16:37

Our local police station won't accept lost property and advise people to use social media!

SilverShins · 15/02/2017 16:40

Agh Zombie thread

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 15/02/2017 16:41

Bloody hell - is it, SilverShins? Buggeration!

TheFlis12345 · 15/02/2017 16:45

Handing things in to the nearest shop also only helps of the owner knows exactly where they lost it, often with a phone etc. it could have been dozens of places if they didn't realise until much later.

Trooperslane · 15/02/2017 16:46

I posted on behalf of DH yesterday.

He found a phone in the street on the way to work. We couldn't physically get to the police station until tomorrow.

He could see very recent activity from "Mum" and charged it in work (it was low) hoping that someone would call.

At lunchtime a cross "Mum" called the phone and when DH answered she said "WHY HAVE YOU GOT DCS PHONE?!"

He said that he was very glad she'd called and where could he meet someone to give it back?

She met DH off the train with a handful of twenties which he of course refused to take.

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, op!

Palomb · 15/02/2017 16:47

The police have much better things to be doing with their time than fannying about with lost property.

NewUserName01 · 15/02/2017 16:51

Very irritating. My son lost his phone at an ice skating rink. We checked lost property and no one had handed it in.

When we got home (an hour's drive away) I put it into lost mode and got it to display a message saying, "Thank you for finding this phone, please contact us on ..." and someone phoned to say they had it - they'd seen it on the floor and taken it home. Why? I appreciate the fact they got in touch but it could all have been sorted out so much more quickly if they'd just handed it in.

LiviaDrusillaAugusta · 15/02/2017 16:51

ZOMBIE THREAD ***

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 15/02/2017 16:56

I have handed money into the police station before now, and the person who took it in was perfectly happy to do so - no suggestion that they were too busy to deal with such a minor matter.

And when dh found a lost dog, with no collar, and rang the police station with a description of the dog, to say that we had found him and were handing him over to the SSPCA (he had been hit by a car and needed to see a vet and taking him to the OOH vet would have cost us £140+), they were happy to log the information - and equally happy to pass on the details to the owner of the lost dog when they rang the station - and as a result, the dog was reunited with his owner.

mumonashoestring · 15/02/2017 16:57

Suppose it depends where you are - in a big city then YANBU (although I found someone's phone on the bus once when it rang on vibrate down the side of the seat and the guy who'd lost it wanted it handed in to the bus company).

However, in the small community where my parents live there's a very active FB group where people share lost and found items, no police station for 10 miles or so and a crappy bus service, so I can see how someone would be pretty pissed off at having to do a 20 mile round trip rather than trot a street or two away to get their phone/ring/wallet back...

myfavouritecolourispurple · 15/02/2017 16:58

This happens a lot where I am.

The power of social media is quite significant, and people do get things back!

Also, we don't have a local police station anyway.

But I do often think "well if you'd just left it where it was, they might have gone back for it and now you've busybodied and moved it so they can't find it". And not everyone is on FB.

GabsAlot · 15/02/2017 17:00

alot of people do it on our local fb page theve been reunited with their stuff most times

whats wrong with that

BuggerOffAndGoodDayToYou · 15/02/2017 17:02

I recently found something. I used Facebook as it was the night before Christmas Eve, nearest police station to me is several miles away with nowhere to park so I put it on Facebook knowing I wouldn't be able to take it to police until a few days after Christmas, PLUS the last time I did try to hand something in at a police station they weren't interested!

I found the item around 6pm. By 7.30pm it was back in the owners hands.

TeaCake5 · 15/02/2017 17:09

The police don't handle routine lost property any more

Slimmingsnake · 15/02/2017 17:14

I found a purse in BHS loos.£90 in it...went to hand it in at the desk and there was no manager about ,so took it home to the next town ,and handed it in at the police station..had her details in ,so I tried finding her on face book ,but there were so many people with the same name..police found her though.so all was good in the end

SansComic · 15/02/2017 17:16

Bunch of self praising wankers

Aren't you a cynical, hard-nosed arse!

It's always been my first thought too!

DoraDunn · 15/02/2017 17:17

I found a phone in the park one Sat lunchtime just before Christmas. There was no lock on it so I scrolled through contacts until I reached 'home' and called. The woman was very grateful, described her home screen and mentioned the small chip in the corner and picked it up about 15mins later. Most people I think, would have either 'home' or 'mum' or 'dad' in their contacts.

Witchend · 15/02/2017 17:21

Two recent occasions I have handed things (keys, purse) into the police station the person has ben in contact to thank me for handing it in. In on case they realised and went to theorise to ask, in the other case the police located them due to their gym membership card in the purse with a membership number on. They Didn't know where they'd lost it, but were very glad to get them back.

So the police not only accept it, but also do make concerted effort to get it back.

EweAreHere · 15/02/2017 17:31

I see people reunited with their stuff all the time on local facebook pages. Lost keys, watches, phones, toddler toys, etc that were dropped in parks/along walks to schools/roads, etc.

But Tesco parking lots? Yes, those should be handed in to the store.

Ordinarily · 15/02/2017 17:36

If police aren't always able to deal with lost property, there's a nice big gap in the market for someone to set up a national lost property database and storage business.

SoupDragon · 15/02/2017 17:38

ZOMBIE THREAD BUMPED BY SPAMMER

GangstaRat · 15/02/2017 18:06

I would always take a phone because I'd assume the owner would ring it. I wouldn't leave it because of the high chance it would get stolen.

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