My wife found a wallet.

[MineralMan]

While walking Dude, the beagle/basset mix, this morning, she found a man's wallet lying next to the street on a strip of grass near our home. She brought it home, and we tried to ID the owner from the credit cards in the wallet, but the name was too common. So, she called the local police department and they sent a car out to pick it up. Shortly afterwards, they stopped by again and told my wife that they had found the house where the person lived, but he was not at home. So, they'll try again later.

I'm guessing that someone had stolen it, taken the money out of it, and then tossed it out of a car window. I suppose its owner has already contacted his credit card companies and cancelled. I guess we'll never know.

The only time I ever found a wallet, it was on the street near a garage sale. Probably fell off the roof of a car when the woman who owned it drove off. That time, though, I could find out who it belonged to from the driver's license. I went to that address, knocked on the door and gave it back to her.

Anyone have any other wallet finding stories?

[srican69]

1. No .. but I have lost it a few times.

[RebelOne]

8. Me too.

I canceled all my credit cards. But months later, I received a bill from American Express for a purchase made in Caracas, Venezuela.

[RebelOne]

2. Yes, I found a woman's wallet in a grocery cart.

It was early in the morning, so I think she just forgot it. I turned it into the grocery front desk. I hope it made it to the owner.

[raccoon]

64. Maybe I was the owner...once that happened to me and someone returned it.

except it was in a grocery basket, not cart.

[Mojorabbit]

113. My husband left his in the cart at costco

and a woman turned it in to the counter. She did not leave a name which was a bummer cause we wanted to do something nice for her. It saved us a world of phone calls and paperwork.

[onehandle]

3. When I was about 19, I was at a Wendy's, left my wallet on my tray...

...and when I got up to get napkins, somebody took it.

I didn't notice it was gone until I was done eating.

Found it behind the Wendy's, sans 23 bucks, everything else in place.

[anneboleyn]

92. Me too. All of my cash from a week's worth of work was stolen

(I was going to deposit the money in the bank). I was a teenager at the time, trying to save money for college, and some person returned the wallet with my driver's license but sans all cash, to our house.

[Just Saying]

4. I've never found a wallet.

But I had mine found once!

I was working a booth for Democracy For America at a street fair in Cleveland and when we went to get a snack, I dropped a small wallet with cash and credit cards inside. Someone found it and gave it to the guy who ran the food booth who tracked me down after we'd all gone home and called me to return it. Gives me faith that there are lots of good, honest people in the world.

[MineralMan]

6. Nice!

[warrior1]

5. Good deed

I lost my wallet at an outing and was frantically calling the last place I had shopped.

My door bell rang and it was the father of the man who found it and drove to my home to give it back intact.

Made my day

[MineralMan]

7. That's what I hoped to hear.

I can't imagine not trying to get a wallet back to its owner. I just have to think about the hassle of losing mine, and I'd always take any found wallet back.

[Tom_Foolery]

10. When I was a kid...

I had a lawn mowing service. I found a wallet in the yard of one of my customers. I knocked on his door and gave it back to him.

[Politicalboi]

11. No wallets but money

A 10 or a 20 from time to time just lying on the ground waiting for someone to pick it up. In my case, finders keepers unless I saw the person drop it. I remember once near Halloween time, a friend and I went to one of those scare parks that pop up here and there. We had just been through the room with the strobe lights, and it was over. I looked down and just happened to see a $20.00 bill just sitting there all dirty and stepped on. It needed help. This was 1980, so it was a big find. Could fill up my tank a few times with that.

[dionysus]

21. i found 80 bucks lying soaking wet underneath a bush this spring near the sidewalk.

if I see someone drop money i'll give it to them, of course, but if it's lying there with no one else around... nice score!

[Puzzledtraveller]

42. $20 in middle of street

It was between the store parking lot and a video store. I looked around and there was noone. I even asked in the video store if anyone reported missing money. I felt it was unearned but I kept it. I was 16 so I was happy for it.

[dionysus]

46. $60 blowing in the wind. sophomore year of college, 1996...this kid no one really likes comes runnin

into the dorm lounge, all excited. "guys I just found 20 bucks!" he's waving it all around.

i'm like hmmmm, go out on the balcony.. start looking around... see some more bills blowing around. lower myself down from the balcony and retrieve $60.

kid's still gloating in the lounge when I walk back in "Hey Ian, I just found 60!" he was PISSED

(one of the reasons no one liked him was he like to fill an empty beer bottle up with piss, replace the cap, keep it in his fridge, and try to give it to drunk people...)

[shenmue]

12. I found one, when I was a kid

I took it home and told my folks, who called the police.

[shraby]

13. Found a checkbook on the ground in the parking lot at the store..took it to it's owner who lived in

town. She sure was glad to get it back before she had to tell her husband she lost it.

[Nay]

14. I have a happy one! My 8-yr-old son and I were at a community college where I was

registering for the next semester. The place was jammed with people registering; halls were crowded. We sat down on a bench inside to wait our turn. My son says, "Mom! Look!" and he picks up a fat wallet that was partially under the bench. I can see that it is absolutely STUFFED with money - mostly hundred-dollar bills. It probably had $3,000 in it. The driver's license in the wallet was of a foreign student.

We got up and went straight to the admin office to turn it in, thinking I should get a receipt, etc., so as to keep everybody honest. As we stood there, the student entered the office, shaking and pale, to report his wallet was gone. Son and I said, "We found it!" and it was handed over to the owner. He started to cry so hard he could barely see. He started shaking my hand, but I said, "It was my son who found it for you -- he's your hero, not me." And he shook my son's hand up and down, up and down, crying the whole time. It's one of our nicest memories.

[MineralMan]

16. Excellent! That student must have been overjoyed.

[Nay]

20. He was. Lots of the foreign students back then (the 80's) got a money order or transfer

from their parents in their home country, and since they didn't trust banks, they carried cash around a lot. He was probably carrying a whole semester's worth of tuition, book, rent and food money in that wallet. He was sweating bullets.

[TBF]

15. Lost mine in college & another student found it

and called to return it. Nothing was taken & they refused to take a reward. There are still some good folks out there, at least there were 25 years ago!

[MineralMan]

17. I think there still are plenty of good folks out there.

[dionysus]

18. once i found a zipped leather bag on the ground right outside of home depot. it didn't look like

a traditional wallet, so I looked inside, yup, money and cards of some kind. so I go stand in line at the service desk to turn it in (it was busy). several minutes later, as I hand the wallet over to the customer service person the old lady who lost the wallet and husband get in line, I can hear them talking about it. as I leave I stop and tell them "I think I found your wallet, I just turned it in to the service desk".

I was expecting some sort of relief or a thank you, but the woman actually glared at me and says something like "well that COULD have had all of someone's CHRISTMAS MONEY IN IT!". well yeah lady, that's why I returned it!

it was kind of depressing.

one other time, I found a young girls license laying on the sidewalk near my house. I drove to the address on the card (fancy neighborhood!), and dad answered the door. he made the girl come downstairs and thank me, and made me take 20 bucks which I tried to refuse... but he insisted on it so I took it.

[MineralMan]

19. Well, that was a lousy response...

Uff da!

[dionysus]

24. not all people are nice... but one time my mom saw a young lady leave her purse in a shopping cart

while leaving the grocery store, she caught her in the nick of time as she was driving away, and the woman was practically on her knees, thanking her profusely.

[CrispyQ]

22. I was walking home from the grocery store early one Sunday morning.

I was in the cul-de-sac across from our house. There was a woman's wallet on the ground, precisely at the rear of my neighbor's SUV. It was clear it had fallen when they were unloading the SUV. I checked the ID & it was hers. I rang the bell. They must have first thought, what the hell? It was barely past six in the morning. We're they relieved!

I found a wallet on the bus once & gave it to the driver.

[MineralMan]

23. So far, I've never lost my own wallet.

I hope I never do.

[dionysus]

27. i have.. it's desperation time. luckily, it was in the house.

apparently while I was changing pants, it fell out of the back pocket, and tumbled under the bed. but it managed to land upright, unfolded, behind the leg of the bed.

it was camouflaged so well it took 3 passes with a flashlight to find. I felt like a tool.

[MineralMan]

28. I switched mine to a front pocket, since it was

causing numbness in my leg when in the back pocket, since I have "no discernable butt," as my wife tells me. It's a lot harder for it to fall out now.

[dionysus]

35. yeah, almost impossible to lose it from that pocket... i got so much crap in mine it'd be too

cumbersome...

[MineralMan]

43. I did have to thin mine out to do that.

It works great, though, and solved the leg problem completely.

[dionysus]

48. whenever i get a new one, it's nice and thin.. but it grows over time.

just not with money

[Beacool]

120. Yes, more than once.

Once in FL when I was in my late teens. I drove to the address and gave it to the woman who lost it. She was quite grateful.

Another time it was a man's wallet and he met me to retrieve it. Another relieved person.

I have also found purses and returned them.

Personally, I had a thin long black wallet that I lost 4 times, but it was always returned. I dropped it once at Stern's (which no longer exists). I noticed it missing when I tried to pay for something at CVS and couldn't find it. The mall had closed by then, so I went home. When I got home there was a message on my answering machine. A customer had found the wallet. I went the following day to retrieve it (everything was in it).

Another time I dropped it at Macy's. Someone had returned it and it was in the lost and found. Everything was in it, except my monthly PATH train card that I had just bought the day before.

One night I left it on the counter at Quick Check and ran back when I noticed it missing right before they closed. The guy at the register saw me running in and waved it at me. Again, a customer had found it.

The last time I left it at the A&P. I grabbed my bags, but left the wallet behind. That time I thought I had really lost it. I even went to the police station to report it lost and was about to go to get another driver's license when the phone rang a little before midnight two days later. It was the manager of the A&P apologizing for the late hour, but he wanted to let me know that one of the employees had found my wallet hidden in a stack of newspapers. Some weasel had taken it and taken the money out of it, but left everything else behind. Since I had less than $5 in it, I didn't care.

That was it, no more black wallets for me. I went to Macy's and bought an apple green wallet. I've had it for years and have managed not to lose it even once.

[Agschmid]

25. I always lose mine...

It always falls out in public bathrooms when I sit down my jeans must move in some specific way that lets it fall out.

Horrible place to lose it but I've actually always been able to recover it, intact.

One time during college it was on the floor of the bathroom for over 3 hours (good thing it was the library and the top floor, no one else went there apparently).

[Jenoch]

26. When I was about 10 years old

I lost my wallet at a carnival. It had maybe 5 bucks in it. I got it back because a lady from our church found it (I don't know where) and she called because my name and address were written on the inside. The money, ID, and my credit cards were all missing.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

29. A 10-year-old has credit cards?

[Jenoch]

32. That's my small attempt at humor, you caught me.

[PDJane]

30. I have lost my wallet at Disney world.....

And had it returned, with everything in it.

I have also found a wallet, late at night on a very snowy evening, on a table outside of the St. Lawrence market. Agnes and I were on our way to a local restaurant for dinner. We found everything in it, including money, decided that the thing hadn't been there long, phoned the woman's cell, and she met us at the restaurant. We had her check the money, she told us everything was there, and that it must have fallen out of her coat pocket when she sat on the table; she thought it was still in her pocket!!

[MineralMan]

31. Two more good stories. Thanks.

[mnhtnbb]

33. I have two wallet finding stories.

First one--out walking my dog--Honey-- in the park across from the townhouse complex where I lived in Woodland Hills, CA, in the mid-80's. It was early in the morning--about 6 a.m.--found the wallet just lying on the sidewalk. It had money and credit
cards in it. I didn't want to take it to the owner--a male--so I took it to the local police station. They were
astonished to see the cash in it when I gave it to them.

The owner came to my door a couple of days later--which bothered me because it meant the police gave out
my address (single woman living alone). He didn't offer me a reward, but wanted to thank me in person.

Second one--we were living in Lincoln, NE in the late 90's and one of the guys who had cleaned out the gutters on our house came
back and said he had lost his wallet that day. Had we perhaps found it? Could he look for it? He went all the way around
the house--no wallet. A couple of days later I noticed Tanya, our dog, had something in her mouth out in the yard. I went
out to see what it was and it was the wallet! LOADED with cash--must have been several hundred dollars in it. Called the guy
and boy, was he happy to get it! He brought a box of Milk Bones to give Tanya as a reward when he came to pick up the wallet!

[MineralMan]

34. Nice. More evidence of honesty and gratitude.

Thanks.

[lpbk2713]

36. I found a purse in a grocery store shopping cart about a year ago.

I stayed close by in the parking lot until a bag boy came near and told him about it.
I didn't want anything to do with it.

[MineralMan]

39. If I find stuff at a store, I take it to the customer service counter.

They all have lost and found drawers, and will try to contact the owner.

[Jenoch]

90. My mother had a had

a habit of noticing when women would walk away from their grocery cart and leave their purse behind. She would then stop her shopping and watch that cart until the lady returned. She called it guarding the purse. I don't think it occurred to her that anyone would accuse her of anything, and nobody ever did.

[Puzzledtraveller]

37. Found a wallet in the seat of a shopping cart

when I was a bagger it had quite a bit of cash as you could see the edges of the bills but I did not remove anything. I turned it into the manager and they called the owner and it was retrieved with a heartfelt thanks.

[MineralMan]

40. Exactly the right thing to do. Thanks!

[LibertyLover]

38. I didn't find a wallet

but one day I had gone to the post office to mail a package to a friend for her kid's birthday. When I got back to my car, for some reason I looked down and there on the street was a large, chucky gold charm bracelet. So I took it back into the post office where they took my name and address, and expressed surprise I had turned it in. I just looked at the clerk blankly and said it wasn't mine. About a week later I got a lovely thank you card in the mail from the owner and a very pretty butterfly necklace, that was so totally not my style. The necklace was more geared for a young teenager, which I was most assuredly not. Oh well, it was the thought that counted. I would have been totally fine with just the card.

[MineralMan]

41. It wasn't yours. Isn't that the basic principle?

Thanks for doing that.

[olddots]

44. I found a wallet 26 years ago near our house

Inside the wallet there was a expired driver's license ,no credit cards and about 90 dollars that was separated into smaller stacks .
This reminded me of how I would put money for bills in my wallet and I knew this guy needed this money --in a way he was me .

I got a phone number through information for the name and address and called , his wife answered and I told her about the wallet and how I wanted to return it --she started crying ,I started crying then we arranged to meet .They guy wanted to give me money ,I wouldn't take it and he started to cry which set me off -----geez what a bunch of honest working class fools but it felt good to be an honest fool.

[MineralMan]

45. Thanks for doing that. You made that guy's day, I'm sure.

For a lot of people, $90 is a huge sum, and the loss of it could be a real problem.

[angstlessk]

47. Not a wallet, but once a teller at a drive up window gave me 100 instead of 10

I usually pull up for the next driver to pull in and discovered the error and had to drive around and wait in line to let her know the error..she was very thankful...

Another time my husband and I had gotten a sandwich at a local joint and when we got home we discovered the person had given us change for a 20 instead of a 10 or 5...it was too much change..we went back to give the money back and the clerk was frantically counting the drawer and told us to wait..so we patiently waited till her frustration grew and she stopped counting..then we presented her with the money (I am sure she was looking for)

My mother was so honest, she found a 20 dollar bill on the floor of a pharmacy and promptly gave it to the pharmacist...thinking he would find the owner...he was $20 dollars richer that day!

[MineralMan]

50. Good stories of honesty.

It matters.

[kentauros]

49. No, but as far as having something on the roof and then driving off,

I do have a story, of a prank

Back in the 90s, I put some magnetic sign material on the read-side of a dead 1.25" floppy. That then went on either the roof or the rear boot hood. I can't tell you how often I had to mouth "It's a magnet!" to helpful and/or concerned drivers as we were on the freeway. I guess some of them thought because the floppy was read magnetically, that it was also magnetic enough to stay on at 50+ mph

I did the same to an old CD, and one woman never believed me, continuing to point it out to me as she exited the freeway.

I'd like to revisit this prank with a coffee cup, a thick steel washer, and a rare-earth magnet...

[MineralMan]

54. A friend of mine and I pulled a prank

when we were about 12, back in 1957. My father had some two-part epoxy glue. We borrowed it, and glued a 50-cent piece to a sidewalk in the downtown area of our small town one evening. The next day, we went back to watch what happened. We chose the four bit coin because it was worth something then.

The antics of the people passing by on the sidewalk were hilarious. Today, we'd have captured it for YouTube videos. People tried to pick up the coin and, failing, they'd kick at it or crouch down to try to pry it up. A couple of guys got their pocket knives out and tried to break it free from the concrete.

The coin lasted for three days, stuck to that sidewalk. Eventually, though, someone brought a cold chisel and broke it free. You could see the chisel marks on that sidewalk for years afterwards.

My friend and I enjoyed way more than 50-cents worth of fun from that prank.

[kentauros]

58. The simple pranks are often the most fun.

Y'all did a good job at making it last, especially with the lasting chisel marks!

[MineralMan]

70. That same friend and I played many pranks over the years, but

that one was one of the best.

[Jenoch]

95. We did that with a dime,

and some superglue. We glued the dime to the floor of the hallway outside the choir room in high school. It was thin enough so that it could not be kick loose with a shoe.

[kentauros]

105. I remember a Candid Camera episode where they put a $20 bill

under a car wheel, with half of it out in view. Seems like someone had a floor-jack in their car and retrieved it successfully

[Jenoch]

112. When I was in college we lived

in an apartment with three floors. We were on the third floor with a balcony that overlooked a courtyard. We took a dollar bill and taped to a big washer, George facing out. We took a second dollar with the backside facing out and taped it to the other side. We attached this to a fishing line and cast out onto the courtyard. This only worked for one afternoon, but we had people bending down for that dollar before we yanked it away. Of course it's childish. That's what college is for.

[Jenoch]

94. A friend of mine

superglued a lunch box to the trunk of his beater of a car. He said it was to deter tailgaters.

[kentauros]

99. Great idea! Did it work? :)

I like the use of magnets, though, because you can then move the object around or even use different objects. That way, if you drive a regular route people along the same route don't automatically think it's glued on.

[Jenoch]

109. This was a long time ago.

I think there was a party at his house and some drunk who shall remain nameless may have yanked the thing off the car.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

103. found a wallet on the strip in Vegas

with $1100 in it... and a driver's license. looked around to see who might have dropped it because i was sure it could not have been there long, but it was a really crowded evening and no one looked like the guy in the ID (but as bad as those pics are sometime, hell, it could have been me!) spotted a police cruiser and handed it over. don't know if it ever made it back to the person who lost it. he was from WA.

sP

[sunwyn]

51. I found a purse last year while leaving Costco

From the way it was laying in the parking lot I think the person left it on the roof of their car and drove off. It was filled with credit cards, perscription drugs, and a wad of cash. A nearby shopper told me I should take the cash and leave. I couldn't believe he said that! I turned the purse in and found out later it belonged to a 73 yr old woman who had stopped to pick up a few things after her husband's wake. It also contained her dead husband's wedding ring and pocket watch. I was happy I had found that purse and not the person who advocated stealing the money from it...

[MineralMan]

55. Good for you. I'm sure it meant a lot to the owner.

[loli phabay]

52. a few years back i was climbing in the shenandoah national park when i lost my wallet

I didnt even know it was gone, that night i went on a wilderness rescue for an injured hiker on the Appalachian trail. During the extraction another hiker approached me and askedif he could turn in lost property to me to give to the rangers when we got off the mountain as he was hiking the trail and didnt know when he would see one. I said sure and went to give him a receipt then realised it was my wallet that i had not even realised that i had lost. Small world indeed.

[MineralMan]

57. Cool coincidence.

[loli phabay]

59. yup the guy was from canada and saw the lights from the rescue vehicles and wandered over

I find it amazing the coincidences i see in life, in some way we are all connected.

[tabbycat31]

53. When I worked in retail

I was at the CS desk at a big box store. When wallets, cell phones, etc were found, we were where we turned them into.

In the case of a wallet, the first thing I would do is look through it to get the owner's name then page him/her on the PA system. Then we would try and look the person up to locate him/her about the wallet. More often than not, they would come back (retracing their steps) and we were able to reunited the wallet with the rightful person.

In the case of a cell phone, I would look for 'home' in there and call that number. If that fails, I would call in the phone book that they seemed close with (ie 'Mom') and tell them that we have the person's phone and where it was. This was before the day and age of locking smartphones.

We kept them locked in the store safe overnight.

[MineralMan]

56. Yeah, I think that's typical. I routinely turn in things like glasses, and

other stuff that I find in supermarket parking lots. I assume people will come back to look for them.

[Jenoch]

96. My dad left his cell phone

in a store he often shops in. He realized he lost his phone and called it, but it was already in the store's safe so noboy heard it. This was a Friday. On Monday, I called that store to discover they had it. Of course my dad could not wait that long so he had already replaced it with a new one.

[tabbycat31]

102. We never kept cell phones in the safe

Simply because very few had access to it (I did the cash office and needed a manager to open it). Wallets overnight, yes.

We had a change drawer behind the service desk (locked) that we kept things like that in.

[Jenoch]

110. This was the middle of the day and somebody had access to the safe

so fast we were unable to retrieve the phone before it was sealed up.

[justiceischeap]

60. When I was a kid, I'd just moved to PA from MO

and had gone back the following summer to visit friends. My wallet was full of my money for a month (not very smart but I was only 13). I lost it outside a bowling alley and someone had found it and tracked me down at my grandmother's--with all money still inside.

[MineralMan]

61. Excellent. I'm glad the money was returned.

[madamesilverspurs]

62. Found a bank bag full of cash and receipts.

Turned it in to the owner of the store where I'd found it; turns out it belonged to the delivery boy for the newspaper, and he got it back. Then - same day - I found a wallet as I walked home from that store; I recognized it as it belonged to a neighbor I babysat for, so I dropped it off with her as her house was on my way home. That was around 1956.

Didn't find any more wallets after that. But I did find a baby in 2000 . . .

[MineralMan]

65. A baby? We have to hear that story.

[madamesilverspurs]

108. Serendipitous, really.

I'd walked to the grocery store and wound up buying more than I'd intended, totally forgetting that I was on foot. Given the extra bags, I took a shortcut through the alley, and that's where I found her. She was barefoot, wearing only a diaper and shirt; I guessed she was about 14 months old. What with all the detritis that customarily litters alleys, I picked her up and carried her the half-block to the nearest sidewalk. We stood there for about 15 minutes, I was hoping to hear someone calling a name; when it became clear that no one was looking for her I took her to my place and called the police. I was just finished changing her diaper when the officer arrived. Long story short, she was presumed to be sleeping when her grandmother stretched out for her own nap, and the little imp took the opportunity to go exploring.

I did have to call my mother and tell her about this. Back in 1949 she was awakened from her afternoon nap by loud knocking on the door. She was stunned to find the milkman standing there with year-old me perched on his hip. He'd found me sitting in the middle of Denver's Colfax Avenue waving at cars. She says that Dad declined to cover my crib with chicken wire, but he did accede to her request for high locks on the doors.

[HangOnKids]

63. Took My Daughter The Santa Anita Horse Race Track A Few Year Ago

I gave her a $20 voucher and let her make a few $2 bets at the self serve machine. When she finished she got her bet tickets and then hit finish to get her remaining voucher. Holy Shit, the voucher was for close to $12,000. I knew immediately what happened and the person who bet prior to us on that machine had not cleared out their bets and their remaining voucher was still active in the machine. I waited by the machine with that voucher in hand, hoping the owner would come back to the machine. No such luck.

I then took her straight to the admin office, before we reached the door we could hear loud voices and we sort of guessed the owner of the missing voucher was seeking help/advice. We came in and said we found a remaining voucher balance in a self serve machine. The owner was indeed in the office and I swear he almost threw up. He gave us a very nice chunk of cash as a reward and Santa Anita gave me a pass for free admission and parking, the pass is good FOREVER.

We won the next 4 races as well. Good day at Santa Anita!

[MineralMan]

66. Great story and great response from Santa Anita!

Honesty pays!

[jpak]

67. Lost my wallet at the beach and it ws found 12 years later

with my 2 dollars in it!

[MineralMan]

68. Amazing! 12 years.

Of course the dollar had lost value by then.

[BlueCheese]

69. A couple of us once found a wallet in a coffee shop.

The driver license inside had an out-of-town address, but a somewhat unusual last name. Without a phone number, we played a hunch and called 411 and asked for the last name. There was only one entry, which we called. It turns out the wallet's owner was visiting a relative in town, and didn't even realize she had lost her wallet. They were so surprised to get the call they didn't start wondering how we found them until they were on their way over.

[angstlessk]

71. What a great post...some made me teary eyed n/t

[MineralMan]

72. Lots of great stories in this thread.

Thanks for being part of it.

[Liberal_in_LA]

73. I know people who had their wallets stolen, Others find it in the trash with money missing

I found a wallet in the street, where cars park, fell out when woman got into car. Phone numbers inside were to her family in another state. I called them, they called her. She was soooo thankful, almost could not believe it was being returned.

[MineralMan]

74. I know I'd be very happy to have a lost wallet back.

I might already have cancelled the credit cards, but I'd still be glad to know it hadn't fallen into the wrong hands.

[Liberal_in_LA]

78. getting the drivers license back makes life easier.

[MineralMan]

79. That's true, for sure.

[sakabatou]

75. Never have

And my wallet's tied to my bag (which I've never lost).

[MineralMan]

76. Clever to secure your wallet, I think.

Smart.

[sakabatou]

77. Yup

[murielm99]

80. My daughter lost her wallet.

She lost it in front of the Midwest Akido Club. Someone looked inside the wallet and found her membership card to that club, and turned it in there. They called me, because I was the first contact number in the wallet. I called her. She was already in the process of changing all her cards. I am glad I got to her early.

I found a wallet at a concert. I saw the woman drop it. I ran after her and gave it to her. I think she was a bit drunk or high, which was why she did not notice when she dropped it. I am glad I got to her before she disappeared into the crowd.

[MineralMan]

81. Good outcomes in both cases.

[RobinA]

82. Found Two Things

Of value. Once at the beach I found a man's billfold by the side of the road with nothing but 100 dollars in it. Turned it on to the front desk of the place I was staying.

Another time I worked retail and found a massive set of keys in a pile of sweaters. Called store security and gave it to him. The next day he comes back and tells me the guy came back looking for them. They were the keys to the gas station he worked for. He told the security person to thank the person who found them, which he did. What he didn't tell me was that key guy also gave him a $20 "for the person who found them." Dishonest, rat bastard security person. Who would have thought. Well, me...

[MineralMan]

85. Well, you were honest, even if the security guard wasn't.

I hope he choked on the $20 or something.

[NJCher]

83. I found one in a grocery store parking lot

and couldn't reach the owner by phone so I sent her a note in the mail. Next thing I know, she was in my driveway hugging and kissing on me which would have been ok except she was a heavy smoker and smelled like hell.


Cher

[MineralMan]

84. Sometimes gratitude stinks, I guess.

Still, good for you.

[NJCher]

117. the no good deed rule!

Cher

[Whiskeytide]

86. When I was 16, I worked...

... at a college bar cleaning up before I had to go to school each morning. Me and another guy. We weren't paid much, but the perk was that we found money pretty regularly. Some mornings I'd leave with an extra $5 to $10. The best place to look was under the pinball machines - you wouldn't believe how often drunk college students dropped quarters there.

Anyway, one morning the other guy found a wallet with $30 in it. He took the money out, stuffed it in his pocket and tossed the wallet in the trash can. I said no way, you can't do that, and we argued. He offered to split the money with me (usually we kept our own finds - even competed over it). I said no. I fished the wallet out and brought it to the manager that afternoon, and he later told me he got it back to the guy who came looking for it that day.

I didn't rat out my co-worker on keeping the money, though, and I have always felt a little guilty about that. He had a tough home life and I knew he used his money for things like food, clothes and family bills - I used mine for teenager shit like dates, albums, and burgers - and I respected that about him. I just couldn't bring myself to do something that might get him fired. And I figured the college guy would be happy enough to get the wallet back. Jeez. Even at 16 I was rationalizing!

[mia]

87. The contents of my wallet were returned to me with a letter of apology.

Earlier in the year my purse was stolen when I was eating at an outdoor restaurant. A few months later I received an envelope
containing most of the contents of my wallet (license, SS card, photos). With it was a note from a mother who said that she had found my wallet in her son's room. She said that she was very sorry and ashamed that her son had my things. There was no return address. I hope the mother felt some relief in the act of making amends for her son.

[PDJane]

89. I am a diabetic, and sometimes, if I forget to eat, I get a bit forgetful.

I had punched the ATM machine for cash, turned around to walk away, and then realized I didn't have the money. I turned back, and there was a young black man about two meters tall looking with this really bemused expression at the hundred or so dollars in the slot. He turned to look at me, started to smile, pulled the money out of the slot and handed it to me......then ruffled my hair. He told me to go eat.....I must have had a peculiar look on my face! He said, "My mom does stuff like that when she hasn't eaten."

Funny. Good looking young man, too.........

[onethatcares]

88. while metal detecting in a playground

in Gulfport FL, I found a wallet with some cash and credit cards in it. It was early in the morning so I drove to the address on the drivers licence and put it in the mailbox (had to be unlocked to open)and left.

Two weeks later there was a story in the GulfportGabber about the person being so happy to get it back.

I've never told the person it was me, best to pay it forward and keep my mouth shut.

[AgingAmerican]

91. I found one when I was a kid

It was in the alley we used to walk up on the way to the corner grocery to buy candy. It had ID and cards and stuff, but no cash. She said it had $80 in it when she lost it, but she gave me $10 for returning it! I was a happy camper, ten bucks was a lot for a little kid in the early 70s.

[leveymg]

93. Saw a purse fall off the roof of a car, $400 inside - they were headed out on vacation.

This was before cell phones, but the manager of the apartment complex was able to get in touch with her. Saved their holiday!

[OregonBlue]

97. I lost mine and had it returned years later.

In 1981, when my son was very young, we drove a car across country for a friend. His dad had died and I brought the car back for him. He sold the car and gave me a nice bunch of money in cash. I had not even had time to go to the bank and we stopped to get gas. My son, who was 3 at the time, jumped out of the car and was almost hit by another car. Shaken, I put him back in the car and drove off. After I had gone several miles I realized I had thrown my wallet on top of the car when I chased after my son. It had $1,500 in it which was all the money I had in the world.

The next day was my son's birthday and all my friends pitched in and gave him a very nice birthday with lots of presents. I had to borrow money from family and friends just to get a place to live and get by until I found work.

A couple of years later (and after I had moved a couple of times) I got a knock on my door. There were two young boys who said they had been walking by and saw a package under my bushes so they got it and knocked on my door. The package had been partially ripped open and was very soggy and had obviously been under the bushes for a week or two. No return address.

Inside was my wallet with all of my old I.D. and credit cards, no money. There was a note inside in a shaky hand, like it was written by a very old person. It said "Sorry, it took me a while to find you and I needed the money but I wanted you to at least have your wallet back".

Since it was not a Washington license, I have no idea how that person ever found where I lived. I was out the money but it was a nice wallet so I was glad to have it back. Of course none of the I.D. or credit cards were good any more.

[hay rick]

98. Found numerous wallets.

Thirty plus years as a mailman. Evidently a lot of thieves toss the wallet into a post office collection box after they remove what they want. There was often some kind of id left in the wallets. I always turned in the wallets to the supervisor and told him in which collection box I found it. The post office would contact the person and they could pick it up or we would mail it to them postage due.

[pokerfan]

100. Memo to self

Put a contact number in my wallet. It won't work if it's found by an asshole, but most people aren't assholes.

[Eleanors38]

101. Good deeds = good society. Still trying to figure out

how to figure out how to return an old iPod I found last yr. Apple won't take it, police aren't interested. Any ideas?

[geckosfeet]

104. I lost mine once. The people who found/took it racked up some credit card debt.

I was not liable as called the card companies fairly quickly. But they basically had everything. I am surprised that my identity was not stolen. But, given that they went on a buying spree at local store (not even online) and made no attempt at discretion my guess is that they were rank amateurs or even kids who found a wallet with credit cards.

[matthews]

106. My son found on a couple of years ago in the Old Market.

The guy must have just lost it because when my son called him, he asked him to meet him in front of Spaghetti works. The guy was there waiting for him when he got there. It was only a block away. So he must have been scouting around for it.

It was a young kid and it only had $11 in it. That must have been all he had to his name because he we thrilled to get it back with the money still in it.

I wonder, when a lost wallet is returned, how many people get their money back. My son would never take it considering he's lost his wallet more that once and NEVER got it/them back. So he knows it feels. But he also lost his I.D. and everything else. This kid got it all. I wonder if he was lucky or if most people who find wallets return everything including the money.

I left my purse on a bus once and it had 365.00 in it. I got the purse and every dime back. That's why I wonder about this.

[TroglodyteScholar]

107. I foind a wallet once

The address on the DL was across town, so I just stuck it in an envelope nailed that sucker. Did t even bother with a return address since I didn't want the guy thinking I was seeking a reward or something.

I'd totally forgotten.

[Adsos Letter]

111. Not exactly a wallet finding story

but your mention of someone leaving a wallet atop a car, and then driving away, reminded me of an incident...

Many years ago I was in one of the armored cav regiments tasked with patrolling along the West German border. I was part of an FO team, which entailed (among other things) driving around in a jeep with a lieutenant, a map case, a pair of binoculars, and a pair of PRC 77 and AN/VRC-12 radios.

One day, during a REFORGER operation, we stopped at the side of a rural road in order to scope the countryside. We got out of the jeep, and the LT started futzing around with the binocular strap around his neck, which was in the process of strangling him.

Anywaayyyy...in order to get things straightened around, he also removed from around his neck a lanyard attached to a blue, pocket-sized, NATO code book used for encrypting radio communications. Normally, the book itself stayed in one of the wearers shirt pockets, with the lanyard around the neck ensuring that the two remained inseparable (supposedly). Losing one was something of a big deal, to put it mildly.

So, for reasons unbeknownst to me, he also removed the code book from his pocket, and set both lanyard and book atop the canvas top of the jeep (I didn't actually observe him do this, he told me of it later). It remained there while we spent some time canvassing the terrain, and remained there (apparently) as we got back in the jeep and sped off up the road. About 15 minutes later, he realized the code book was no longer on his person...

We backtracked, and found the thing off in the gravel and weeds at the side of the road, so no damage done. Still, I think he about ground his teeth down from the tension until we found the thing.

[Ruby the Liberal]

114. I had my passport stolen once while out of the country

What a nightmare.

Ever since then, I have photo-copied everything in my wallet + my passport and kept a copy in my safe here, and with my relatives in case I need it. Nothing like losing ALL of your ID and having to prove who you are.

[ManiacJoe]

115. Leaving for home, I found a wallet on the floor of a parking garage at work.

It was in a reasonable spot to have rolled off a car roof after being forgotten. Lots of money and credit cards inside. The lack of company cards/IDs suggested it belong to a vendor from whatever event was going on that week. I called corporate security. Someone came to collect it. I stuck around while the contents of the wallet were inventoried and radioed in.

[Thor_MN]

116. Found one at Century College, before the MS150.

Registration time, bikes and luggage and buses, oh my!!! It was sitting on a bench, intact with cash, no one around. Waited 20 minutes as I had the time. Turned it into the ride organizers as it got closer to the time my ride up to Duluth was going to get there. Hopefully it found it's way back to the owner, there was plenty of ID in there.

[fishwax]

119. I once found a wallet with several hundred in cash--that was exciting

It had a driver's license with an address in my apartment complex, and the guy was certainly thrilled to get it back. He was in disbelief, actually. It was a good feeling seeing how relieved (and surprised) he was that the cash was there, because I could tell when he opened the wallet he was expecting it to be gone. It was his tuition, which was due the next day. He offered me twenty but I declined. A few days later I wound up behind him at the neighborhood convenience store, and he insisted on buying the snacks I was buying. (I consented.)

[KentuckyWoman]

121. Purse in a grocery buggy almost 50 years ago.

Grocery was locking up on a Saturday night when we were leaving. (Yes it's true they actually used to use those locks on the doors!)

Tried several different local police stations to hand it over with no success for various reasons so we brought it home. Dad called information and gave the name and address, was given the phone number and called to let them know we found the purse.

That lady's husband was a grade A jerk. They showed up at our house at 2 am. The man yelled at my father and stood there in front of everyone counting his wife's money and made her look to make sure we didn't steal anything. Would not surprise me to learn he was a wife beater.

We still talk about that in our family. Consensus is that doing the right thing was worth it because ya still gotta sleep with yourself at night.

[AsahinaKimi]

122. No..but...

Once while walking in a parking lot, I spotted two twenty dollar bills on the pavement. They were not near any car...and it just happened to be no one around. I was broke at the time, and was hoping I could scrape a few coins together to get a sandwich... now I could buy some items to bring home and make sandwiches for a week, and I did just that.


Yes, some times the Universe provides!