Lost and Found

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Weedygarden

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This topic is one I have been fascinated with for most of my life. For me, it is not just an ethical thought, but also having an idea about what to do if you do find or lose something. It may not be a life and death situation now, but it may have been for others. Values and ethics play strongly into this, but strategy does as well.

It is also about training. If your parents ever lost or found something, how they handled it rubbed off on you.

If someone drops or leaves something behind, does it truly belong to the person who finds it? Is it Finder's keepers, losers weepers?

And if you lose something, what are the strategies to finding it? Can it be found? Was it stolen? Does it matter?

What do people lose? Keys, wallets, phones, cameras, bags, dogs, cats, other animals, rings, watches, money, glasses, suitcases, and more.

The most valuable thing I have lost, that I can remember, was a pair of prescription sunglasses. I retraced my steps, have asked, and have never found them. I think I left them at Home Depot one evening when I was teaching. I asked at the service counter, and they were not turned in. They were of little use to anyone else, unless they had the lenses replaced with their own prescription.

I looked and watched on Craigslist Lost and Found as well. Nothing.

If someone cared to get them back to their owner, they would have been left at the service counter. They never were.

I lost a purse when I was a teenager. I was visiting a relative at an air base and my purse was later found in a ditch close to the PX where it went missing.

I have shared this story, on the previous forum about finding a very large gym bag in the middle of a multi-lane freeway, early in the morning. I had research to do, but I found the owner. It belonged to a girl who played on a softball team that was on it's way to National's in Nevada. The bag was worth more than $1,000. How did I find out whose it was? There was no name on anything! I saw the uniform with the team name and searched for that team on the internet. I found it. Then I looked into the site and contacted someone whose number was listed. It was determined whose bag it was. I arranged to meet someone and return the bag.

What have you lost, and what have you found? What strategies do you use to find your lost items or to return items you have found?

The other thing, how well are your items labeled that you would like returned if they were to be accidentally dropped or lost? I have a 4 x 6 zippered pouch that I keep in my purse with lip conditioner, band aids, tweezers, etc. I also keep my extra cash in there and it is no small amount. I do need a new plan for where to keep my cash. I misplaced that pouch just a couple days ago. Yikes. I looked and looked for it, and thought maybe I had dropped it in a parking lot after I used the lip treatment. I found it in the console in my car. I have no idea when I put it there, but I do keep a small tackle container that is divided into 5 sections to keep coins sorted, so I can grab exact change when I want it. I must have gotten coins out, took a $20 bill out of my pouch and put them both in the console.

When I was looking for the pouch, it occurred to me that there was zero identification in or on it. I am going to make some laminated basic information cards with first name (maybe) and phone number. I will do this for a few items (purse, backpacks, etc.). I should have done this long ago. It occurs to me that I could make up a few of these for gifts as well. I have plenty of cardstock, lamination, laminator, and rings for attaching them.
 
Several months ago, our neighbor had her purse stolen out of her truck.....since the freeze and cold, the weeds are down, and hubby found her purse in one area and her wallet in another....money was gone, but her papers were very important as she is from Old Mexico and needed her papers....we returned it all to her...glad we found it....
 
I have lost and found things. I always try to find the owners if possible. If owner can be found I never consider it " finders keepers,losers weepers" . Thank Goodnees our dogs were found because somebody cared enough to look for their owner's. We put our notices everywhere on poles, websites and got message out.
Man mowing grass found my wallet on side of road and police brought it to me a year later. Thief had stolen the money and threw the wallet out. By then of course I'd replaced all important papers.
 
That is true. That would be really bad from what I've heard it is hard to fight that kind of theft.
I have heard that as well. I had a student whose parent's identity was stolen and their financial affairs were a mess. The mother told me they think when they applied for refinancing their home, that one of the people who working at the mortgage company stole it. Can we be too careful?

A friend had her house broken into in the middle of the night and her purse was stolen with her Social Security card in her wallet. A couple years later the IRS contacted them because someone was using her SS number and they (friends) were not reporting the income.

Where do we keep things like Social Security cards and Medicare cards?
 
I keep my important papers in the safe.
Also keep two week supply of medicine in case something happens.
Also keep other medicine under lock and key.
Friends daughter told me one medicine I brought home from surgery would net me $1000 a pill.
I have approx. 100 pills.
If I ever wanted to sell let her know.
Instead I called another friend who works DEA told him what she told me.
They'll be watching her from now on.
DEA friend said she was close on price, more like $1500a pill.
But she knew enough to warrant a closer look.
 
I keep my important papers in the safe.
Also keep two week supply of medicine in case something happens.
Also keep other medicine under lock and key.
Friends daughter told me one medicine I brought home from surgery would net me $1000 a pill.
I have approx. 100 pills.
If I ever wanted to sell let her know.
Instead I called another friend who works DEA told him what she told me.
They'll be watching her from now on.
DEA friend said she was close on price, more like $1500a pill.
But she knew enough to warrant a closer look.
That would be $100,000 or up to $150,000 in meds!
Meds are often stolen from senior citizens. Keeping them locked up is wise. I would be concerned about my home being broken into and the meds stolen.

I have a cousin who I now know has bottles of med's that have other people's names on them. She has done nails as her career (LOL!) and goes to the homes of her older clients. I'll bet she works her clients over in more than one way. This is why medications like that should not be kept in the medicine cabinet.
 
That would be $100,000 or up to $150,000 in meds!
Meds are often stolen from senior citizens. Keeping them locked up is wise. I would be concerned about my home being broken into and the meds stolen.

I have a cousin who I now know has bottles of med's that have other people's names on them. She has done nails as her career (LOL!) and goes to the homes of her older clients. I'll bet she works her clients over in more than one way. This is why medications like that should not be kept in the medicine cabinet.
Yep,hence why I turned her name over to DEA friend.
 
We had our house on the market a few years ago and I haven't seen my only small but valuable jewelry since. Did I forget where I put it and it is still packed? Or did that one woman steal it because I forgot to hide it all? Two wedding rings, small birthstone necklace and earrings.
We have found things before and it has always somehow found its way back to its owner, including a game ram and dogs.
I don't like seeing random shoes lying in the road.
 
I have lost things and been great full to get them back. My favorite pocket knife has been lost several times and found months later. In my younger years I worked at a ski resort and got things out of the lost and found. Rich kids did not care about stuff, thier parents would just buy them new gloves.
 
We had our house on the market a few years ago and I haven't seen my only small but valuable jewelry since. Did I forget where I put it and it is still packed? Or did that one woman steal it because I forgot to hide it all? Two wedding rings, small birthstone necklace and earrings.
We have found things before and it has always somehow found its way back to its owner, including a game ram and dogs.
I don't like seeing random shoes lying in the road.
If you had any open houses, it is possible your jewelry was stolen. It has happened and been in the news. Hopefully, you will find it some day.
 
I don't keep anything that isn't mine period.
Always turn things in.

Me too. Hubby said I'm honest to a fault. One day while shopping I found 3 suit cases inside a large suitcase. I told hubby, look at this some thief tried ot steal these extra suitcases. Hubby said' I think they go together'. I said no they don't took them out and bought the large one. Went back to store for other things and found out he was right,they were a set.:eyeballs:. Of course I didn't try to get the rest of them,it was months before.
 
That would be $100,000 or up to $150,000 in meds!
Meds are often stolen from senior citizens. Keeping them locked up is wise. I would be concerned about my home being broken into and the meds stolen.

I have a cousin who I now know has bottles of med's that have other people's names on them. She has done nails as her career (LOL!) and goes to the homes of her older clients. I'll bet she works her clients over in more than one way. This is why medications like that should not be kept in the medicine cabinet.

When I saved meds I put them and script container inside air tight 1/2 pint canning jar and put that in a wide mouth qt jar then buried it in the ground.
 
I found a cell phone today and was able to return it to the owner within 10 minutes. That was great.

Last week there was a bunch of stuff laying in the road, a road that I travel frequently. It is a back road. I knew I could be running over the stuff for days if I didn't stop and pick it up. There was a well-used hatchet, a cane, and a metal tape measure. The tape measure had already been damaged, so it went into the trash. The hatchet will go in the garage with my axe, and the cane will go into the coat closet. If I had any way of figuring out or finding the owner, I would. I don't think there is much of a chance of that.
 
I found a bike once. It was stashed on my patio. Some kid tried to get in the house when my wife was home alone and claimed it he was just looking for his bike.
She sent him packing and told him to come back when I was home. The stupid kid did come back but by that time I had contacted the police and they gave me the number of the guy it was stolen from. I gave the thief a little street justice but the guy that owned the bike really tuned him up. He was beat pretty bad, I almost felt sorry for him , almost.
If I find anything I always try to find the owner and I taught my kids the same thing.
 
When I saved meds I put them and script container inside air tight 1/2 pint canning jar and put that in a wide mouth qt jar then buried it in the ground.
The challenge to that is, if something happens to you, will they ever be found by anyone? There were a number of people, known to my grandparents, who began burying money in canning jars after the bank failures of 1929. It was known that some of them died without their jars ever being dug up or their location identified.
 
The challenge to that is, if something happens to you, will they ever be found by anyone? There were a number of people, known to my grandparents, who began burying money in canning jars after the bank failures of 1929. It was known that some of them died without their jars ever being dug up or their location identified.

I know for a fact my grand parents did the same thing. Papaw found some jars, but admitted to me he never found a few.
 
My cousin is finding some silver her mom left around the house. It's not much but a few coins here and there, but nice to have.
Word to the wise, don't get rid of any books until you go through each and every page.
Great grandmother on dad's side would scotch tape pages together and hid money in the taped pages.
When dad and I went through house after she died( she left it to us) we found about $10 grand, cash in $20's, Silver certificates, Confederate money.
Maps that were torn up that you had to piece back together where she buried money in mason jars.
She was all kinds of fun.
 
Mo that lady had it going on. I love hearing stories like that. When my grandma passed, she had told my mom to go thru her chest freezer very well. Mother found several plastic containers marked Mixed Greens that had several thousand dollars in them. They were mixed in stacks of actual mixed greens she had frozen. Had to check each tub in the freezer. There was other stuff to, but that was the best story.
 
Word to the wise, don't get rid of any books until you go through each and every page.
Great grandmother on dad's side would scotch tape pages together and hid money in the taped pages.
When dad and I went through house after she died( she left it to us) we found about $10 grand, cash in $20's, Silver certificates, Confederate money.
Maps that were torn up that you had to piece back together where she buried money in mason jars.
She was all kinds of fun.
We talked about going through books and papers but tearing up a treasure map and taping pages together are fantastic tricks. I think I'd have liked your Great grandmother.
 
Word to the wise, don't get rid of any books until you go through each and every page.
Great grandmother on dad's side would scotch tape pages together and hid money in the taped pages.
When dad and I went through house after she died( she left it to us) we found about $10 grand, cash in $20's, Silver certificates, Confederate money.
Maps that were torn up that you had to piece back together where she buried money in mason jars.
She was all kinds of fun.
I love stories like this. The challenge would be if there were a house fire and the map would be burned up.

My grandmother kept important papers in the freezer part of her refrigerator. It is my understanding if there is a house fire, the contents in the freezer will survive. I have hard that some thieves are aware of that as well.

I like to keep $20 bills. I fold them into groups of 5 ($100) so that I can look at a glance at how many packs I have and know how much money I have.
 
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