Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with lostandfound

Help me find a taxi!

kmtiszen — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:04:35 -0800

Lost my camera in a NYC yellow taxi. Paid via Credit Card. No receipt. Can I track down the cab I took? So, I think I might've left my camera in a cab last weekend. The ride was paid for via credit card, so there must be some record kept somewhere of the transaction. I don't have a receipt from the ride, but I'd love to be able to track down the specific taxi/driver from that night.

How can I go about obtaining that information? Are they even allowed to release it? Does anybody have experience with a situation like this?

Any help is very much appreciated!

Thanks!

How do I deal with a friend's lost object?

fiasco — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:05:40 -0800

Friend said I lost something of his, asked me to replace it. What should I do now? The other night, several friends and I went out on the town. We then met up with another friend -- let’s call him Friend A – who drove us to another (and the last stop) bar.

Preface: I was on my way to becoming very drunk.

Friend A said he found his iphone charger in my belongings. I think that I might have grabbed it accidentally, mistaking his charger for my cell phone charger. He took it back; all was well.

Later, my friend reported that he lost his iphone. He asked me to search my apartment, etcetera. I searched my apartment high and low. I called the bar we were at and asked them to check the lost and found to no avail. I reported my findings to him.

Friend A then responded that he believes when I got out of the car to go to bar, he thought I dropped something. He assumed it was my phone and that I picked it up but he thinks now that it must’ve been his iphone.

I do not believe I dropped anything as I got out of his car. I was drunk at that point, but not annihilated. I feel that I would have noticed and/or retrieved said fallen object.

To figure things out, I asked my other friend (a third party – let’s call him Friend B) if he saw anything slip out with me. Friend B said he was getting out on the same side of the car as me and no, he did not see or hear anything fall out. He said if he had, he would have helped me out. Friend B also stated he never saw me with the iphone in my possession.

This all leads to my question. Friend A asked me to replace his iphone. I am not in a financial position to do so. I was pretty passive/helpful at first, doubting myself, and thinking it might have possibly been my fault, but at this point, I’m a little salty about the allegation.

I do not steal things. I have never stolen anything (except a piece of candy in a department store when I was seven) nor do I think it’s funny or mischievous to steal things when I am drunk. I have never been that type of person. I’ve heard about people who do that type of thing when loaded and I’ve always wondered where the humor or logic is.

Our friendship is important to me but there is no feasible way I can pay him. What is the right thing to do? How would you handle this situation?

How to to offer as a reward for returing a wallet?

otherwordlyglow — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:50:57 -0800

I lost my wallet yesterday and received a call from a man who found it and we're arranging for its return. Should I offer him a reward? How much? So I drove away from a parking lot with my wallet on the roof of my car. Went back 5 minutes later, retracing my route and couldn't find it. I canceled the 2 credit cards immediately and wasn't too upset about the whole thing. I don't think there's much cash in it and the wallet itself wasn't too valuable. So then I got a call from my doctor's office today saying someone called their office about my wallet. The guy who found it used the only thing in it with a phone number (my insurance card) to call my doctor's office and have them relay his number to me. So I called and yep, he has it. He even knew what my car looks like 'cause he saw me drive off and tried to get my attention by honking his horn but I must not have heard him. He was only here for the day but will be back in town next week and has offered to meet me somewhere to give it back to me. This is all super super nice of him. He went to some effort to track me down and will probably have to take some time out of his day to meet me. I'd like to offer him a reward but have no idea what's appropriate. My initial thought is that I'll offer him $20, does that sound fair?

Recover a lost bag

Manhasset — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 08:02:26 -0800

I left a black and white Freitag bag on a Dundas streetcar in Toronto last night at about 10:45. I have already spoken to the TTC about steps to recover it if it was handed to the driver. What are my best steps to get it back if another passenger kept it?

Please help me reach out to the person who found our memory card!

lioness — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 04:13:18 -0800

What would you do if you found a memory card? Have you found our memory card in Rome, Italy? We've lost our Sony memory card in Rome, Italy, during our vacation at the end of July. It probably fell out of our bag while sitting on the benches on Piazzale Ugo La Malfa, near Circo Massimo. It was in its plastic encasing, so it's fairly protected and a bit easier to spot than 'just' a memory card. We probably lost it on the 25th of July.*
I know the odds of the card being found are slim and the odds of retrieving it are even slimmer, but I really have to try for my own piece of mind.

So, if you're a Roman/Italian and found a memory card, what would you do?
Or, if you're a tourist in Rome and found a memory card, what would you do?

On which Italian or English websites/forums/boards would you post? Which site with advertisements do I have to keep an eye on? Where could I place advertisements myself? Would you bring it to the police (and how can I contact them if that's the case)? What is the Italian equivalent to Craigslist?

I want to maximize the odds that if there is indeed someone trying to find the owner of our memory card, he will be able to find us.
I'm already keeping an eye on Found Cameras and Orphan Pictures and I've posted an ad on The Found Bin and Lost and found now.

Last part of my question:
Can you help me write a short Italian version of this question I could post on the Roman Craigslist? The contact information you should mention is lostandfoundinrome at hotmail dot com.

Of course, I will gladly offer a reward to the person who finds the memory card!

Grazie mille!

*If any Roman living in the neighbourhood happens to feel very warm-hearted and compassionate and would be willing to go look on the Piazzale, he/she would earn my eternal gratitude and some great Belgian sweets!

Dude, where's my stock?

Thorzdad — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 12:34:40 -0800

Help me find my lost stocks Umpteen years ago, I came into ownership of a small handful of stock from a large insurance company. I can't recall why. It had something to do with my employer at the time and their health benefits package.

Anyway...I have utterly lost track of said stocks. I vaguely recall being able to log on to some online service to check the value. For the life of me, though, I can't even recall which service it was, let alone what my login might be. In addition, I've been going through our files, trying to find the paperwork that came with the stock. Nothing so far.

So...how does one re-connect with their long-lost stocks? Especially if I can't locate my paperwork.

Yeah...obviously, I'm pretty stock-management-illiterate

How do you know if a found pet is actually lost?

Metroid Baby — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 10:23:01 -0800

If you see a cat or dog wandering around outside, how can you tell whether it’s lost or just hanging out in its own neighborhood? If you can’t tell, should you act as though it’s lost or just leave it alone? I was walking in a residential area a few nights ago when a cat ran up to me and started meowing. She was one of the friendliest cats I’ve bumped into; she let me pick her up and even licked my nose. The cat obviously had a home somewhere, considering how clean, healthy, and at ease she appeared, but she had no collar or identification and I could not tell whether her home was nearby or whether she was lost. I eventually decided that if she followed me for more than a block, I would take her home and try to find her owner, but if she didn’t follow me I would assume she was a neighborhood cat, since most outdoor cats I’ve known don’t like to go outside their territories. She walked with me for half a block and then sat down on a lawn, so I left her alone. I suppose I made the right choice, but I have no idea. I didn’t want to steal a happy pet from her home, but on the other hand, what if the cat couldn’t make it back home?

If a cat or a dog has no visible identification, looks well-kept, and is in no obvious distress, is there any way to figure out whether it’s lost? I’m sure there’s no universal sign or test, but I’m wondering if there are any common cues that could help someone decide what to do when they see a pet roaming alone? And if you can’t figure it out, is it better to assume the animal is okay or to treat it as a lost pet?

I’m guessing the rules are slightly different for dogs versus cats; few owners let their dogs outside on their own, so I would have certainly been more concerned if it had been a lone dog coming up to me instead of a cat. And I know the absence of a collar does not necessarily mean anything, since most cat collars are designed to come off if the cat snags it on something.

I know dogs and cats often have great senses of direction and that “not all who wander are lost,” but I have also experienced the heartbreak of a pet simply disappearing without a trace. I’d like to help other pet owners avoid that experience if I ever have the opportunity.

It wasn't the lost cat she was looking for...

nyterrant — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 22:37:08 -0800

I 'rescued' a cat off the street today because it looked just like a cat I saw on a 'lost cat' poster. The missing cat's owner just came by and said it wasn't the right cat. Now what? The cat that I found isn't flea-bitten or anything, but it has clearly been without a bath for some time. Neighbors said it had been hanging out on their street for a couple of weeks, with various neighbors feeding it (I live about a quarter of a mile away). The cat has no collar. I'm not sure if it's a stray, but I'd guess so, given its unwashed state.

I only picked it up because it was a dead ringer for the cat on the poster, and now I am at a loss for what to do. I can't keep the cat at my apartment more than a night or two. Should I take the cat to animal rescue, or should I release it where I found it? Is there a third option?

If the cat I have wasn't really lost in the first place, I don't want to bring it to the pound and put it in danger of being euthanized. At the same time I'm loathe to release the cat back to the mean city streets if it really is lost. What should I do?

Need to find an old tape: Tribute to Baltimore's Memorial Stadium

conorlastowka — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 18:34:05 -0800

In 1991 when the Baltimore Orioles left Memorial Stadium, WBAL released a cassette tape of a tribute to the stadium. Hosted by a Dan Roderick, it was a sentimental journey through Memorial Stadiums past, complete with old radio broadcasts, readings from Field of Dreams and The Natural, and interviews. I had the tape, but lost it recently in a move and really want to track it down. Anybody heard of this tape or have an idea where I can find a copy or MP3 of it? I'd be forever indebted. It was called like 900 E 33rd St. It started with a jingle for "The Kids campaign" on WBAL. It had two sides. That's about all I know right know, other than that it was awesome.

The Potentially Rehabilitating Junky's Purse

blueneurosis — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 10:14:33 -0800

So I found something of considerable value on the Queens bound F-Train...now what? I spotted a tiny purse with no one around it. I looked around, seeing that no one seemed to be rushing back on board to snatch it, so I did what anyone with a longish ride would do.
I opened it up.

What I found:
-100 dollar bill and a penny
-vicodin prescription note (with number that gets a hospital's rehab answering machine, which was full of messages)
-one photography receipt for a roll being developed
-rolling tobacco papers
-social security card that matches the vicodin note's name
-loads and loads (29!) of single wrapped alcohol prep wipes
-three packets of sweet and low

So, gentle reader, what do I do?
If I return the bag to the MTA (the subway people), there's no way of knowing if the contents will get back the owner. They have been on an ad blitz to show that they really do have a lost and found department, though.
Should this person be a full-on junky, which the 29 prep wipes makes me think, giving the purse back in person would be a bad idea, as would giving a junky money.
If this person is legit about wanting to recover, they'll need the money, the prescript, and the social security card.

Geographically, this person is all over the place. The stop I got on and noticed the purse was in Brooklyn, the prescripton and roll of film receipt are both from Harlem, and the address on the prescript was in the lower 30s of Manhattan.

Since when has trying to do the right thing been so murky?

lose your camera?

luriete — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 15:41:35 -0800

Do you recognize any of these people? i found a digital camera. if you know any of the folks in these pictures, have them email me with the following info for the return of their very nice camera: tell me where & when I found it/where it was lost (city and particular circumstance), the size of the memory card, make & model and maybe identify some of the other folks on the card (not pictured) and i'll be happy to ship it home. I just feel bad for whoever lost their family photos. Thanks!

How far can I go to return a laptop to its owner?

Lazlo — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 09:36:07 -0800

Last week I was walking home from work and found a laptop in the street. How far can I go, ethically, to get this system back to its owner? It's a fairly recent, desktop-replacement class machine and looks like what you'd expect to happen if you forgot your laptop on the roof of your car -- badly scraped up, the screen is broken, the CD-ROM drive has snapped off. It isn't completely destroyed, though. It powers up and acts like it's booting but the VGA port on the back doesn't have a signal so I can't tell what, if anything, is actually happening. According to the case sticker it's running XP Pro so it's probably locked up tight anyway.

I would expect anyone who lost a laptop to want very badly to get it back. And the class of the machine and the location where it was found (close to a college, county courthouse, and law library) increases the possibility that there's data on this thing that the owner would not want to lose. The minute I got home I posted a FOUND notice to Craigslist, but nobody responded.

So here's the dilemma: I've had to recover data from dying XP systems more than once and know it would be trivial for me to pop open (what's left of) the case on this system, pull the hard drive, and (if it's still working) search it for something that would identify the owner -- an Outlook file with their email address, for example. But does the possible good of returning this computer to its owner outweigh the clearcut bad of looking at someone's private data? If the system belonged to an attorney, for example, that Outlook file could be chock-full of confidential work product -- but they could be in some serious trouble for having lost the laptop in the first place, making them really need to get it back. Or maybe there's legally shady stuff on the hard drive that the system's owner might suspect me of having rooted through, leading to who knows what.

I suppose I could turn it in to the police, but the chances of them making any effort to return this thing to its owner are close to zero. Unless a) it's been reported stolen, b) the owner gave the police enough information to ID the system and c) someone at the police department cares enough to try and match a theft report against a smashed-up, non-booting laptop, it's going to end up in a recovered-property sale or in the dumpster.

What should I do at this point?

Help me return a found wallet

O9scar — Thu, 19 Aug 2004 15:02:27 -0800

A construction person outside my apartment handed me a found wallet, asking if it was mine. It wasn't, but I decided to take it upon myself to find the owner. A white pages search turns up no phone # for the owner. Is there any option other than dropping it off at his home address, which is somewhat inconvenient?

Generosity towards yourself, what have you experienced?

ralawrence — Tue, 13 Jul 2004 10:14:35 -0800

Guy finds an iPod on the aeroplane and decided to track down the owner. What acts of human generosity towards yourself have you experienced?