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How do I return a wallet?

I have a wallet and could only find the address. I would rather not put much money or effort into it.

Found in the Common rummaged through and placed on top of a trash can. Against my better judgment I picked it up. Tried to give it to a busy bpd bike officer who suggested I call it in (told me to call 911 at first, lol). After 30min of waiting for a cruiser I gave up. Unfortunately still with possession of the wallet. Any reasonable suggestions?

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Comments

All BPD inquiries go through 911. It's a weird Boston thing. No matter how big or small, you have to call 911.

Also, if you have their address, why not just mail it to them? Alternatively, you can look them up on Facebook and message them. They might even pick it up from you.

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That's frustrating. Just drop off on front step of police station and if they question u explain

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Bring it to the post office. They will mail it back to the address for free. Or just drop it in a mailbox.

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Let's just hope that if you lose your wallet someday, someone doesn't decide they don't want to "put much effort into it." Wow.

Without much effort, you could look the person up online and contact them? Not very difficult.

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I almost included this in my post, but decided to keep it just info based. I completely agree with you. It's really disheartening to see someone wanting to put little effort into returning a lost wallet. I would have had it at the post office 10 minutes later.

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I once found a wallet with only $1 in it. I tracked down the owner and handed it to him personally. He then accused me of stealing the $300 that had been in it. Ugh.

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We got in a car that we thought was an uber car but found out it wasn't after we got in. He charged us 60.00 which was ok for the distance. Friend left his wallet in car. 3 days later my doorbell rings and it's the fake uber driver with my friends wallet

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Uber is paid on a card not cash. $60 tip though?

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We had a few letter carriers and they told me it was common to find wallets and purses in mailbox mdeposit boxes. People who didn't want to be bothered contacting the person...and didn't want to be accused of removing anything in case the money was gone. The (local) postmaster will call the person to tell them it was found in a mailbox

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Please contact Boston Police at 617-343-4500

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Please call BPD at 617-343-4500

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Make sure your duty officers know this as well. Brought a found wallet to D4 once and was told "what do you expect us to do" and was yelled at for not trying to contact the owner myself. Not the best public impression....

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If Citizens Connect isn't the app for that, then maybe BPD needs its own app, a mobile equivalent of 911. Sheesh...

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at the risk of sounding like a troll...

OFFS just mail the goddamn thing - but now you that you have broadcast your "good deed" to the whole world do you feel better?

are you really that stupid that you can't figure out what to do?

do you really need a roomful of comments to get you to do the right thing?

OFFS

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He said himself he didn't want to put much money in it, he knows what the right thing to do is, but wants advice on a method. Not everyone has the resources, cash, and time to go buy a mailer and pay the postage. I know, that sounds lame, but there are commenters that post from libraries, and they are not in a position to buy office supplies and postage. But there's no reason to go atomic and immediately leap down the throat of someone. Why are so many people so angry so quickly at strangers? Judge not, lest ye be judged (and be forever hounded by anonymous internet hoards).

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I've found keys with an ID and ATM/credit cards. In all those cases I fiorst try to find the person on Facebook to see what they want me to do. Otherwise, mail it back to the person (or at worst throw it in a mailbox). The ATM/credit cards are easy: just find an ATM that sucks up cards, push it in, and stand there long enough that the ATM just keeps the card due to inactivity.

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If there's a bank card, you can call the bank, tell them the person's name/card number, and tell the rep that you found this person's wallet. The rep will then contact the person, give them your name/phone number, and you guys can sort it out that way.

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And saw that it had been rummaged through, so probably no bank card...but now you know for when you find your next wallet :)

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yeah I found a credit card on the street a few years ago. I got home and called the 800 number on the back. The lady was taken back when I said "hi I found the card, you might want to cancel the card and notify the owner". Apparently this is rarely done. Honestly I think she was taken off guard by the whole request.

She did cancel the card, and said just drop the card in the mail and send it to the bank and they'd take care of it.

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I found a wallet today and I've spent all morning trying to google a number or just varify if the address is correct since it's at least 4 years old, and after googleing I found different names listed under the address. I called both credit card customer service numbers and asked if they could inform the person and all they did was nothing. Chase said "no we can't do anything about that sorry" and BofA first said yes, asked for the number of the the card, informed me she'd cancelled it, asked me to destroy it, and said she couldn't actually call the guy so I'm back to square 1. I once found a wallgreens member card in a wallet and they actually went through the trouble of looking him up and called him 3 way with me on the line to inform him where he left his wallet but these damn credit card companies are like.. nope sorry. If I could verify that the address is correct I'd just mail it over there (theres some pictures of kids and random papers with info written on them I'm sure they'd like to have back so I don't wanna just drop it into the mailbox without knowing what'll happen) my last resort was to email the Allstate Agent from a bus card that was in here and hope they give him a call..

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I once found a guitar in the case with several items including a checkbook. It was lying in the middle of the street near Coply square. I called the police (station number) and was told that the only "lost and found" was at headquarters. After I dropped it off, I felt bad because it didn't seem that anyone was much interested in contacting the owner. Since then I always try and find the person and return it. Also because i am a losing loser that always loses stuff. karma etc.

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The BPD does this all the time, they return items, lost/found to people. Shame on the one bike officer in the Common who refused you service. Most cops will take care of this in a heartbeat. At least you know most do care so call 617-343-4500 and they will assist.

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Bring it to the post office. I once found a wallet on my front lawn and brought it to the police station as I didn't want to search the projects looking for its owner, as per the address on the driver's license inside. They looked at me like I was a criminal even after explaining the situation. No good deed goes unpunished...

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Late response, I ended up resolving this on Saturday.

Short Answer:
I turned it in to the nearest BPD station on Saturday (Hyde Park).

Longer Answer:
The response I received Friday was pretty swift. BPD reached out to me via Adamg, who forwarded me a BPD email suggesting I call 617-343-4500. On Saturday, I contacted that number which recommended bringing it to the nearest station (a convenient bus hop on a Saturday) and leaving it with them. Afterwards, a BPD captain (the name eludes me) contacted me to follow up on Friday’s events as a form of quality control. So while things didn’t go smoothly, they eventually concluded. Worst comes to worst, I would have mailed it. Although, I am cheap to a fault sometimes!

The big takeaways:
- They should take wallets
- BPD is watching (uhub) and from my conversation seems to be looking for ways to continuously improve. If you post your BPD experiences on uhub I would not be surprised if they attempt to respond/learn from it.

Lastly: Thank you uhub-ers for posting/responding to my question. :)

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