Reader’s opinion|Couldn’t you really report found items to the police online?
Morning walk In Kaivopuisto on the Monday after Midsummer. A small black handbag is scattered on the ground next to the trash. Inside it is a worn wallet and large sunglasses. The wallet gapes at its emptiness. At the bottom of the bag, you can find VR’s unused children’s ticket and a couple of receipts: the purchase and warranty receipt for a new smartphone, which are dated the previous day. The purchase was made in cash. The only clue about the owner is the cell phone’s serial number.
I assume the bag was stolen and cleaned. The bag and its contents seem of little value, but I know from experience how it feels to have a handbag stolen. That’s why I call the store that sold the cell phone, which refuses to give any information over the phone. I go to a store in the center, but the cash buyer has not left his contact information.
The lost goods office, on the other hand, will not accept the bag, because it seems to have been stolen.
Calling the police for advice only yields information that the cell phone has not been reported stolen and that the bag should be taken to the Pasila police station. There is really no other possibility in the whole of Helsinki.
Few finders have the time, desire or opportunity to bring low-value finds to the other side of the city during the office hours of the police station.
Couldn’t you really report found items to the police online? Or couldn’t the police have some kind of discovery box in well-known party places like Kaivari, where the items could be dropped? Neither of them would be expected to require a lot of additional resources from the police.
Nowadays, many things that are only important to their owners are probably lost for good, for no reason.
Tuula Matikainen
Helsinki
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