I had my purse stolen from my car about 15 years ago, never saw it again.

A couple of months ago my daughter, grandsons and I had breakfast at IHOP. DD put her purse under the table and it must have fallen over during the meal. My 8 year old grandson didn't think anything of it and just handed her purse to her when it was time to go. Later in the day we realized that her wallet was missing. Of course, we went back to IHOP and looked under the table, even outside in the bushes, in case someone had found it and taken the $400 cash and thrown it away. No luck. So, she cancelled her credit card and got a new ID and everything else that needs to be done in cases like that. About 4 weeks later she got a notice from the post office that there was a postage due envelope at the P.O. for her. She went and picked it up and found all of the contents of her wallet inside, except the money, and a note that said, "I needed the money". She was ecstatic and said what a great thing that person did by returning the other contents. I thought it was a sad commentary myself.

I found an envelope with $932 in it on my counter at work once. I gave it to my boss. The lady who left it there called in hysterics and I told her her money was safe, she zoomed in, got it from my boss and zoomed back out. She never said thanks to me.

I found a wallet in the road in town. Called the guy, he said he hadn't lost his wallet and I begged to differ with him. Told him what was in it and he soon stopped arguing with me. It had over a hundred dollars in it and when I gave it back to him he thanked me really nicely and then looked at me funny and asked me "you don't want a tip, do you?" That got my back up. I did a NICE thing, something I would want someone to do for me, and he pissed me off by treating me like I only did it for the possible reward. I told him I wasn't a waitress and got in my car and left. He should have stopped after "thank you so much."

If I ever found money that had some sort of ID in it, I would return it. If it was just lying in the street, I would scoop it up and keep it, unless I saw who dropped it. If I found it in a store, I would notify management but I would retain possession of it, leaving my phone number in case someone called in. Of course, you would never know if the caller was legit or an employee of the store. lol

I'm glad you got your purse back, Uxorial! What a lucky break. I hate that sinking feeling when something like that happens. I've never lost anything like that, but a couple of times I thought I had, no fun!

I left my purse in the seat of a shopping cart in the parking lot of the grocery store. The person who found it brought it to the service desk and they called me.

One December I was behind a young mother and her child walking into a Kohls? type store after work, $20 bill on the ground. I didn't know whether she had dropped it or not but, I did stop her and give it to her. She said Thanks and Merry Christmas.

Dropped my wallet in a theater. Didn't miss it 'til about an hour after the show. Went back. Clean up fellow had found it. Gave him a nice tip.
Was mugged once. Asked him to keep the money and give me back my wallet.... son of a gun, he threw the wallet at me.
Have found wallets and returned them intact.
Have found money on the street. The most was a $100 bill.
Kept it all.

Way back in the 1960's my DH and I were at a baseball game in Anaheim Stadium.....we had taken a bus trip with his aunt and uncle. After getting on the bus and half way home, I realized I didn't have my purse. When we got to the aunt and uncle's house, we had a message that someone had found my purse and wanted to mail it to me but asked for postage. Of course, I would pay postage.
When the purse was returned there was a little note stating that the man thought his wife had left her purse and he picked it up and took it and he was sorry for my trouble.
I was so happy and now keep a close eye on my purse.

I forgot this one. DH left his cell phone on the bumper of his pickup. I was the next one to drive the truck...it was gone when he realized what had happened. I kept calling the phone and finally someone answered. The man on the phone said "I don't know who you are calling but I have his phone." He told me to come to his house to pick it up, it was just down the street from our shop. I tried to give him $20 but he wouldn't take it, "Thank you is enough."

Last year i found a 20 in the aisle at walmart.My first instinct was to turn it in to the cashier(she was closest)then i thought,if i turn it into her,she'll probably just pocket it,so i stuck it in my own pocket,and considered it my lucky day.

So i say it depends on the circumstances. JMO
Kathi

I lost my billfold on an airplane flight...You know how you put your purse down under the seat...well it must have fallen out and I grabbed the purse and didn't even realize it was gone until several hours later...in the mean time my husband had a massive coronary and died ...I had so many things to take care of the billfold was the last of my worries...I only had 1 credit card in it so I cancelled it and forgot about it...about 3 months later, I received a package from a man who said he found it under the airline seat, right up next to the wall...we were on the last seat on the plane...he said that he worked as a maintenance employee and that the plane was in for a scheduled overhaul and he decided to just mail it back to me instead of dumping it in a lost and found because he knew there was no way to tell what flight I had been on or if I would ever get it back...As far as I could remember everything was just as I had left it in the wallet....including a love letter from my husband...I sent him a thank you note but it came back marked undeliverable...

Years ago I found a purse with a wallet in a phone booth. I call the owner based on the info in the wallet. She was an elderly lady on social security and had left the purse on top of her car and drove away. Who ever found it took all the SS money out of the wallet and dumped the purse in the phone booth.
She asked me if all of her money was in the purse and I told her no....she started crying.
I felt horrible, almost like she thought I took the money.
She sent her son to meet me an pick up the purse.
I just felt awful about the whole thing.
Trin

I found a wallet once. It was full of CC's and id but no cash. I mailed it to the name on the drivers license.

Recently I found a cell phone in the park under a tree. It looked as though someone had had a party and not cleaned up after themselves. Empty beer bottles all over. No one was around. The phone was still charged so I took it home and tried to figure out how to find the owner. Finally the phone rang and I answered it. It was a friend of the owner. The battery was going dead so I asked the guy to have his friend call me on my phone. Finally two days later he received the message from his friend. The owner came to pick it up. He was very relieved. Said he had loaned it to his 13 year old son and he had lost it. It was the family's only phone. I didn't tell him it looked as though sonny had a party. Figured the kid was probably in trouble enough for losing the phone. lol!

~Betsy

~Betsy

In the early 70's my parents was on a trip out in the west.
They had stopped at some lookout and don't remember why but mom had set her purse on bumper of truck. Later they drove off, they were a real long way down the road when she remembered. Of course when they went back it was gone and most of there traveling money in it. A few days later i got a call from a man asking me if i was this persons daughter and saying yes he told me had found her purse and my name in it. I had no way of contacting my parents why they were on the road so the man said, he was going to take enough money out of it to pay for mailing it as fast as he could. He said, he wouldn't have done that but at that time he was short money. I told him to take a reward from it before he mailed back but he said, no he would never do that. I took his name and address and in just a few days i had moms purse. When parents finally got around to calling home mom told me about loosing her purse and i told her i had it. She just couldn't believe it. When they got home mom mailed the man a thank you with a money order in it.
Last year we found a mans wallet in a Walmart shopping cart, there was quite a bit of money in it and i didn't feel i wanted to turn it into Walmart so i told them i had the man's walet didn't even give them the man's name but gave them my name a phone # and told them if a man called in asking about a wallet tell him to call me. In mean time i was calling all the numbers i found in his wallet to see if i could track him down. Finally that evening he called, and said, he would come and get it. He was in his 80's and we lived about 35 miles from him. I told hime i'd meet him half way. He was so glad to get it back. Told me he had lost his wife a few weeks before that and his mind wasn't on what he was doing. That's been a year ago and he and i visit on the phone once in awhile. He says he's so lonely.

A few of you have mentioned finding money. That reminds me of this story:

My Mom was born in 1926 and was a sickly child. During the height of the depression she was very sick, and Grandma took her to the Dr. which they really couldn't afford. He wrote out a prescription and warned Grandma that it would cost at least 20 dollars to fill it. A HUGE sum back then. Grandma didn't have nearly that much and was walking up the street to the pharmacy crying and praying wondering what she could do when a twenty dollar bill came blowing down the street and stopped right at her feet. She looked up expecting someone to be running after it, but, no one was paying any attention to it. It was like it was invisible to everyone but her.
Hard not to believe in prayer isn't it? IMHO

Interesting side story: A couple years later Mom was sick again and since she grew up jusy 20 miles from Rochester, MN she ended up in the hospital at the famous Mayo Clinic. She was treated by one of the original Mayo brothers. One morning Grandma is sitting with Mom and the Dr. is making rounds with a nurse when she over hears Dr. Mayo ask "Oh, is she still alive?" just before he comes into Moms room.

Ron

One time in Krogers I found a $10 bill and a dime in the lane as I pulled my cart in to check out. I went to Customer Service and told them I had found some money, but didn't tell how much, and gave them my phone # in case someone said they had lost some money. No one called. I would have been happy to give the money back to whomever lost it, but not to just anybody.

Years ago I was camping with friends at the beach. We had gone down to the water, leaving everything in the camper which supposedly was locked. Later I realized my wallet was missing from my purse. We went to the police station to report it, but never heard from anyone about it. What hurt me the most was that in my wallet I had a newspaper clipping that was a poem I had written when my DB was in the South Pacific with the Marines (WWII) My mother had sent it to the newspaper and they printed it. That was the only copy I had.

Second time. I was helping to clean the house our new pastor would be moving into. I left my pocketbook on the floor in the LR, and later went back to a back room to clean windows. Through the window I saw two boys walking toward the house. I knew them and thought nothing of it, until later when I found my wallet missing from my purse.

Accidentally losing something is frustrating but when you know you have actually been robbed it is traumatic. At least it was to me.

Sue

When I was about 21 I left my wallet in a Motel in Arizona on the way to California with my Parents and Grandmother. It was mailed to me,but they did take out the cash for the Postal Rate.

I found a $20.00 bill in a parking lot, that looked like it had been run over more than once. I kept it.

As a Store Manager, I've found many, many Purses and returned them according to info found in the purse.

In 1970, I went to Las Vegas with several couples, my Date accused me of stealing $100.00 from his wallet. I wanted to smack him. He had drank so much gambling and had lost count of his money. He would not believe that I didn't take his cash. Needless to say, I never saw Him again.

At my office parking lot I saw a Visa Card on the pavement. I thought "Some Idiot, lost their Credit Card". I looked at the card....it was mine....the one with a $30,000 Credit Limit. My whole life flashed before my eyes.

Gayle

I left my wallet in church, and the people at the next service found it and called me. Everything was still there.

One time I was traveling in the UK, and left my wallet with a lot of cash in it in the hotel restaurant. It was returned to me with everything in it. I didn't know who found it, and they wouldn't supply the name or accept a reward. So I wrote a long letter to management thanking them.

One time I found someone's organizer at work. I was able to figure out who it belonged to, so I was able to return it.

My mother in law had her purse stolen with a note being mailed to her afterwards telling her that he/she "really needed the money".
Lu

I had my purse stolen in a state right after we had got married. I was doing student teaching and left my purse on the window sill and it just disapeared and after that all purses had to be locked up in a cabinet. They had never had anything like that happen and this was in the middle 50's
Any found money we put into a special jar and then at Christmas time, we dump it all into the red Kettle for the Salvation army.
I have found 3 wallets inside Wal Mart and most were from the gals at the Base. I question about turning them into the people there, cause I don't quite trust this crew, but then I don't want to take them to the base because they would wonder why I did not turn them over to the security at the store.

I found a business stachel last year in a parking lot and took it into the store and turned it in, the guy did call to thank me.

Once my purse was stolen at work, a few months later I was working a different shift there and some girl comes up to me and gives me my full name - asks if that is me. I said yes, then she informs me she bought my drivers liscense (I was over 21, she wasn't) from another girl. She then asks if I want my ID back. Duh! Yes, I want my ID back! Never got it though. Later she (or someone else) used my ID to rent a keg of beer and didn't return the keg. The liquor store owner calls me and says I owe him some huge amount - thankfully I had already reported the purse theft to the police, so I wasn't held responsible.

Forgot about this one.One day my GS and i were leaving K Mart,and as i backed out i saw on the ground what looked like a bag of change in one of the lanes.So i stopped got out,and picked it up.It was a ziploc of quarters.Someone probably was going to the laundromat and dropped it.Why they didn't hear it drop,is beyond me.
Kathi

Years ago my Dad took our family to Disney World on vacation. We were waiting in the airport for our plane. When it was time to go I accidentally left a tote bag behind. It was filled with stuff from our trip and clothes for my son. I hadn't gotten all that far when I had noticed that I didn't have it. I ran back and it was gone. I never saw it again. I called the airport several times after that hoping some one would turn it in. Oh well, I guess.

Just recently at the pharmacy in Meijer I looked down and saw a $20 bill. I picked it up and looked around and didn't see anyone. I turned it in at the customer service desk. They took my name and number down and said that if no one claimed it within 4 weeks that they would call me to come and get it. They never called me. About 3 weeks later I found $5 and turned that in as well, apparently some one called in and asked for that too as Meijer never called me back. I just know that sometimes even that little $5 can be VERY important. I just hope that some day some one will do the same for me, if I drop something.

A few years ago, when I still lived in CA, I found something laying in the parking lot just as I got out of my car. I didn't know what it was at the time, but it was an iPod. Silly me, I just walked into the cafe and told the cashier I had found it in the parking lot. He said he would keep it until it was claimed. As I was eating, I decided I wanted to keep it until it was claimed. Went up to the cashier and he said a young woman had just come in to claim it. My friend and I had not seen any young woman come in. This was a small hole-in-the -wall cafe. Decided there and then that in the future if I found something valuable I would keep it and just leave my name and number.

Twice. Once I must have left my purse on the car roof and it landed in the parking lot. I didn't know it was gone until I got home less than an hour later to a message on my answering machine from the woman who found it. I drove to her work place the next day to get it. She just left it with the receptionist, so I never did meet the honest person who contacted me. Everything was there.

Second time we were driving from Florida to Ohio to visit family. I left it in a McDonalds along I-75. I realized it when I went to make a phone call a couple hours later, well over 100 miles down the road, and didn't have my cell phone, my purse, all of it gone. We got off at the next exit, located another McDonalds who got us a phone number for the one stopped at earlier. The manager confirmed he had it. I thought the safest thing would be to ask the police to get it and I could retrieve it on the way through town a week later. I called the police for the town, they would have nothing to do with it. They treated me like I was asking them to go steal a purse for me, it was a very strange conversation and I could not reason with them to understand what had happened. They just kept telling me "If it wasn't stolen I don't know why you're calling us." Sigh... So I asked the McD's manager to put it in their safe, he said he didn't trust everyone else who would have access to the safe. (Scary.) So I finally asked him to do me the huge favor of mailing it to me at my in-laws in Ohio. I gave him permission to take whatever the cost of the fastest shipping rate from my wallet. He over-nighted it, I got it the next day with everything there except the cost of shipping. He even included the receipt. ;o)

DH thinks I am the luckiest person for those incidents. He was very annoyed with me both times for forgetting my purse. Sheesh! I told him it's not like a lost a child! Nothing in my purse is irreplacable. I don't carry lots of cash, only 1 credit card, never have my SS# on me.

I've returned a couple wallets and debit/credit cards I've found by calling the name on it even if I had to look it up. I don't bother turning it it to an employee or whoever. I know I'll do the right thing, I don't know about someone else.

If I find money though, no way to return it to the rightful owner, I still feel like a thief for keeping it. I donate it at the first opportunity, the first official collection box I see. It must be good karma, since my lost purses came back to me. LOL. So I'll keep doing it that way.

Yea, I've been on both ends of this cycle - lost purse and returned items. It is so rewarding when you can do that. This person was a member of a church organization and EVERYTHING was in her organizer. I can't tell you how much trouble I went through to locate her but she was so thankful. When I lost my purse, the couple that found it had been trying to reach me for a week. He said if I hadn't called back he was going to mail it to me. He worked a block from where I worked and we met in the middle. He and his wife were so worried about it. That was really nice to hear, especially in thses times.

Back in the 80's I was motorcycling thru San Francisco and lost my wallet on the street when I was packing the bike up. When I returned home a week or so later to Vancouver my wallet and all of its contents were in my mailbox forwarded by the US Post Office, nothing missing. I couldn't believe it.

My daughter's wallet was stolen at a Chicago nightclub.

She got a card from the post office saying she could pick up her property at the main Chicago post office. Someone apparently took the money and either that person or someone else dropped it in a mailbox.

I was working in downtown Chicago at the time, so after work, I went to the post office and claimed it for her.

Just yesterday my DH found a purse in a cart on the parking lot at Wal-Mart.He took it to the service desk,didn't open it or anything.I just hope the person who left it got it back with everything inside intact.
About 3 weeks ago he found a brooch on the parking lot.It looked like some kind of medal and had an inscription on the back and a name across a little banner that the medal thing was hanging from.It looked old.When we got home I had to get the magnifying glass to see what the inscription and name was.There was only one person listed in the phone book with that name spelled like that so I called to see if they had lost it.They hadn't so I ran an ad in the local paper,just that we had found a brooch in the Wal-mart parking lot.That afternoon I got a call from a lady saying she had lost it and as soon as she started describing it I knew it was hers.DH was home for lunch and took it straight to her.she was so thrilled to get it back,even offered him a reward and offered to pay for the ad,which was free anyway.Before he left she hugged him and even cried when telling him the story of the pin.Turned out it belonged to her step-mother.It was some kind of recognition pin from the school she graduated from,dated 1924.she had taken it to her Bible study class and dropped it in her purse when she finished showing it to the class.Something to do with keepsakes.She said she has a bad habit of stuffing kleenex in her purse and thought she had probably pulled it out with a kleenex.She had looked in all her trash as well as the trash at the house where the Bible study was held.She was heartbroken when she couldn't find it.We were just happy that we could return it to her.She even wrote to the local paper thanking DH for his honesty and they printed it in the personal column.

Funny, DH found a check for over $600 last night at Target. Wasn't sure if Target would bother, so I kept it and plan to mail back to the writer of the check since the address is right there!

In June last year we had a large family gathering in Port Douglas (North Queensland). I live in Melbourne and it takes over 3 hours flight time to Cairns then another hour's drive to Port Douglas. In a restroom at the beautiful Marina I found a purse - stuffed full of credit cards and some cash. I handed in to the police station and a while later the grateful owner phoned to thank me - she lives about 10 minutes from my Melbourne home!

I found a dentists money bag once with weeks cash,checks savings account book the works,I returned it.The woman wanted to know what I did with her magazine that was with it,not even a Thanks......she laid it on top of her car,pulled out of drive ,landed in middle of street.

On two occasions I left my purse, with all my credit cards
and cash in the basket of shopping cart. On both occasions
the purse was returned with all contents in tact. I knew
this kind of luck would never happen again so................

I invented the IDIOT CHAIN. My car keys are attached to
my purse by a long string. Therefore, I cannot drive away
without my purse! Simple, but it works. Invite anyone to
do the same.

My lost & found experiences:

Like a lot of people I often think how great it would be to find a bunch of money. But I always hope that If I do, PLEASE let there be no ID with it, because thanks to that guilt trip my Mom (very religious) laid on my when I was a kid, I'd have to do all I could to locate the rightful owner. I wouldn't ask for a reward either. I wouldn't turn it in anywhere because I believe that sadly in this day and age the average person would just pocket it.

Found $65 on the floor of a nightclub in Avalon NJ, just the money, no ID. Sweet!
Found $30 in Sears parking lot at Neshaminy Mall, NE Phila. - no car parked nearby. Again, cash only.
Found a passport walking from the train to work. Tracked down the owner, called, said I'd bring it over. Knocked / rang the bell, no answer, car in the driveway. I think they didn't want to risk me asking for a reward (I wouldn't). I left it in the mailbox.
When my 24 year old daughter was 3 she found a childs wallet in the playground with $3 and address / phone number inside. She wanted to keep it but I said we have to return it. The mother didn't eveen say thank you. I gave Kris $1 as a reward.
When I delivered pizza part time I found $43 with no ID in the shop but it was where the drivers congregated and there was only one other driver working with me. I returned the money.
Older peope are no more or less honest than the younger ones. Again as a pizza deliverer, I took an order to a florist shop. When they paid me I put the money in my jacket pocket, something I never did, usually. Walking back to the car I reached in to retrieve the money & felt only change. I turn back toward the door - I'm about 30 feet away - and the old lady who ran the register by the door is scuttling toward the bill, a ten, reaching for it when her eyes met mine. I quickly said 'Looks like I dropped my change.' She replied 'Yeah, I guess so.' or something like that. She got up and walked back inside.

Luckily I haven't lost anything important recently(I did lose my car key at a Disneyland bathroom that the cleaning attendant turned to Lost-n-Found). I have found a few things. If there was ID, I called and returned (wallets). If no ID and no way to return, I kept (change, $5, one time a ring in an abandoned parking lot).

The story that really irks me: A few months ago I found a ring in the bathroom at work. I turned it in to the receptionist. A few days later I had to go down there to pick up a package, and the biotch was wearing the ring! If she's going to steal it, she should at least be smart enough not to wear it where it was lost! That made me decide to try to track down the owners instead of turning things in. At least I know I'm honest. I can't say so much for the people I've turned things in to.

This seems to fit here. It's from Readers Digest many years ago:

While leaving work one evening I read a note attached to the bulletin board:

"Will the thief who stole my jacket please return it?"

The next day this note had been added:

"I FOUND your jacket and intended to return it. But I don't like being called a thief! So I gave your jacket to the Salvation Army."

Naughtykitty-You should post a note on the bulletin board or however people are notified of events,etc.in you place of work saying that the person who lost the ring may claim it at the receptionist's desk!

When we were moving from MT to OH my husband lost his wallet at a roadside rest. About a month and a half later it came in the mail without a note or anything. Everything was still in tact. We didn't even know who to thank. On the other hand an employee of mine stole my wallet out of my purse and I never saw it again....no monetary loss....just my kids pics

Oh, good one, Lilliepad! That's a terrific idea for Naughtykitty. Maybe that ring will find its way home. The nerve of that receptionist. I believe I would be very tempted to speak to her or to HR if she won't fess up.

the worst was on the way home on vacation dumb me had put my purse on top of the car...but all was returned! have lost my atm card...never returned but i also cancelled it asap...

have a horrible fight with x once on finding a bag on the freeway, belonging to a local supermarket...he was for taking anything inside i said NO...thankfully no money was in it! and i returned it...

Just remembered something that happened to my aunt.She was driving to San Angelo,TX and stopped at a roadside park just outside town.She drove off and left her purse sitting on the table.She was about 50 miles down the road when she discovered she hadn't picked it up.She turned around and came back,driving as close to the speed limit as possible and there it was sitting right where she left it! She had quite a bit of money in it and credit cards and checks.