Calling all owners

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

So the LFC posts information on the lost items on the Internet. If there are no claimants within six months, some items of value will be sold and the money turned over to the national treasury.

The lost items are divided into 17 different categories, including credentials, documents, communication equipment, accessories, and clothes.

"The categories have changed as time has passed, reflecting the changes in our society" Chen says.

In the 1960s, lost items were mainly old clothes, food ration coupons and pens, which were valuable during the era of a planned economy. At the end of the 1980s, it was pagers. Nowadays it is lost photographic and communication equipments.

Among the thousands of lost items, what impressed the 51-year-old Chen the most was a bundle of 1 fen and 1 mao coins brought by a senior citizen a few years ago. What's more, each coin had a small piece of paper stuck to it with the time and the place it was found.

"In the past, we were taught that even a 1 fen coin should be handed over to the police. Now people don't bother to pick a coin up on the streets," Chen says, "because they have little value."

"Just because we are getting more prosperous, it doesn't mean we should not bother with these small coins. What this old man did is worth thinking about, " he adds.

According to Chen, the time it takes to locate the owner depends on how many clues they left on the lost item. After looking for months, it is gratifying for the police to locate the owner, but sometimes, people don't care as they have already gotten replacements for what they lost.

"The degree that people want to recover something they have lost has decreased as living standards have improved, " Chen says. "But it is still our job to do our best to find the owners of lost items."

Six police officers and three telephone operators, including one volunteer work at the LFC.

(China Daily 08/26/2008 page20)

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