Dh6.25 million cash lost in Dubai unclaimed

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Dh6.25 million cash lost in Dubai unclaimed

Dubai - Revenues from recovered items and materials sold at auction reached Dh4.71 million last year

by

Amira Agarib

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Published: Tue 5 Dec 2017, 7:15 PM

The lost and found department of the Dubai Police transferred Dh6.25 million in cash to the state treasury in 2016.
Revenues from recovered items and materials sold at auction reached Dh4.71 million last year, compared to Dh3.86 million this year.
This was revealed by Colonel Rashid Bin Safwan, director of the lost and found department. He said that the cash found and handed over to the parties concerned during 2017 included $198,000, 10,000 Bahraini dinars, £15,000, ?80,000, 300,000 Qatari riyals and 3,000 Kuwaiti riyals.
Bin Safwan noted that among the found items were over 14,000 mobile phones, 1,679 smart board devices, 639 laptops, 1,217 cameras, 16,000 spectacles and 11,000 watches. These were sold during an auction held a month ago. More than 5,500 'lost and found' items were obtained this year, compared to 4,826 last year.
Besides, among the recovered items were marriage contracts and university degrees which will be sent to the authorities concerned. Other found materials included a new water cooler, a jet ski, electricity generator and a new Vertu mobile phone worth Dh60,000 and a 60-inch LCD TV.
Retrieving responsibility
The department has been instrumental in recovering and returning lost items to their owners, in accordance with the law No. 5 of 2015 issued by the Government of Dubai.
The department has a number of warehouses to store the hundreds of lost items which are brought from various police stations and other authorities. The authorities call the owners to receive them, especially ID cards, watches, mobile phones, and smart devices.
If no one collects it, they are sold in an auction and the money is transferred to the state treasury, after one year from the date of being brought in the warehouse.
Among the lost and found items were Emirates Identity cards, which will be sent to the department concerned. The passports of UAE nationals will be sent to the Department of Residence and Naturalisation and those of other countries to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for distribution to the respective consulates and embassies.
Every three months, the recovered documents and passports are sorted and sent to the authorities. Medicines and foodstuffs are destroyed, and shoes and clothing are transferred to charitable societies after the passage of the period prescribed by law.
How it works
According to the law, a person who finds a lost item should hand it over to the authorities concerned within 48 hours of finding it. else, the person keeping the lost item will be legally liable for its seizure.
Bin Safwan said that the Dubai Police honour people who hand over lost items by giving them a gift in kind and a certificate of appreciation as well.
There has been an increase in the number of found items which are not collected by their owners due to lack of public awareness about such a department's existence, he said. According to the law, the found items can be claimed within a year, even if it is sold.
He called on the public and tourists to report their lost items and communicate with the department to recover them. Efforts are being made by authorities at police stations to contact the owners of the found items and deliver it to them to their residence, even if they are live outside the country. Recently, the Dubai Police sent a lost and found phone back to a Chinese national and a 7kg-bag containing important cards to a Saudi national.
amira@khaleejtimes.com


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