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background: I am a customer service/cashiering type person at a big ol' retail place.
Yesterday:A woman finds a cellphone in the bathroom at the back of the store. She comes up to the front to ask what we do with lost items. We have 3 lost and found bucket: one of big stuff (blankies, sweaters, kid's toys, canes, etc.), one of glasses, and one of cellphones, keys, and other small items. All wallets, checkbooks, purses, and IDs are immediately shoved down a hole into an office that only management has the keys to, so they stay safe until collected.
We tell the lady that we put it in the bucket and wait for someone to describe their phone. Many have gone unclaimed for months, but most of them are claimed within a day or two. If the phone is still on and it rings, we answer it and see if we can get information to contact the owner of the phone. In other words, we don't just had out cellphones and car keys to anyone who wants them. She asked us several times, each time wandering out into the store and then back to the service desk.
The lady didn't believe us. She wouldn't even let us look at the phone in case someone came up to identify it. She complained about another store apparently giving her lost cellphone out to another customer. She said we were untrustworthy, basically calling us thieves, and when the manager tried to explain to her that we don't steal the stuff or hand it out, she goes mental on her too. Says that we demanded the phone from her (we didn't, my coworker asked for it politely, which is a miracle, cause she's usually a bit snippy), and that we couldn't be trusted.
Lady leaves with the phone. Owner is upset because they've come by several times to try and retrieve it. Lady says she won't return it until the owner puts an ad in the paper. Owner calls own phone, psycho lady never answers the calls. Owner calls the cops, not sure if they can do anything.
TODAY:
Cops come by in the morning before I arrive to work. Psycho lady had done a return yesterday, so we had her name, and also saw her on the surveillance cameras, since we have about 6 at our counter. Not sure what they did after that but it was awesome that they showed up.
An ad showed up in the paper about a cellphone lost in *insertstorenamehere*'s bathroom.
Fast forward a few hours: I get a call from the phone answering person, who I am assuming got a call from the true owner of the phone. Here's what happened.
Psycho lady calls every name in the phone's memory and tells them that if they can describe the phone and give her $100, she will give the phone back. Owner really needed the phone back (as, incidentally, she wasn't the phone's real owner but the mother-in-law of owner, and had borrowed the phone) and that she'd be right down there to retrieve the phone. Owner goes over and describes the phone, and the lady gets the phone to receive her payment for it. The owner, understandably, wants to see the phone so that she isn't paying $100 for a phone that isn't hers. Psycho lady takes out the phone, owner snatches it from her, and drives off.
Psycho lady now has no phone, no $100, and possibly charges against her, considering the theft and extortion and all. Awesome!
Yesterday:A woman finds a cellphone in the bathroom at the back of the store. She comes up to the front to ask what we do with lost items. We have 3 lost and found bucket: one of big stuff (blankies, sweaters, kid's toys, canes, etc.), one of glasses, and one of cellphones, keys, and other small items. All wallets, checkbooks, purses, and IDs are immediately shoved down a hole into an office that only management has the keys to, so they stay safe until collected.
We tell the lady that we put it in the bucket and wait for someone to describe their phone. Many have gone unclaimed for months, but most of them are claimed within a day or two. If the phone is still on and it rings, we answer it and see if we can get information to contact the owner of the phone. In other words, we don't just had out cellphones and car keys to anyone who wants them. She asked us several times, each time wandering out into the store and then back to the service desk.
The lady didn't believe us. She wouldn't even let us look at the phone in case someone came up to identify it. She complained about another store apparently giving her lost cellphone out to another customer. She said we were untrustworthy, basically calling us thieves, and when the manager tried to explain to her that we don't steal the stuff or hand it out, she goes mental on her too. Says that we demanded the phone from her (we didn't, my coworker asked for it politely, which is a miracle, cause she's usually a bit snippy), and that we couldn't be trusted.
Lady leaves with the phone. Owner is upset because they've come by several times to try and retrieve it. Lady says she won't return it until the owner puts an ad in the paper. Owner calls own phone, psycho lady never answers the calls. Owner calls the cops, not sure if they can do anything.
TODAY:
Cops come by in the morning before I arrive to work. Psycho lady had done a return yesterday, so we had her name, and also saw her on the surveillance cameras, since we have about 6 at our counter. Not sure what they did after that but it was awesome that they showed up.
An ad showed up in the paper about a cellphone lost in *insertstorenamehere*'s bathroom.
Fast forward a few hours: I get a call from the phone answering person, who I am assuming got a call from the true owner of the phone. Here's what happened.
Psycho lady calls every name in the phone's memory and tells them that if they can describe the phone and give her $100, she will give the phone back. Owner really needed the phone back (as, incidentally, she wasn't the phone's real owner but the mother-in-law of owner, and had borrowed the phone) and that she'd be right down there to retrieve the phone. Owner goes over and describes the phone, and the lady gets the phone to receive her payment for it. The owner, understandably, wants to see the phone so that she isn't paying $100 for a phone that isn't hers. Psycho lady takes out the phone, owner snatches it from her, and drives off.
Psycho lady now has no phone, no $100, and possibly charges against her, considering the theft and extortion and all. Awesome!
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