Teacher tackles a ‘lost and found’ cold case

DEAR AMY >> I am a recently retired teacher in the Central NY area, and I’m in a bit of a quandary.

Several years ago, a student brought in a rare collection of objects belonging to his grandfather.

He left them behind when he exited my classroom, so I put them in a bag and put them in my desk drawer to give to him later.

I completely forgot to hand them off to him all those years ago, and while cleaning out before retirement in June, I came across them, with no memory of who this boy is!

I believe these items are worth quite a bit of money and I want to return them, however, I’ve completely blanked out on who brought them in!

What should I do with these?

My husband suggested selling them and giving the proceeds to a worthy charity.

I like the idea, but they are not mine to sell. Thoughts? — Teacher in a

Quandary

DEAR TEACHER >> You should make more of an effort to find the rightful owner of these heirlooms before you decide on next steps.

I suggest using social media to try to find the child who originally left these items with you. It will be a great test of the reach and positive connections that are enabled when you ask for help solving a mystery.

You could start by posting this Q&A on Facebook.

Your school likely has a Facebook page that will permit a posting. Your local area or township might have a community listserv that will publish your query.

Also reach out to fellow teachers, the PTA, and any other parent and alumni groups affiliated with your school district.

You could post a photo of one of the objects, which might jog some memories. (If the owner emerges, you could ask them to identify other objects in the collection in order to verify the ownership.)

Ask others to share your post, and frame this as a generous and fun community challenge.

There have been some truly impressive lost-andfound stories (of wedding rings found on beaches or old photographs that cry out for identifying). You have an advantage because you are dealing with a known community of staff, students, and parents.

I’d love to think that your effort will eventually become a great lostand-found success story, and I hope you’ll keep in touch to let readers know how things turned out.