A Sort of Random Act of Kindness

About 10 days ago now, I parked the car at our usual place and walked up to the school for Celebration Monday. We had a lovely time in the school library and I asked Jaxon about going our local council ran library – after all I think the last time I took him, he was definitely still in his buggy!

When Jaxon and I got back to the car, I’d strapped him in and went around to get into the driver’s seat. As I got in, something in the road caught my eye, so I got back out again. Even if it was just a bit that had fallen off a car, it was big for a car part and could damage someone else’s car if it was left there.

It was a small handbag (not much bigger than a clutch bag sort of thing). I opened it to see if there was an ID or something like that, there was a phone and a variety of cards. At this point I rang Chris. Our local police have changed what they will take as lost property so I wasn’t really sure what to do. Chris looked it up on the internet and there’s a national website you can report lost property to. Given the style and what was in it, I wasn’t really sure that it belonged to a “younger” person. Chris suggested ringing the mobile network – maybe they could identify the person. It was only then as I went back to the phone for a closer look did I see that there was a debit card in the front pocket of the phone case.

Having got home, I rang the mobile phone network first – they suggested taking it to the store who might be able to assist. Jaxon and I jumped back in the car and headed to the shop. The guy who I spoke to said that without the phone number or the IMEI number they wouldn’t be able to narrow it down. I said about there being a bank card in there, to which he suggested taking it to the bank – which was my next stop anyway.

Jaxon and I got back in the car and headed to the nearest branch of the bank who issued the card. We got to the bank and the guy there said of course they could contact the owner of the bank card and they could hold onto the whole handbag until the owner could collect it. Also would I like to leave my details with them, I said yes please – I’d like to know that it got home to the rightful owner okay. (Knowing how flappy I can get when I lose my bank card or my phone, I wanted to make sure it made it home).

Yesterday evening, I had a phone call on my mobile and it was a mobile number but I didn’t recognise it. The lady on the other end of the call said “Is that Hannah? Hello I’m Mrs P. You found my purse!” (or words to that affect!) She was so very pleased that it had been found. When retracing her steps she thinks it must have slid off her shoulder when she took her coat off or slid off her coat when she put it on the back seat of the car. Either way, she was very grateful that I’d found it and handed it in. We had a little chat about how it ended up at the bank and how she dislikes contactless bank cards.

After the slightly crazy evening Chris and I had yesterday, we were grateful that at least one plan had come together with no issues!

Following our chat yesterday, there was a knock at the door today. Mrs P and her friend had popped around with this card and a little present to say thank you for being a lovely person and handing her handbag in. That was so super lovely of her and I’m very grateful – although she didn’t need to do that, returning her handbag was the right thing to do. In the event, I couldn’t get it to her in person, getting it to the bank to look after it was the responsibile thing to do.