FMs and Lost & Found

Lost property: a sense of recovery

The lost & found function is rarely managed by FM providers. Yet most public places operate this service. Isn’t it time FMs claimed their lost property?

Very few of the UK’s largest FM providers are responsible for the lost & found function. Often, it’s bundled in with security, but most public places run their own schemes. Those FMs that do have responsibility feel it is an important, and often an amusing, function.

“If you can drop it, we’ve found it,” says Nicki Smith, facilities manager, Incentive FM, at Crystal Peaks Shopping Centre, Sheffield.

“It’s always personal belongings: bits of clothing, hats, scarves, gloves, purses, wallets, umbrellas, babies’ shoes, socks and toys. Fortunately, we’ve never picked up anything that posed any kind of security risk or any dangerous or hazardous substances,” she adds.

Lost & found is dealt with by the customer care desk in the central atrium of the shopping centre. It is a core function for Incentive FM.

All mislaid items are entered into the lost & found book at the care desk. They are kept for up to two months before being bagged up and stored in the archives.

“We never dispose of anything,” says Smith. “If it is an item that can be identified, such as a credit card, a purse, or a wallet, we will always try to find the shopper immediately using the PA system,” she explains.

Rightful owners

If a customer wants to retrieve a lost item the care desk team try to establish whether they are the rightful owner by asking for a description of the item. “We ask them to sign for the item as well as taking at least one form of identification and an address and phone number,” explains Smith. “Just in case they turn out not to be the real owner.”

Resource Group handles lost & found for the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE) in Sheffield. This includes tram and overground train stations, a large shopping centre and a coach departure point.

“We have trams and trains nearby so people could be coming to the shopping centre from anywhere in the country. It makes it difficult for people to know where they have lost something,” says Bill Russell, Resource Group’s service delivery manager at SYPTE.

“You name it, we’ve seen it. From size 44GG bras and ladies’ toys, to two weeks’ worth of holiday clothes, including tickets and passports,” he adds.

To claim items, members of the public must go to the customer service desk, confirm their ID and describe the items that they are claiming. They then sign to say the item has been received and contact details are recorded.

Lost money is a more serious matter. If it is found in a purse or wallet it is counted by two employees and then, just like any other valuable, it is secured straight away at the travel information centre, which banks money for safekeeping.

Mobile phones regularly turn up. “We try to ring them if they have numbers such as ‘home’, ‘mum’, or ‘dad’ listed in the contacts,” says Russell. “We’ve had a few responses, but other times we get nothing. A lot have probably been stolen, or pick-pocketed in the centre so the SIM cards will have been changed, or erased,” he explains.

Finders keepers

Such items are retained for three months and then shredded. “Passports and driving licences are easier because they can be returned to the passport office or the DVLA,” he continues. Usually, people don’t know where they have lost something and therefore never reclaim it.

If the rightful owner fails to turn up after three months the person who handed it in can claim it. “This sometimes happens, especially if it is an electrical item such as an MP3 player. Occasionally people will claim items of clothing if they are new,” says Russell.

FM provider Interserve is responsible for a range of environments, from shopping centres to hospitals and offices to schools. However, the role of lost & found is more often dependent on the facility Interserve maintains and the services it provides rather than its role as a support services provider. Interserve believe that in a customer-facing environment where it manages services such as information desks and reception areas, it is usually appropriate for it to manage these services for its clients.

“Where we do provide lost & found facilities, they are managed in line with the customer’s requirements,” explains Maria Kitching, managing director — health at Interserve . “Even where formal lost & found facilities aren’t operated, we’d undertake a similar protocol to ensure that items aren’t mislaid or thrown away by mistake,” she adds.

Safety measures

The collection and storage of lost items can often be a problem though, especially in transient environments. Interserve aims to strike a balance between the likelihood of them being collected and the time it holds an item.

“On average this is between one and three months, after which we’ll donate what items and cash we can to local charities,” says Spencer.

At the Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle, all kind of objects are handed in, the most common being, jewellery, hats and gloves. In a hospital, property is most often abandoned in the public walkways and toilets. Manchester Arndale has also seen its fair share of unusual lost items — from crutches to bio-lab specimen bottles.

Items are received by Interserve employees, either at the reception desk or collected by the security team. When lost property is handed in directly, details are taken and an attempt is made to trace the owner.

Sodexo Prestige handles several major events such as Ascot and the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. “Our clients handle the lost property process. If our staff find any lost property they must follow the clients’ procedures and give it to an appropriate person or place it in the pre-determined area,” says Paul Boon, events director, at Sodexo Prestige.

Treasure, I land?

The difference between lost property and treasure. To be considered ‘treasure’ and not mislaid property, the item must have been deliberately hidden or concealed, and sufficiently long ago so that the original owner is dead or not discoverable. Treasure is the property of the Crown. It includes items made from gold or silver as well as groups of coins from the same find which are at least 300 years old.

What do I do with treasure? If you find treasure, you must report it to the coroner of the district where you found it within 14 days. If you fail to report your discovery without a reasonable excuse, you will be committing a criminal offence.

What happens next? An inquest will decide whether the object is treasure and, if so, who the finder is. This may happen if the object is likely to be treasure and a museum wants to acquire it. The process can take several months