Expensive Trip To Tesco-lotus...

[phaethon]

I have some folded filing cards in my wallet for jotting notes and also have various measurements around my flat for furniture shopping. So I get my wallet and tape measure out in Tescos to check some plastic drawer units will fit inside a cupboard, find they will, load them on the trolley and off to checkout. At checkout I find I have left the wallet behind with several kTHB in it. Back to he shelf and it's gone. :jerk:

Went to security and after a wait manager arrived and the wallet had been handed in

BUT... and here was my big mistake (not counting leaving the dam_n thing behind in the first place) ...there was nothing in the wallet with my name on it! In the UK I carry all sorts of extra bank cards and driving licence and other cards with names on all the time because, if they go missing, it's not a big deal to replace them. But abroad I leave all that at home/hotel unless I know I will need them and even then I keep them with my passport around my neck, not in my wallet. I have in the past picked up hotel cards on check-in, written my name on them and inserted them into wallets and passports just in case, but not this time.

So, I had to spend half an hour trying to persuade the manager the wallet was mine (I'd already given the colour and type OK) by describing what was written on the filing cards (including recreating a sketch of a luggage trolley I had made when out shopping for same), matching the card for my apartment block with the key tag in my pocket and reciting the address on said card. The clincher seemed to be when I predicted that in amongst the money where some discount vouchers from the previous days shopping at Office Depot and I gave the correct total of 150THB

While this was going on I noticed a couple with a baby hanging around, watching from the checkout side. The finders had left a slip of paper in the wallet with their phone number on it - hoping to get the wallet if not claimed or at least a reward and, lo and behold, it turned out to be the lurking couple. So thanks were exchanged and a 1kTHB note handed over. Not a single baht was missing

An expensive trip to the supermarket, but lesson learned.

I will write my name/phone/email on the apartment business card and maybe include an out-of-date photo-ID from a previous employer for good measure.

[H2oDunc]

A thousand baht expensive????????????????? I would class it as a cheap day ! and a lesson learned

[phaethon]

A thousand baht expensive????????????????? I would class it as a cheap day ! and a lesson learned

Hence the "...but not as expensive as it might have been"

[neverdie]

Good on you for giving the reward.

[lazygourmet]

A thousand baht expensive????????????????? I would class it as a cheap day ! and a lesson learned

Forgot my phone last evening, on the way back home, in the taxi;

the driver brought it back to me,

Even he refused (at the beginning!), I tipped him one thousand.

[Beacher]

Perhaps you should reword your thread title to something more like, "Good honest people save my bacon and CHEAPLY remind me to use some common sense."

Honestly, I really think your story should focus on the couple who did the honest thing by turning in your wallet without helping themselves to the several thousand baht that was in it.

[theoldgit]

I left my phone on a table whilst enjoying my gourmet KFC meal in Ekamai, realised a few minutes down the road and went back worrying how I was going to get all the numbers on my sim card back. The lad clearing the tables had handed it in and would not take a reward, and I really did try, have to say I was impressed, given how much they probably earn

[H2oDunc]

A thousand baht expensive????????????????? I would class it as a cheap day ! and a lesson learned

Hence the "...but not as expensive as it might have been"

The title states ' An expensive trip to tesco " Giving a reward was commendable but it in my eyes was a cheap day!

[torrenova]

I agree but don't fully understand the couple hanging around. Either you nick the cash or not. If you hand it in, even if you have put your name and phone number inside, just how long are you going to hang around ? Then again, you know that as soon as you disappear the security guard will most likely just pocket it anyway.

[desertrat]

I had a wallet with 40 K baht in it returned by a lady with a push cart. I would have given the whole 40k not to have to jump thro' the hoops to replace all the cards and stuff. I felt mean only giving her 1K

It is now securely chained to my person, along with keys.

[Briggsy]

The lurking couple, lurking. Where are they now? Lurking nearby perhaps? Somewhere, waiting, lurking.

[phaethon]

I agree but don't fully understand the couple hanging around. Either you nick the cash or not. If you hand it in, even if you have put your name and phone number inside, just how long are you going to hang around ? Then again, you know that as soon as you disappear the security guard will most likely just pocket it anyway.

They had seen me heading with haste to the security desk within minutes of the wallet being turned in and guessed I was the owner but didn't feel they could go through checkout until they had paid for their shopping (unlike me who happily abandoned my (unpaid for) shopping near an empty till).

At the end of the day my shopping trip (with the tip) cost me twice as much as it should have - that is expensive in relative terms just as 20 baht for a bottle of water is expensive when it normally sells for 10 baht, but neither is expensive in absolute terms like a yacht or a marriage to a monopodal model. The only thing of value in the wallet was cash and the tip was about 15% of the total content of the wallet, so 50% more than the traditional 10% reward. If you need further help with these concepts please contact your local economist.

Subsequently I discovered that the scrap of paper with the finders' number on it was not some random scrap that Tesco had provided but a receipt from my last hotel stay with my full name on it - that would have served to establish ownership and saved the half-hour guessing game of what colour?/how many? etc.

Anyway the morals are:

1) Thais can be as honest as anyone else (I have also had an intact wallet returned to me when dropped at a Tesco's in London some years ago)

2) If you carry a 'night-wallet' (cash only) make sure your name is in it to smooth the reclaiming process should fortune smile.

If you do ever find a wallet with a ten year-old UCL library photo-ID... you know who to PM.

[theoldgit]

I found a wallet when I was in a shopping mall in Brisbane late last year, it contained about A$30, a bus pass a debit card as well a student ID, I handed it in to the customer service desk, I declined to leave my details.

It clearly belonged to a youngster to whom A$30 meant more than it did to me. I wonder if I would have still handed it in if the wallet was stuffed with a couple of thousand dollars and a pile of credit cards, I like to think I would but I really don't know.

[Briggsy]

monopodal model, ex-porn star, compulsive liar, utter nightmare, £24 million, very expensive.

[john b good]

A thousand baht expensive????????????????? I would class it as a cheap day ! and a lesson learned

Hence the "...but not as expensive as it might have been"

The title states ' An expensive trip to tesco " Giving a reward was commendable but it in my eyes was a cheap day!

You seem to be pushing it Dunc! Why don't you just go stand in the corner

When the bell rings you can go home

[Briggsy]

A thousand baht expensive????????????????? I would class it as a cheap day ! and a lesson learned

Hence the "...but not as expensive as it might have been"

The title states ' An expensive trip to tesco " Giving a reward was commendable but it in my eyes was a cheap day!

You seem to be pushing it Dunc! Why don't you just go stand in the corner

When the bell rings you can go home

Dunc's been told off for telling the truth. This is repression and curtailment of free speech.

[PattayaParent]

I will write my name/phone/email on the apartment business card and maybe include an out-of-date photo-ID from a previous employer for good measure.

Provided that they will accept an expired ID as proof of identity!

I've had places that won't even though they agree it is my photo on the ID!!!