In Japan, the lost-and-found property system dates to a code written in the year 718. The first modern lost and found office was organized in Paris in 1805. Napoleon ordered his prefect of police to establish it as a central place “to collect all objects found in the streets of Paris”, according to Jean-Michel Ingrandt, who was appointed the office’s director in 2001. However, it was not until 1893 that Louis Lépine, then prefect of police, organized efforts to actively track down the owners of lost items.

The Lost and Found Service was introduced in Cameron on the 23rd of April 1999 by K. K. Bonteh. After a tour of the City of Yaounde in 1999, he discovered that on every square metre, there was a list item or document. Motivated by passion, he then decided to start picking up these articles and using both the print and the electronic media to link these items with the rightful owners. This philanthropic vision met with a lot of negative criticism from shallow-minded individuals and resistance from the forces of law and order who thought it was a mad idea and did everything to suppress it in vain. It was not until 2018 that the lost and found facility caught the positive attention of the government when it was officially launched at the National Delegation of National Security explaining the Modus Operandis amidst a fifteen man hierarchy of the police force. On that day, a website was equally launched through which lost and found items can either be reported or retrieved. Today, with the advent of modern high technology, lost items can be recovered faster.

Feel free to CONTACT US if you are a victim of lost or found a lost item. There’s a lot of joy and satisfaction in helping someone find a lost item or loved one.