Police returned almost NT$50 million (US$1.73 million) in lost money to its owners last year, the Taipei City Police Department said on Friday.
Police annually recover between NT$50 million and NT$60 million in lost money either found by officers or turned in by members of the public, and last year it was able to return 80 percent of what had been found, the department said.
Last year’s total came from more than 50,000 incidents, and in the majority of cases, the money was found on its own — not in a wallet, purse or other type of case, the department said.
Most of the money found in the Taipei MRT system is in the form of EasyCards, which station staff forward to Taipei Rapid Transit Corp, the department said.
About 60,000 lost EasyCards are found annually, containing about NT$5 million in stored value, it said.
However, lost money accounts for just 10 percent of the items recovered annually, even though money and ID cards account for the majority of lost items turned in, but cellphones, jewelry and other items are often lost as well, the department added.
“The main reason people lose things is that they put the items in their pockets. When there is a large crowd or when people are not paying attention, items are easily lost,” the department said.
Taipei has the greatest number of incidents of recovered lost items in the nation, and in the city, most of the items lost are in three districts: Daan (大安), Zhongshan (中山) and Xinyi (信義), it said.
“Usually the places people lose items are ones that are crowded, such as hotels, bars, exhibitions and shopping centers,” it added.
One of the more unusual cases in the past few months was that of a 26-year-old Salvadorean DJ, who lost his turntable in the East District (東區), the department said.
“There was even one incident where someone lost an urn containing a relative’s ashes,” it said.
About 30 percent of people who bring lost items they find to a police station do not leave their contact information, it said.
“One problem is that there have been incidents where police return lost wallets, but are questioned by the owners, who allege that money is missing,” it said, but without the finder’s contact information, there is little police can do.
People should leave their contact details when turning in a lost item, because if the owner does not claim the item within six months, it can be given to the person who found it, the department added.
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