How do you return found jewelry to the rightful owner? At first, I
thought this would be easy. Just place an ad or go to the source
where the jewelry was discovered. What I don’t want to do is place
the item in hands of some unscrupulous individual who got enough
from the owner to accurately describe the jewelry. Would
it be too much to ask for a photograph of the owner wearing the
jewelry? This item appears to have been worn everyday.
Are there other places I can place the item as found? Is there a
registry of very expensive jewelry? Gemstone markings? An
all-purpose “lost and found” at www.lostandfound.com ?
Jeff, it sounds as though you are concerned about an expensive
piece. If so, the owner may have had an appraisal done on it at one
time or another. The unscrupulous person to which you referred
wouldn’t have a copy of that, but the rightful owner would. I’m
sorry I don’t know of a “lostandfound.com.”
Is it a class ring? If so, contacting the school might help get you
someplace. Otherwise, most newspapers run a “found” items section in
their classified sections. These listings usually run for free. I
don’t know what you can do about proving who it belongs to … I
guess you could ask the person to put it on the finger they usually
wear it on. You might ask the person for proof they bought the ring,
especially if it’s a wedding band. That should be fairly easy to
establish.
Thank you for doing the right thing. I’m sure the person who lost
the ring will be very appreciative of your efforts.
But I guess if so few of us know about it, many months may pass
before it becomes really effective. Though for the folks who’ve been
reunited with lost articles, it must seem quite effective already.
How do you return found jewelry to the rightful owner?
Seems kind of obvious to me: if it’s that valuable, how about the
local police?
In my small town, I might put an ad in the local paper. Nothing
descriptive, something like:
Found: Lady’s ring, Donelan’s supermarket parking lot, May 25. Call
Jeff at 555-1515 and describe.
As it turns out, www.lostandfound.com does seem to be an all-purpose
lost and found. But it’s only useful if people use it. It seems that
no one’s posted a lost wedding/engagement ring in my town.
Thank you for your suggestions. I have placed the “Found” ad with
the Cincinnati Enquirer. They will run the post for free for one
week. I was hoping they could run it longer. Feel free to place the
following anywhere it applies.
“FOUND: Gentleman’s ring on January 4th, 2005 in the Cincinnati (OH,
USA) area inside a Community Cab car. Call (513) 556-0419 and leave a
message.”
Let me know if you think I should add anything else. I called the
Community Cab service and asked if anyone called about missing
jewelry. They said “no”. I left them my office phone number just in
case.
My concern is that I live close to an international airport. The
owner may be from out of town, and does not read the Cincinnati
paper.
We really do need a global lost and found, complete with a language
translator.
I turned the ring in to the Elsmere Police station, closest to
Community Cab Service. I called Community Cab again to let them know
where the owner can find it. Community Cab should be able to find the
owner, since they have a name on every ticket. The Covington Crime
lab didn’t say how much is on a cab ticket, and I don’t
have privilege to that
