As promised, here is my second edition of “What Would You Do?” 

This week’s question is:  What would you do if you found a purse or a wallet left behind, or even a phone? Everyone has left something behind at one time or another. Maybe you dropped your wallet or your phone and never realized it. 

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Let’s start with a scenario. You have gone out to eat with your family or friends. You are enjoying the company. You finish your meal and continue conversing with your group. The server brings you your check, so you proceed to get your money out to pay. You pay the bill and continue to enjoy the company. Everyone parts ways in front of the restaurant and then drive away, completely forgetting your phone which you left on the windowsill of the booth you ate at.

Don’t deny it, we have all done this at least once in our life and will probably do it again at some point. You realize some time later you realize it is missing. You call the restaurant to inquire about your lost item. You are told that it is there, that a customer had turned it in to the manager. You are so grateful.

Now switch gears. You are the customer that found the phone. You sit down with your significant other and notice it was left behind on the windowsill.

Would you take it with you? Do you go to the manager and return the forgotten belonging? Would you take it with you and try to contact the person on your own? There are so many different ways that this could be handled, though one option is wrong no matter how you look at it.  

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I would have spoken to the manager and left my contact information for the owner of the item. Then I would try to use the phone itself to reach the owner. If I wasn’t able to get in touch with the owner I would have proceeded to return the phone to one of its service provider’s locations.

Now what if the item left behind was a wallet or a purse? Looking for a driver’s license or identification card is always a smart first step. You could return it by hand or by mail.

I spoke to people around campus and the consensus was that they would either try to contact the owner or turn it in to the lost and found or manager. Most said the latter.

Ask yourself “What would I do if I found someone’s purse, wallet or phone?”