Lost & Found; Would You or Wouldn't You?

Raskolnikov

The girlfriend was out doing some shopping recently. As she went to retrieve a trolley from the bay, she noticed a handbag on the ground. After opening up the expensive Louis Vuitton bag she found a wallet filled with credit cards, about €2,000, passport and numerous other valuable items. There was also a phone with an entry listed in the phone book labelled 'home'. After the girlfriend finished her business in the shop, she took the handbag home, rang the number on the phone. The woman who answered was the woman who had lost the bag, she arranged to then pick the bag up that very day. Soon afterwards, a BMW 5 series pulled up to our house. The woman got out, walked to our door and knocked. Asked for her bag, mumbled a single thank you and drove off home. We were both stunned at the ingratitude that this woman had shown. If the bag had fallen into more unscupulous hands, she could have lost close to €20,000 from the contents of her bag alone. Possibly even more considering the bag contained her house keys and address. At very least, I would expect vociferous thanks instead of being snubbed like that.

Another time, I found a phone on the DART, same situation, arranged to meet the owner to give it back. Out of my own time and expense I was left waiting 20 minutes before the owner arrived to claim it. As before, I got a barely mumbled thank you before the owner legged it. Had another incident on a train where I found £140 just sitting under a seat. Handed it into the lost and found and left my name and address. Money was claimed but I never even got a thank you letter.

The worst incident I've had was in an internet cafe on Talbot St. After using the computer I left my rucksack underneath the table and walked out. Realised I was missing it within 5 minutes. Came back and retrieved it. On the train home I went into it to look for my phone. It was missing. Same with my mp3 player. Convinced that the person running the establishment took my belongings since the place was quiet and I literally was only a few minutes with out the bag. The killing thing was that the phone was practically worthless (dodgy battery, monotone screen) and sim locked. Even the mp3 player was a relic, worth no more than €50. Even less since the screen was dodgy and the new owner doesn't have the charger.

My question, are honesty and gratitude lost traits in Ireland? Or am I just incredibly unlucky?

Cianos

Thats pretty annoying alright. Maybe the people were mortified and wanted to get out of there asap...but still, you'd think they'd show a bit more gratitude. I am usually the one losing stuff rather than finding stuff so I'd be very grateful to have someone like you follow me around:rolleyes:

biko

Good man for returning the possesions to their rightful owners.
Ergo, honesty is not a lost trait in Ireland. Perhaps gratitude is though.

zeusnero

First off - congrats OP, if only there were more honest people in the world!

I'm always doubtful about what I'd do in that situation (before hand) but when it comes to the crunch I've always handed everything back (earlier this year I found €10 on the groound outside a shop and knowing the owner would probably never claim it I put it into a charity box) I guess it's the feeling that what goes around comes around... And I've been very lucks, having wallets, mobiles etc returned to me.

One thing I can't stand is ingratitude, and those two situations where the people didn't even express thanks would have been infuritating:mad: ! Still honest is the best policy (and its own reward - I hope

bucks73

Gratitude is definitely lacking in this country. Its nice to be nice and a sincere thank you doesnt cost a penny.

Fast_Mover

Well done OP..good to know there's still genuine honest people out there!

If I ever find anything, il always hand it in somewhere. I'd like to think someone would do the same if i lost anything.

I don't think iv ever lost something that was sentimental or expensive, but if i did and someone contacted me, i would be so thankful to them, i'd even buy them something as a token of graditute. I was brought put like that. Obviously that woman who snubbed the OP when all he was doing was returning all of her belongings out of the goodness of his heart and the others he mentioned in his post were brought up without any manners! They are rude and ignorant! It doesnt cost anything to be nice!

Those sort of people make me so mad! Its becasue i'm the total opposite.
It even makes me mad (i live in the country) when i pull into a gap to leave an oncoming car up(they could have just as easily pulled into a gap at there side2) and they don't even salute or smile to say thanks..they just keep going as if they soley own the road. Il always smile and wave to someone who pulls in for me!

iv also several more car incidences where people are rude but it will only turn into a rant and il get angry:D

Stench Blossoms

I got into a taxi once and there was a phone on the seat. I told the taxi man and he said thanks and that it must have been the people who got out before me. He said it was a collection so he knew where they lived.

Anyway about 5 mins later the phones starts ringing. The taxi man asked me to answer it since he was driving. I did and i told the person on the other end that the phone was left in a taxi and the taxi man would bring it back to them.

Well..i have never been subjected to so much abuse over the phone. They screamed at me saying that it was their phone and how dare i answer it and that if the taxi man didn't bring the phone back straight away that they were going to call the guards. WTF? Hung up on them and handed the phone to the driver.

He said basically that they could go fcuk themselves now. Said that there was no way he was going to drop it back out to them and he was going to just drop it into the carraige office instead.

Caco

That sort of ingratitude is just uncalled for! It makes you feel that maybe these people deserve to have these things happen to them and the injustice of when it happens to honest people like OP who don't get their stuff back!

One day I was walking through a housing estate with my ex and we noticed a car with the keys left in the ignition and the doors unlocked. It was close to another fairly rough estate where quite a few scumbags live. So we decided to take out the keys and leave a note for the driver elling him he could collect the keys at my exs house around the corner. He came up to the house about an hour later and seemed happy enough that his car hadnt been stolen but he didn't even thank us or show any gratitude towards us when we gave him back his keys!!

I do think gratitude and honesty are a rare trait these days, it's such a pity and it pisses me off alot!

greenkittie

A couple of weeks ago i was having a bad day, had ended up lost in the north side of Dublin (which i don't know my way around at all) and was feeling totally stressed out. Somehow managed to drop 50 euros out of my pocket as i was walking along which at that point was all my money in the world. Some guy saw, picked it up and ran the whole way down the street to catch me up, gave me such a lift to know that there are still honest people about. I think i thanked him enough although i felt rather embaressed at being such an eejit

dudara

Caco wrote:

One day I was walking through a housing estate with my ex and we noticed a car with the keys left in the ignition and the doors unlocked. It was close to another fairly rough estate where quite a few scumbags live. So we decided to take out the keys and leave a note for the driver elling him he could collect the keys at my exs house around the corner. He came up to the house about an hour later and seemed happy enough that his car hadnt been stolen but he didn't even thank us or show any gratitude towards us when we gave him back his keys!!

I've done that a few times also, but I've always been thanked. People seem to be quite forgetful in the street where I live

Darragh29

Fair play to you and your gf for doing the decent thing. I can only imagine how annoyed you must have been with her pathethic attitude. At least you both saved yourselves coming into some seriously bad Karma! What comes around goes around and all of that...!

Darragh29

Something not unsimilar happened me about a year ago. I pulled into my local petrol station to wash my car, I always use the manual car wash with the pressure hose. Anyway, the water pump & liquids for the car wash machine itself is inside a fairly large steel box with doors on the front for access to the machine, taking out tokens and also I imagine for refilling chemicals, etc.

I put in my token to start the program and noticed that there was a huge bunch of keys in the door of the machine. Obviously the attendant had come out to put in washer fluid or something and locked the door but got distracted and forgot to take out the keys. Going by the size of the bunch of keys, I'd say every key in use in the garage was on this bunch of keys. I finished the wash and brought the keys back into the counter and gave them to the manager. He had actually left them there and couldn't have been more appreciative that I brought them in to him. He said himself if someone had've taken them, they could have come back at night and accessed every room in the station, till's and all... Some people are still graetful for the small things, this lad was anyway. He said if they had been lost, every lock in the place would have to have been changed.

irlrobins

Caco wrote:

One day I was walking through a housing estate with my ex and we noticed a car with the keys left in the ignition and the doors unlocked. It was close to another fairly rough estate where quite a few scumbags live. So we decided to take out the keys and leave a note for the driver elling him he could collect the keys at my exs house around the corner.

Agh, did something similiar myself. Left the key in the drivers door in a public car park in Malahide. Was in a complete panic when I realised about 2 hours later. Got back to the car park expecting to find the car gone. Nope, still there. Someone had seen the keys, taken them out of the door and placed them on drivers seat and covered with a duster I had. Phew!

So to whoever it was that did that, THANK YOU!

Returned the favour to a neighbour of mine on Monday. He had left his keys in the door of his classic merc. Took them out and dropped them into him. He was v grateful.

irlirishkev

I've found a couple of things the last few months.

First was a wallet at the side of the road. Had credit cards, personal items etc.. I dropped it into the local Garda station.
Second was a bunch of keys, again at the side of the road. There was a Tesco clubcard attatched, so I dropped it into the local Tesco and asked them to return them to the owner.

I wasn't looking for gratitude, but I'd like to think that someone would do that for me if I lost something.

I'm surprised to hear about all the ingratitude tbh..

Ruu_Old

Nice one OP. I found a cheque book once that had a blank cheque written out for £2000 and signed, very tempting. Just handed it into the Gardai. I think honesty is somewhat lost unfortunately.

raheny red

I find alot of times that I defeat my conscience, so I think I probably would've taken it

fobs

If I found a bag like in your situation would have done exactly the same thing. however if I found money on the street would not hand it in if it was up to 20 euro or so unless I saw someone dropping it then would tell them. Hard to know what i would do with cash but anything that would identify the rightful owner would be handed back.

Rb

Well done OP.
I've only found a handful of things in the past, but have tried my best to make sure they're returned to their original owner. The biggest I've found was a wallet with credit cards, £800punt, some IDs and a ring. Rang the owner, he came and collected it and all I got was a mumbled half-hearted thanks and he left.
I've never received much gratitude for any lost items I've returned to people, no matter what amount they'd lost or how much sentimental value the items held. That said, it won't stop me continuing to return anything I find in the future.

Gratitude may be dead but I don't think honesty is.

pbsuxok1znja4r

TBH you're doing no more than your duty by giving people back their own property so don't be all appalled for not getting in return whatever you thought you should have gotten. According to your story the lady did, in fact, thank you. How many thank yous would have been sufficient? I guess some people aren't very expressive or verbal with their gratitude, but considering the value of the bag and contents you should know the magnitude of the favour you did them and be satisfied with that. Anything less than returning their property and asking nothing in return would be screwing them over.

Returned a mobile phone or two to people in my time. No gratuitous displays of gratitude ensued but that didn't bother me. I don't need anyone else to make me feel good about doing something good.

Anyway whatever about gratitiude, but I think there are plenty of cnuts dishonest enough to find/take your stuff and say nothing. Like whoever stole my mp3 player at college last year :mad:

emeraldstar

i lost my phone twice and both times it was returned to me. Once was in a Spar in Dublin, one of the guys working there found it and rang 'Home' in Tipperary. I got a call from my mom on the landline ten minutes after i got back from the shop, telling me my phone was in spar...i hadn't even realised id lost it yet!! that was funny actually

the other time i dropped it on the side of the road and the person who found it also rang my house. When i got it back i saw he had also used it to ring a few other numbers, some of which were people i hadn't spoken to in years...they must have thought that was weird!!

I bought em a box of roses. that's the best reward i could get if i did the same for someone (total chocaholic, me!! )

cork-langer

speaking of lost and found... i found a girls passport this morning. No address on it as it is one of these new ones.
Was gonna hand it into the cop shop, but i thought what are the chances of her going in to this particular station to look for it..
Ill have to send it back to the passport office by post...

I'm a nice person.:D

littlebug

I found a 2 year old child outside (yes outside) a shopping centre a couple of weeks ago. I got someone to call the security people and sat down and chatted to the wee one til her mother and aunt arrived. The aunt was friendly and polite and thanked me while the mother just grunted, lifted her and walked off.

The wee girl was safe anyway.. I suppose that's the important thing.

Kimbot

I have always said if I found money on the street I would just pick it up and go!!
A few times I have found money right outside shops and instead of keeping it I gave it to the shop owner and it had been returned on all occassions with a thank you!!

Baggy7

I lost my bag before in a nightclub which had my passport, wallet, Ipod & apartment keys in. There was a knock on the door 2 days later saying a guy had picked up my bag by mistake (as he had one similar) realised his mistake the next day and actually brought it over the my apt block, used me keys to get into the building (very clever) and like I said knocked on my door. When I opended the door I was like who are these strangers at my door (he was there with his girlfriend). He started aplogising for taking it! I was so grateful to get the bag back and lucky !! I wanted to give him €20 but he wouldnt take it! The contents of my bad were worth way more. I was really lucky I guess.

wowy

One time out on the bike up by the Burrow Golf course near Stepaside I found a wallet. It had been cleared of all the valuables, and it was sopping wet but there was a card with the number. I rang the woman anyway cos it was a nice wallet, and she was so grateful because it turns out there had only been about €20 in cash, she cancelled her cards before anything was taken, and by getting her wallet back she was able to claim for all the work receipts she had in her wallet! I refused the €20 she offered, but she (cheekily!) put it in an envelope and through the letter box about 2 minutes later.

Another time I found a mobile on a night out. It was turned off, so I went to a Vodafone store and explained it. They said they'd contact the people, and told me to leave it in the local Garda station for them. I never found out if they got it, but an old man beside in the store said that it was great to see that there are some young people today still that will think of others. The stroking of my ego is better than any monetary award any day!

mikemac

Biggest item I've ever found was an engagement ring.
For the craic, I had a jeweller value it on day at lunchtime and it was worth approx €5,000.

Got €100 for handing it back so well happy with that.


When I was in college and worked as a hotel porter, I was in charge in lost & found.
Without execption, the more wealthy someone was, the more ignorant they generally were. This was my experience anyway.

So at the risk of getting flamed, I probably wouldn't have handed back the Louis Vuitton handbag if I was in OP's situation.

Nightwish

I am in charge of Lost and Found in work, and I always try return items to their owners. My wallet was lost in Dublin and I got it back with everything, so I appreciate how good it feels to get soemthing back.

cork-langer

littlebug wrote:

I found a 2 year old child .

you should have kept it!:D

Lurk

Raskolnikov wrote:

The girlfriend was out doing some shopping recently. As she went to retrieve a trolley from the bay, she noticed a handbag on the ground. After opening up the expensive Louis Vuitton bag she found a wallet filled with credit cards, about €2,000, passport and numerous other valuable items. There was also a phone with an entry listed in the phone book labelled 'home'. After the girlfriend finished her business in the shop, she took the handbag home, rang the number on the phone.

Hmmm This sounds a bit odd. Your girlfriend (or rather 'The' girlfriend) found an expensive bag, opened it on the spot, had a good look through, then carried it around with her as she did her shopping, only to phone the woman when she got home. If the woman saw her walking round the shop with her bag, wouldn't she immediately have presumed that the girlfriend robbed it? Why didn't she just hand it into customer service without even opening it? If it was me, I couldn't wait to get shot of it, just in case.

DaDa

Taxi drivers get a hard time, and my expereince with them is pretty poor I have to say.

However about 2 years ago ...24 hours before heading off on a 6 week trip to the U.S. I get a phone call at lunchtime from a video store that I used to be a member of a long long time ago. They asked me had I lost my wallet. I said no I don't think so, but hold on let me check. Lo & behold... no wallet!!!

They explained that a taxi driver had called them trying to track the owner of a wallet down. The identifying item in the wallet he was using was the video store card that I carried. I had about 80 euro, Credit Card, Laser Card and Video card in there.

I had indeed been in a taxi out of town (Dublin) the night before but I had yet to discover the wallet was missing. Turns out the next passengers found it and handed it to him.

Now on his day off he had called the video store and asked them to pass on his mobile number to me if they could track me down. They did. I called him, and he insisted in driving out to me to hand it back. Met him about 1 hour later... I was extremely grateful, gave him 20 euro which he was happy to get.

The hassle he saved me was phenomenal. I was flying to U.S. the next day with only 100 dollars in my pocket as I was happy to rely on Laser & Credit Card.

Not only did I encounter honest passengers, a video store worker who bothered to follow up and an honest taxi driver, but a guy who went to a bit of effort to find me and track me down quickly and go the extra length to drive out to me on his day off.

When he pulled away from the kerb I was literally left standing there completely stunned at how lucky I was to have those chain of events go my way and that he trip to the U.S. had no interruption!

In this day and age it's nice to be reminded of what it is to be a human living together on this planet.

pbsuxok1znja4r

Actually I once left my phone in a taxi. When I rang the phone the tosser actually requested that I give him money, i.e. to get it back from him. He didnt exactly ransom it or anything but he'd a brass fucking neck to ask me for it. He didn't even have to go an inch out of his way to give it back to me. I'd have given it to them anyway, and I did, but in this case only to get my phone back.

DublinWriter

OP - I wouldn't worry about the old bag (no pun etc), just think of all the Karmic Club-Card points you collected.

pbsuxok1znja4r

^LMAO @ Ban Badges

Terry

this comes up every so often and i revel in the telling of the time i found a wallet with about €300 in it and no ID whatsoever and it was right outside my house.

damn right i kept it.

Brian Capture

julep wrote:

this comes up every so often and i revel in the telling of the time i found a wallet with about €300 in it and no ID whatsoever and it was right outside my house.

damn right i kept it.

hard man.

Terry

where do you get that idea from?
or are you just throwing out random insults?

i liked you better when you had your head stuck in a fence.

Dave!

The other day 3 girls handed in €20 to a manager in the cinema I work in, saying they found it in the screen. The manager told them that if it's not claimed in 2 weeks, they can keep it, but they insisted that it doesn't matter, they don't want the money.

Idiots.

Gone West

Lost & Found; Would You or Wouldn't You?

would I or wouldn't I what?
To prank call her on her own phone and give her abuse, or to not bother and simply flog it on straight away?
I would, yes.

DublinWriter

julep wrote:

this comes up every so often and i revel in the telling of the time i found a wallet with about €300 in it and no ID whatsoever and it was right outside my house.

damn right i kept it.

Really? The lack of any id/video library membership/Tesco ClubCard/Mastercard/Visa/Organ Donation Card/workplace swipe-card would probably suggest to me that that the wallet belonged to an O.A.P.

Drinks are on you then, and you can 'revel' us with the story all-over again.

I remember watching a documentary on the Airport Police in one of Florida's major airports in the late 1990's. 'Entrapment' as a law enforcement technique is legally acceptable in the USA, so what they did was place a purse with a small amount of cash inside in a public area of the airport.

If someone found it and 'walked', they arrested them.

When the documentary maker asked the Sergeant why they were doing this, the reply was 'well, if the finder didn't report it, they're basically a dishonest person and deserved to be arrested'.

To me they just looked like an airport police force with too much time on their hands.

But I think all that's changed post-9/11.

Terry

DublinWriter wrote:

Really? The lack of any id/video library membership/Tesco ClubCard/Mastercard/Visa/Organ Donation Card/workplace swipe-card would probably suggest to me that that the wallet belonged to an O.A.P.

Drinks are on you then, and you can 'revel' us with the story all-over again.

nah. my old man always had ID with him.
still. too late now. that was a couple of years back and that money is well and truly pissed up against a wall by me and my friends.

Dave!

DublinWriter wrote:

Really? The lack of any id/video library membership/Tesco ClubCard/Mastercard/Visa/Organ Donation Card/workplace swipe-card would probably suggest to me that that the wallet belonged to an O.A.P.

Drinks are on you then, and you can 'revel' us with the story all-over again.

I remember watching a documentary on the Airport Police in one of Florida's major airports in the late 1990's. 'Entrapment' as a law enforcement technique is legally acceptable in the USA, so what they did was place a purse with a small amount of cash inside in a public area of the airport.

If someone found it and 'walked', they arrested them.

When the documentary maker asked the Sergeant why they were doing this, the reply was 'well, if the finder didn't report it, they're basically a dishonest person and deserved to be arrested'.

To me they just looked like an airport police force with too much time on their hands.

But I think all that's changed post-9/11.

Surely the person who "walked", could just argue that they were going to give the purse into a police station rather than the airport authority. Is there a law about having to hand money into the nearest authority?

Setun

Found a rolex and about €50 sitting in the locker rooms of the golf club where I work a while back. My mate ran after the guy who left them behind, who just got in his car and proceeded to drive off.

Feck!n golfers. I'll rob a packet of pro v's on him next time.

snickerpuss

If i find anything i always give it back because i hope someone would do that for me.

I once lost my wallet, i checked the shop and they didn't have it so i had to cancel my credit cards.

Turns out this chick found it in the changing room and took it home with her, then looked up my surname in the phonebook and called all of them (theres only 3) til she found one who knew me. So my parents went and picked it up because they'd got the call at home when i was out.
Only thing was they checked everything was in it and i had condoms in there.

GAA widow

bad form on the rich b***h's part for not giving some kind of reward. my brother found a wallet and credit cards before and handed them into the bank - he got a really appreciative call from a woman who insisted on forwarding him a thank you card and 20 euro (big bucks for a 12 year old at the time!)

DublinWriter

DaveMcG wrote:

Surely the person who "walked", could just argue that they were going to give the purse into a police station rather than the airport authority. Is there a law about having to hand money into the nearest authority?

True, but as I wasn't in charge of the airport police in that particular Florida airport that carried out the sting operation I can't really dispute your point.

DublinWriter

On a related note, about 10 years ago I was walking down Lincoln Place in Dublin towards Merrion Sq. when I noticed a 'chavtastic' guy about ten paces in front of me ducked down and picked up something from the pavement.

What was it? He proceeded to go postal. It was a bank-fresh one-inch thick bundle of 50 punt notes still fresh in a bank wrapper.

He started leaping about the place, going "look what I found" and "I bet you wish you had been here 5 seconds earlier Bud!".

A tazer, a tazer, my kingdom for a tazer. There must have been at least 10K worth of punts in that bundle.

theTinker

Im impressed with you OP.

I ALWAYS give the stuff back and refuse to accept any reward out of a matter of principal. That 20k woman though is a complete washout of a person.
Ive had people go on for 15 minutes about how thankful they are that i gave them back a ****ty phone or something, showing a nice level of gratitude makes it completely worthwhile imo. Usually its the more personal things like phone numbers n stuff in the phone but i found a wallet once with 160€ in it. Found the person over the next few days who it belonged to. She was SHOCKED that it was all there and really grateful. Offered a reward but as i said i dont take them, I feel great enough about being decent to another person. Ive never had someone not show it meant alot so i dont consider graditude lost at all.

theTinker

DublinWriter wrote:

I remember watching a documentary on the Airport Police in one of Florida's major airports in the late 1990's. 'Entrapment' as a law enforcement technique is legally acceptable in the USA, so what they did was place a purse with a small amount of cash inside in a public area of the airport.

If someone found it and 'walked', they arrested them.

When the documentary maker asked the Sergeant why they were doing this, the reply was 'well, if the finder didn't report it, they're basically a dishonest person and deserved to be arrested'.

I could understand if they left a fake baby or something as bait, at least you could catch real criminals but a purse is just absolute nonsense

Trinity

What a waste of time and resources baiting dishonest people. They didnt exactly steal it could they charge them?

Found a purse once full of money, handed into shopping centre security, left name and number never heard a thing.

another time found car keys still in the boot of a car in ballymun shopping centre, handed them into security, they chased me next time i was in the shops to say the guy was so so grateful and he left ten euro for me. I was mortified so spent the tenner on cakes for the security guys.

lad walking in front of me on way into shop in ballymun dropped 60 euro from his pocket a while back i called him and gave it back, he was shocked, he said oh my god you are so honest!!

wouldnt have it any other way, he couldve being buying food or medicine for his kids or something is the way i see it!!.

Dave!

he coulda been buying heroin! lol

Trinity

DaveMcG wrote:

he coulda been buying heroin! lol

God dammit i never thought of that. Still though, i'm not too sure that supervalue are stocking that just yet