Calling all owners

By Xie Fang (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-26 10:12

Chen Weimin shows a giant panda toy in the storage room of Beijing's Lost and Found Center.

For policewoman Qian Shan, the strangest lost property items are marriage certificates and divorce papers. "I have no idea why people take their marriage or divorce papers with them when they go out," Qian says. "Credentials are important for everyone, especially those papers which should be kept in a safe place."

All the owners of the lost marriage or divorce papers are young people. There are also lost identification papers, residency cards, military officer ID's, college diplomas, passports and drivers licenses.

Qian works for the Lost and Found Center (LFC) of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau which deals with lost property reports and claims.

Last month, a bilingual hotline (6204-1111) and an online system were launched by LFC, so foreigners can either call the number or visit the website to seek help.

Since the Beijing Olympic Games started, police have received 602 calls. More than 250 came from sports venues, and 78 items were returned to their owners.

According to police, three Polish visitors left all three of their cameras in a taxi when they got off at Workers' Stadium at the end of July. The taxi driver sent the lost property directly to the LFC.

After checking all the photos in the three cameras, the police saw a picture of the photo page in a Polish passport. Following that clue, they located the hotel where the Polish visitors had stayed but the three had just left for Shaanxi province.

Ten days later, when they returned to Beijing, they checked into the same hotel and the police were able to return their cameras to them.

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