I dropped my wallet

Two weeks ago I had to take the train at 5:37AM to start my visa run. I was half asleep and the ticket counters weren’t open yet. I couldn’t figure out how to use the automated ticket dispensers, so a young lady helped me. I had to wait 15 minutes, so I sat down and began eating my breakfast. The young lady rushed over to me and signaled that I could board my train because the doors were open. I hurriedly got up and rushed to the train. I didn’t realize it but at that moment of switching gears from eating breakfast to getting on my train, I dropped my wallet. I had my cash, passport and ticket in my backpack, so I had enough $ for the trip. The next day I returned to the same train station thinking some kind Taiwanese soul had turned my wallet in. It had 4000NTD, my expired ARC, my ATM debit card and my US drivers’ license.

I broke down the possible outcomes as:

  1. Someone would turn it all in to the train administration.
  2. Someone would turn nothing in.
  3. Someone would keep the $ and turn in the rest to the train administration.

To date nothing has been returned. I went to the local police station to get an official declaration statement so I could get another ATM debit card. My policy regarding keeping cash around versus keeping it in the bank is: out of sight, out of mind. The bank gave me a new one immediately. I don’t care about the $ or the expired ARC, but I do want my US drivers’ license since it is an important identifier back in the States.

If you’ve had a similar loss, was anything returned to you?
Thanks!

Well, lost mine in the back of a taxi once, but it had my at the time landlords address in it, so the taxi driver posted it back to my landlord and only took enough money to cover the postage. I guess I was lucky… :thumbsup:

Well, my expired ARC showed my present address and workplace.

On New Year’s eve, at the river bank I dropped my whole satchel with keys to my house, drawers et al. Credit cards, money, and all those various cards one accumulates in TW Easy card, 7/11 etc. Anyways, next morning at 10 ish we got a call from the cops saying someone had brought forward our purse including my phone. We had no idea we had even dropped the whole thingy. The hubby drove to the Neihu Police station and they told him a lady, had picked up the purse and deposited it in the police station closest to her home. Everything from phone/money/cards and keys was intact. :thumbsup: YOu do have hope, try contacting the cops for foreigners only. They speak Engrish and are pretty co-operative.

I think that lady pickpocketed you. The reason I say that is quite simple. At some point, for every kid in this country, about two to three years into studying at a buxiban, there will be a question on an oral test that goes something like this:

What would you do if you found 1,000NTD?

Every time I asked this question every single kid answered, “I would hand it in to the police.” Given the high percentage of people attending buxibans here, I take this as a representative sample of how people in this country would behave if they found something valuable that did not belong to them.

By the same token, I am also thinking of investing in a company that makes kites. I have asked many children in this country, “What did you do on the weekend?”

Every single one answered, “I flew a kite.”

In a similar vein, I believe Taiwanese people must be the happiest people on the planet, and also deeply concerned about my happiness. I must have asked thousands of people here, “How are you?”

Again, amazingly, every single one has answered, “I’m fine thanks, and you?”

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GiT, were you being sarcastic?

Not at all. I’m telling the truth. Those things have actually happened to me. I’m telling you, stocks in kite companies!

A related old thread: Faith in Human Nature (Partially) Restored.

[quote=“GuyInTaiwan”]I think that lady pickpocketed you. The reason I say that is quite simple. At some point, for every kid in this country, about two to three years into studying at a buxiban, there will be a question on an oral test that goes something like this:

What would you do if you found 1,000NTD?

Every time I asked this question every single kid answered, “I would hand it in to the police.” Given the high percentage of people attending buxibans here, I take this as a representative sample of how people in this country would behave if they found something valuable that did not belong to them.

By the same token, I am also thinking of investing in a company that makes kites. I have asked many children in this country, “What did you do on the weekend?”

Every single one answered, “I flew a kite.”

In a similar vein, I believe Taiwanese people must be the happiest people on the planet, and also deeply concerned about my happiness. I must have asked thousands of people here, “How are you?”

Again, amazingly, every single one has answered, “I’m fine thanks, and you?”[/quote]

Your humor is of very high value. When you publish your comedic work, I’ll buy a copy. It was really great!

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What is the phone number for the ‘cops for foreigners only’?Just how good is the Engrish they speak?

Thanks!

Try 0800-024-111.

[quote=“GuyInTaiwan”]

What would you do if you found 1,000NTD?

Every time I asked this question every single kid answered, “I would hand it in to the police.” Given the high percentage of people attending buxibans here, I take this as a representative sample of how people in this country would behave if they found something valuable that did not belong to them.
"[/quote]

It can be fun to try to plumb the level at which this answer no longer applies. Some kids will claim to intend to turn $10 into the police. There must be a chapter on a Taiwanese test at some point about this concept.

I got married a few years back and my parents came here for the first time. My wife and I had drinks in our house a few nights before the wedding and after way too many glasses of wine my mum and dad got a
Taxi back to their hotel. Next morning my mum’s purse gone with credit cards ATM cards licence and 20k nt. We flagged down the taxi so no way of finding out which company it belonged to. Would you believe it the driver showed up at my house next day asking the security guys about any foreigners living here and left his card to call. Got everything back!

If I found 1000NT on the ground, I would pocket it. However, if someone came back looking for 1000NT, I would give them it.

If I found a wallet on the ground, I’d look for the owner; regardless of how much money was in it.

Tempo Gain: Well that’s because we foreigners don’t know our language. In English, for every question asked, there is a correct answer. Thus, learning to speak English is simply about being able to learn the list of correct answers. Everything else is a waste of time, and is in fact not speaking English, because it is incorrect. We know this because this experiment has been conducted tens of thousands of times in this country and the results replicated. For instance, the other day, my friend asked me how I was. I responded to him, “Not bad.” When I said that, I was not speaking English. In fact, I was speaking French.

[quote=“irishmoe”]I got married a few years back and my parents came here for the first time. My wife and I had drinks in our house a few nights before the wedding and after way too many glasses of wine my mum and dad got a
Taxi back to their hotel. Next morning my mum’s purse gone with credit cards ATM cards licence and 20k nt. We flagged down the taxi so no way of finding out which company it belonged to. Would you believe it the driver showed up at my house next day asking the security guys about any foreigners living here and left his card to call. Got everything back![/quote]

That story says a lot about the honesty of Taiwanese people ,as much as we foreigners like to slag them off at times.

I got a call a few years back to tell me that a taxi driver had turned my wallet in to a police station. I hadn’t realized it was gone at the time.
I turned up to collect it and all was there aside from all the cash, around 4,000NT in total. I don’t know if the taxi driver took it or the police. It seemed a bit daft to turn in a wallet and not the money as anyone would then know who took it I guess, but I didn’t lodge any complaint. I was just happy to get all my other bits and bobs back.

Agreed. One of my Chinese students apologized for my English once when I didn’t respond to a compliment by saying “Thank you.” (As they had been told to do in their textbooks.) She told the assembled company “Teacher often speaks not standard English.”

bababa: Haha. That’s great. I don’t think I ever used to say, “You’re welcome” before I came here. I used to say, “No problems” or “No worries” if anything.

Back on topic…

I haven’t travelled everywhere in the world, but I’ve actually found the people most likely to steal or not return things to be people from Western countries. Those fuckers will half inch (rhyming slang for steal: half inch rhymes with pinch, which is slang for steal) anything not nailed down.

Shame, same thing happened to my friend. She lost her wallet last week, and had to go for an operation on Friday. But couldn’t get a new Health card without an ARC…and ARCs take long…she got a 3 day slip, but will have to pay for the operation and hospital stay cash and get a refund…Bad timing!