Dh6.25m cash, items lost by travellers at Dubai airports in 2016

Khaleej Times -- 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, 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.

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.

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.