I too have left my purse in a cart outside a Walmart and thank goodness, someone returned to customer service with nothing gone.
Whether you did the right thing or not is a decision you made.
I have found items at Walmart several times and always returned them to customer service without looking inside. Guess I don't want to be accused of taking stuff--that is from living in a big city.
But that was my decision.

I'm thinkin you did as best as you could...I wish more people would try to take the effort to get stuff back to it's rightful owners...Good does go round ya know! You just never know what would have happened to it had you turned it in to Customer service...I know most people are honest but ya just never know...like you I can only hope the person you left it with is truly her neighbor/best friend...I probably would have kept her number and called her later on to make sure the purse was indeed turned over to it's rightful owner...

marie - my sister left her purse at walmart. She went back to customer service and they told her it had not been turned in. They called her several weeks later. It had been there all along. Thus my decision to not turn it in since I was able to get up with the neighbor. But still I worry about her running all around looking for it before she went home. Ah well.

liz - the neighbor was in her 80's. Very sweet. Don't get me to doubting little ole ladies! LOL

Considering Walmart has camera's ALL OVER their store, mainly on their cashiers and the customer service counter, I think that would have been the safest place to leave it. BUT, you left it with her friend, and I'm sure it will get to her just fine. We constantly have things left at our customer service counter where I work. Depending on the item, it will be locked up in the head cashiers office. (purses, wallets, cell phones). Paperwork left in the photo copier, keys, kids toys, baby bottles etc., are left at the customer service desk. If those items aren't picked up after a week, they're garbage. Wallets and purses usually have some sort of ID in them, so we go through them and do our best to find the rightful owner. I honestly can't remember someone not coming back for wallets or purses. And I've worked at 3 stores in this chain.

Either way, you did the right thing.

You went the extra mile. The woman will be very thankful when she and her purse meet up.

I think it's very sweet you went out of your way to find the owner. You get the halo of the week!

If ever in that situation again, do the same thing, but also leave your number at customer service. Only the real owner will know what the purse looks like and what was inside.

Of course you did the right thing; you tried returning the purse with nothing missing!! :) I wouldn't let it ruin your evening! :)

I think you chose the most reasonable path -- you did wait around awhile, and it was a good thing you spotted the neighbor's address/phone number and contacted her. I think I'd be equally nervous giving the purse to customer service, but that's just me -- the more people involved, the more chance of miscommunication or an error, is what I've found. Sometimes I think I stress out more than the person I'm trying to help (even for something like a misdelivered package! "Should I leave it at the door? Should I try to put in their back yard? Should I just leave a note on their door? Should I give it to another neighbor?" Oy!)

Guess, once again, I'm the odd man out on this one. I would NEVER EVER go into someone else's purse like that. It's too easy for someone to accuse that there was money/prescriptions/jewelry, etc in there that's now missing. I would also NEVER have left it with a neighbor. How do you know that person is trustworthy? How do you know they're going to remember to give it back to her?

On the other hand, I probably would not have given to to WalMart's customer service--as WM employees aren't always stellar examples of responsibility. I'd have stood by the cart with the purse, called the police, and waited until an officer arrived to take control of the property. That would have been, to me, the safest course.

And no--I don't have my phone # in my purse. I've had my wallet pickpocketed--I keep nothing in my wallet/purse that makes it any easier for a thief to steal my identity. I'd rather lose a few dollars in cash (I ONLY carry cash with me--no credit cards or checkbooks), than to go through the hassle of having to deal with the possibility of identity theft again.

You have a kind heart! Hugs to you!

Well, right or wrong it turned out good for the lady that lost her purse. I received a phone call from her a little while ago. She had gotten all the way home, stopping to pay a man that had done some lawnmower work for her before she realized that she didn't have her purse. She called Walmart and they told her the purse had not been turned in so she called the police. He was going to look at the video tape (didn't know they did that for something like a lost purse).

When she got back to her house she had a note on the door from her neighbor and went over to retrieve the purse. She called the police officer back but was only able to leave him a message. Hope they don't come knocking at my door before he gets her message. I might be locked up before the night is out. LOL

We had a nice conversation on the phone and both of us were surprised to find that she had at one time owned summer property in my neighborhood. More than likely, even though she didn't recognize their names, she knew my parents as they ran our POA park for years. It's a small world!

It never occurred to me that this could cause me any kind of problem or that I could possibly be accused of something like stealing meds, money, or cc card. If it were ever to happen again, I would probably call the police but glad I didn't this time. :)

You did fine. Hindsight can almost always provide us with better ideas.

I would have probably brought it to customer service because I don't like touching people's personal stuff. And most of the employees have access to your credit card info through your purchases anyway so you're either going to have to trust them or not shop there.

It wouldn't even occur to me to bring the police into a lost and found situation like this. Would you call them if you found some unattended groceries?

Bottom line, you kept the purse from being snatched up by someone and went out of your way to get it to the owner. You did good. I would think the neighbor would know to contact the lady asap -if not, that's on them, not you.

Kudos to you for going out of your way. It's rare these days. And I don't see how not opening a purse would keep you from being accused of something! LOL I've been accused of things when I wasn't even in the same area. So that ain't cuttin it with me.

A couple weeks ago I was coming out of a big pet food store and on the ground next to my vehicle was a card. Picked it up and it was a credit card. I debated about what to do. Figured I had a few options, turn it into the store manager, call the police or try to contact the person myself. The last I ruled out immediately since that could be a real PITA. I could go through some PI former partners but that would be excessive. I thought about calling the police but that could take hours before they would send someone out if they were busy. (This isn't an emergency call so it could be referred to a CSO or something.) I thought if I held onto it I would be inviting some accusations although obviously that couldn't be proven. I thought about whether the manager could be trusted but felt that it was most likely a customer from that store. They may well have just made a purchase so it could be checked there and they have access to call the card company and deal with it as a left card. I chose to leave it with the manager.

I suppose there was another option, to leave it on the ground and let someone else worry about it but I wouldn't do that.

When you think about it, it kind of is a tough decision. The last thing anyone would want is to be accused of stealing, when you're trying to do the right thing.

You did good Moonie! The purse is home safe and sound, and you feel good.

I would never think of bringing the cops in on something like a lost purse.

A cell phone is easy, just have to call a person in their contacts. I've had my phone returned to me (after buying a new one, unfortunately), when they called *Mom*. I also found one and called one of their friends.

I think the manager of the gas station was the right way to go Cynic. Hopefully the customer can retrace his steps.
There were too many cases of double-swiping here, by gas station employees for me to leave it with them.

I probably would have just left it with customer service.. but I'm glad it all turned out fine the way you did it.

My DD lost her wallet a couple months ago and a man found it. He called the number on my DD's bank card and the bank called us. He originally asked that she go by his work to pick the wallet up.. but later he took it to the police station where DD picked it up.

Moonie, thank you so much for caring about that lady's purse, and for getting it back to her, via the neighbor.

Glad it all worked out Moonie! I hope if I leave my purse in a cart (I'm surprised I haven't!) I hope someone nice like you finds it!

And I highly doubt the the purse owner would've had someone's name and # in her purse if she felt she couldn't trust them!

I once found a credit card by a gas pump. I considered leaving it with the gas station attendant, or trying to look up a phone number for the owner and hope I got the right one, or even just leaving it where it was in case the owner came back looking for it. I finally decided the safest thing to do was just shred it. As soon as the owner figured out it was missing, they were going to have to cancel it anyway. It was just a lone credit card, and I figured that destroying it was the only way to be sure no one would put unauthorized charges on it.

Now if I'd found an entire purse, I would have looked through it in the hope that there were clues about how to contact the owner. I think you did good getting the purse back to its owner - I know I'd be really grateful if someone took the time to do that for me!

I'd have looked for ID and tried to contact the owner too!

Cynic -- Could you call the customer service number on the CC and tell them you'd found it? (Although Silvercomet's idea to shred makes good sense too.)

I've thought about this one quite a lot.

You certainly did nothing wrong, but it would have been easier to leave the purse with customer service, and that is what I would have done.

Frankly, if a stranger called me up, saying "I have your friend's/neighbor's purse found at Walmart" my first question would be "Why didn't you take to customer service?"

Would I want you to come to my house and leave it? NO! I don't know you - you might be dangerous, and now you have my address!

I've never had an issue with customer service departments, and I really don't know why you thought it would be a bad idea to take the purse there.