Your most treasured/expensive lost or found things?

I finished working today and parked my van by a bus stop shelter where 5 late teen lads were waiting. Did my shopping in the nearby store then returned to the van where I saw an empty bus stop except for a backpack resting under the bench.
Fairly low crime area, but unfortunately still a few thieves, so I retrieved the bag and looked inside to see if I could identify the owner.
Oh my gosh, a new Apple Macbook laptop, a really expensive looking digital SLR camera, some folders/books, and an iPhone.
Oops, I thought to myself, found "Mum" in the phones address book and made the call.

Turns out Mum only lived a mile or so away so I drove over to return her son's bag.
When I got there I could see they were poor, it's a poor street, house needed plenty of maintenance. Knocked the door and the woman burst into tears saying thank you, explained she had saved all her money to get this stuff for her lad who is doing graphic design/media at college, and she had no insurance for any of it.
I replied no worries, just glad I spotted it and not some robbing thief etc, that was when her emotion changed - "I'll bloody kill him when he gets home, stupid stupid boy!" I laughed "aww go easy on him, I've got a lad about the same age and they can be airheads sometimes, how about hiding the laptop and camera and say that they were missing from the bag, let him sweat a bit before feeling relief."
She chuckled that she would do that, thanked me again, I smiled and went on my way.

So on that note, if you have any interesting stories of expensive/treasured things you have either lost or found please do share them here.
Personally the worst I've ever lost was a mobile phone a few years ago but I got it back after someone did the same (phoned my Mam) so she got the honest person in touch with me. The phone itself was pretty worthless, but the contact numbers on it were priceless to me.

I once picked up a homeless man hitch hiking, It was raining and I felt bad for him. He told me a big long sob story about his life for about 40 miles. I hooked him up with a couple packs of cigarettes and even offered to by him lunch when we got to his destination. He said he wasn't hungry and I dropped him off.

Then I come to realize that he stole my wallet with everything I needed in it. I had just moved and started a new job and it really screwed me over big time.

He got about 300 in cash, my license, my SS card, my credit cards. my aircraft mechanics license which I needed to have for my job at all times, and my work ID card.

Lesson I learned, don't trust anyone and don't feel empathy for anyone anymore.

Now I see a homeless person in the rain and I look at them and don't feel anything but happy that I am comfortable and toasty in my car.

A medallion a dear friend gave me before his death that got accidentally flushed down the toilet. And a quilt my grandmother sewed for me when I was 2 years old, that I had kept for nearly 30 years, which got thrown out in a laundry mix up. Brutal.

On the less serious front: an original copy in Like New condition of Skies of Arcadia on Dreamcast. Lost it for ages. Found it one day, still in near perfect condition. Was so relieved.

Peace.

originally posted by: bananashooter
Lesson I learned, don't trust anyone and don't feel empathy for anyone anymore.

Aw that is a pity, I think empathy is one of the important building blocks of society. Not all homeless folk are thieves, you were just unlucky.

originally posted by: AceWombat04
a quilt my grandmother sewed for me when I was 2 years old, that I had kept for nearly 30 years, which got thrown out in a laundry mix up. Brutal.

Ooh that is a harsh one! Sentimental is much tougher than financial things to me.

originally posted by: bananashooter
I once picked up a homeless man hitch hiking, It was raining and I felt bad for him. He told me a big long sob story about his life for about 40 miles. I hooked him up with a couple packs of cigarettes and even offered to by him lunch when we got to his destination. He said he wasn't hungry and I dropped him off.

Then I come to realize that he stole my wallet with everything I needed in it. I had just moved and started a new job and it really screwed me over big time.

He got about 300 in cash, my license, my SS card, my credit cards. my aircraft mechanics license which I needed to have for my job at all times, and my work ID card.

Lesson I learned, don't trust anyone and don't feel empathy for anyone anymore.

Now I see a homeless person in the rain and I look at them and don't feel anything but happy that I am comfortable and toasty in my car.

I understand - I trust, but verify. My wallet is always in my front pocket...good luck to the person going for it, it won't end well for them.

My pictures of a friend who had died. All of them; my stupid mistake.

AS a craftsman/designer, I used to go to wholesale markets in big cities to meet potential buyers/gallery owners and write orders for my wares.
My locked van was broken into and 30k worth of my jewelry samples were stolen while I was paying for gas at a 7/11 It took years for my business to recover from that. Needless to say...I never went back to Kansas City.

I once found a gold Rolex while swimming at Padre Island, Texas.

My worst loss by far was my first wife who divorced me because of my drunken white trash behavior!!! I'm sober and now we are still friends and lovers.

a reply to: BlackboxInquiry

Ha, that was funny.

Yeah, I learned my lesson on that too, always keep your wallet in your pocket.

I almost want to get a mock wallet and keep it in my car and pick up sketchy people and see how many it takes to have the wallet get stolen again. Then have a letter in it telling them that this is the reason their life sucks so much, and also that that wallet was soaked in about 500 hits of you know what, and that they are going to remember this day for the rest of their life.

a reply to: StanFL

Ah that is a really harsh one, again sentimental seems to usually be a much bigger personal loss than financial.
I wonder how many of us will experience that much more in future now that our pics are mostly stored digitally instead of hard copy these days.
I foolishly don't have any of my laptop files backed up, if it dies then I'll probably lose thousands of pics...mental note to self, sort it out.

a reply to: olaru12

Was the Rolex one of these £30,000 items? www.chrono24.com...
Could have broken even then.
30k loss through theft though, that is a wounder, good to hear you bounced back eventually, bet it was difficult at the time.

originally posted by: grainofsand
a reply to: olaru12

Was the Rolex one of these £30,000 items? www.chrono24.com...
Could have broken even then.
30k loss through theft though, that is a wounder, good to hear you bounced back eventually, bet it was difficult at the time.

The Rolex didn't quite cover the loss but helped considerably in the recovery.

Actually the stock mkt. crash in 08 hit us much harder than the robbery. We lost the designer studio and had to go to plan B. Best thing that ever happened to us in retrospect, despite the financial devastation.

originally posted by: bananashooter
a reply to: BlackboxInquiry

Ha, that was funny.

Yeah, I learned my lesson on that too, always keep your wallet in your pocket.

I almost want to get a mock wallet and keep it in my car and pick up sketchy people and see how many it takes to have the wallet get stolen again. Then have a letter in it telling them that this is the reason their life sucks so much, and also that that wallet was soaked in about 500 hits of you know what, and that they are going to remember this day for the rest of their life.

Love it! I wanna do that! Put monopoly money in it...or Russian rubles...

originally posted by: bananashooter
a reply to: BlackboxInquiry

Ha, that was funny.

Yeah, I learned my lesson on that too, always keep your wallet in your pocket.

I almost want to get a mock wallet and keep it in my car and pick up sketchy people and see how many it takes to have the wallet get stolen again. Then have a letter in it telling them that this is the reason their life sucks so much, and also that that wallet was soaked in about 500 hits of you know what, and that they are going to remember this day for the rest of their life.

What you do here is rig your car up with a video camera, go buy some cheap $1 wallets at a thrift store and throw them in the trunk, then drive around looking for people to give rides too. Film the whole thing and put an intro on it explaining what you are doing. Post videos to Youtube.

a reply to: grainofsand

I lost everything in a burglary a number of years ago. 42" flatscreen, Wii, PS3, laptops, external hard drives, digital camears etc etc. (Anything the B8stards could sell on.)
None of the material things mattererd apart from photos of a dear Friend that has passed away the year before.
Luckily some Friends had copies I'd burned to DVD for them.
That made the strain of being burgled a lot less hurtful
Its the small things that ultimately mean the most.

When I was a kid, we lived a block and a half from a grocery store, and we used to walk to school all the time which was much, much further away. So as soon as they reckoned I could handle money, my folks started sending me out to the store for items we would need.

We were poor enough that there would be those weeks when you were stretching to make it by on maybe $50 to $100 bucks in the bank, hoping to skate til payday, and they happened often enough we kids were well aware of it.

So when dad handed you a $20 to run to the store for that loaf of bread or gallon of milk, it was BIG bucks, and you felt like a million dollars. Then came that horrible day when you got to the aisle with whatever it was I was supposed to get that day (I can't even remember that) and I realized that somewhere between home and that spot, I had dropped the money ... OMG! It was the worst feeling, but not as bad as having to go home and try to explain to my folks that I'd lost all the money and didn't even get what they'd sent me to get. I was in tears!

Dad didn't get mad, but he did make me go back with him and try to show him where all I'd been, hoping maybe the money was still lying along the way. When we got back to the store, I was feeling awful because there was no sign of it. I just knew someone was enjoying their "free" $20, but there it was. Someone had picked it up and stuck it in one of the brackets of the cold case in plain site. We got it back.

I never forgot that.

a reply to: bananashooter

In a daze one afternoon I left my cash in the Cashpoint (ATM for our American Cousins) and walked off.
A Big Issue Seller chased me down the Street to hand the £50 back.
Happily after a few months and me giving him a few quid when I could he found a place to live and a Job.
Sometimes goodness does get repaid.

a reply to: Cymru

I'd be exactly the same mate, stuff that costs money can always be replaced...it's just stuff and saving up, but unique or sentimental items, nope, irreplaceable.

Just got a long thank you text from the lad who owned the bag I found today, all his Summer college projects were on the laptop/camera, he wants to give me a reward, bottle of my favourite or whatever. I replied that him learning a lesson is the best reward for me, so buy his Mam some flowers instead and say sorry for being an absent minded knob with the expensive stuff she saved up to buy for him.

a reply to: grainofsand

You Sir are a true Human Being and I'll shout you a pint of SA for your trouble.

a reply to: Cymru

Haha, nah, just got a lad around the same age who messes up occasionally himself and I hope other 'grown ups' give him similar advice when they are involved in his life challenges!
I was jealous of the lads laptop and camera though, I'd swap my steam powered XP running tablet of stone any day!


*Edit*
Saw your edit, hahaha, Brains Skull Attack! Haven't had a pint of that in a while!
I'll hold you to it!

a reply to: ketsuko

Ah, that was a lovely story
I like to think there are more good people in our societies than bad.