Thanking the Anonymous?

August 1, 2012 8:10 PM

My girlfriend lost her purse with just about everything in it several weeks ago. It was found, with everything intact (phone, passport, SSA card, credit cards, $200 wallet, etc) and found it back on our front porch 2 weeks later. How can she thank everyone involved? How can we find out who to thank?

As the story went (details are sketchy), someone found the purse, found her car insurance card in the purse, called her insurance company to let them know. The insurance company called her mom (the insurance holder), who let them know it was hers.

The purse somehow got dropped at the post office, the post office looked up her latest forwarding address info (we had just moved), and the mail carrier dropped it off at our house.

posted by sandmanwv to society & culture (8 answers total)

Pay it forward. Do something nice for another stranger. Buy coffee for the car behind you in line; volunteer some of your time; make a donation to an organization.
posted by quodlibet at 8:13 PM on August 1, 2012 [18 favorites]

Even though the purse came back, she should be alert to any signs of identity theft. You don't have to keep someone's physical cards to have kept their numbers.
posted by zadcat at 8:19 PM on August 1, 2012 [6 favorites]

Quodlibet's got it, absolutely.

However, if you definitely want to try and thank the people involved, then one option is to put up a "found" sign near where it was lost, probably with a picture. If you're lucky it'll be somewhere that the random person goes by frequently, and seeing that sign (especially day after day) would be a nice thank-you.
posted by Lemurrhea at 8:21 PM on August 1, 2012

Tip the mail carrier. Leave an envelope addressed to the mail carrier ("To the mail carrier who returned my purse" would work) with a gift card and a nice thank-you note in it in the mailbox.
posted by erst at 9:04 PM on August 1, 2012

Keep the gift card for the carrier to $20, though - they aren't allowed to accept more.
posted by Iris Gambol at 9:29 PM on August 1, 2012

Regarding the amount on the gift card that post officers are limited to; who's checking such things?
posted by oceanjesse at 10:51 PM on August 1, 2012

Regarding the amount on the gift card that post officers are limited to; who's checking such things?

I imagine the mail carrier wouldn't want to be put in the position of having to decline a gift because it's prohibited and also because it probably isn't worth the risk to their job to accept it.
posted by loquat at 11:14 PM on August 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

You may never find out who the anonymous finder was, but would your local newspaper print your thanks to all concerned in a letter to the editor? Old fashioned and cheesy, but oh so sweet.
posted by Catch at 8:01 AM on August 2, 2012 [7 favorites]