East Precinct Captain James Dermody brings us the harrowing tale of a misplaced wallet, the good Samaritan who found it, and the crucial role Google plays in the Seattle Police Department’s lost and found division.*
On the afternoon of April 20, a Good Samaritan turned in a lost wallet found near the Silver Cloud Hotel near Lake Union with credit cards intact to the East Precinct. After efforts to reunite the wallet with its rightful owner by contacting hotel staff proved fruitless, Community Police Team Officer Tim Greeley did what any respectable non-thief with access to a computer would do: he found an out-of-state driver’s license in the wallet and Googled the name on it.
Fortunately, the wallet’s owner has her own entry on Wikipedia and is a contributing editor to the Atlantic. Greeley called the magazine and was able to inform Hanna Rosin that SPD had her wallet safe and sound. After profuse thanks, Rosin wanted to know how Greeley had been able to find her. He explained that he knows how to use Google.
*It’s probably not actually called that.
“Only in Seattle would you get your money and credit cards back after losing your wallet,” she said in dazzled relief. When she stopped by the precinct last night to pick up her wallet, she “again expressed her gratitude, both to the good Samaritan and to SPD.”
Good work, crime fighting partners SPD and Google! (Also, if this happens to you, cancel your debit card.)
Sidenote: In only slightly harder-hitting good news stories, it’s certainly nice to know that this alleged motherfucker is locked up. Thanks, SPD.
same story with my daughter, but i’d made her cancel her cards before the wallet & cash got returned 24 hours later.
i think it might happen in portland, too.
zzzzzzzzzzzz
happened to me in eugene
zzzzzzzzzzzz
I found a guy’s Amex outside of Nuemos. Went to facebook, typed in his name, friended him w/ a note. A day later he swung by a restaurant I was at and picked up his card, left us an awesome bottle of wine. Technology is neat.
This “only in Seattle” meme is bullshit. We don’t have a corner on honest people, just on self-congratulatory ones.
Bigyaz, the “only in Seattle” part refers to the fact that the cops bothered. In DC, where Hanna comes from, the wallet would be abandoned in a precinct desk drawer at best.
“After efforts to reunite the wallet with its rightful owner by contacting hotel staff proved fruitless…”
This makes it sound like the staff dropped the ball somehow. I think you mean that the officer asked the hotel if the woman was a guest there, and she wasn’t. At least, I think that’s what you meant?