Working during the first week of January is as difficult as the first week of returning to work after a long vacation. Despite the difficulties it is not all disadvantageous. I for one appreciate the less traffic and the uncongested public transport. There are also less colleagues at the office and one can better concentrate on the “after-year end tasks” the only disadvantage during this time is the cold, dark grey, windy and rainy weather. There was no positive thinking slogans, coffee, chocolate, music or tea that could uplift the spirit. I finally understood why the chances of getting depressed where higher during this period of time.

On one of these rainy, windy, dark grey days, I had just left the office and was heading to Hamilius bus stop to get the Tram to Lux-Expo. As the wind was blowing the rain sideways, I bent my head and firmly held on to the hoodie of my coat.

I crossed Rue Philippe II and while turning into Avenue Monterey, I walked past the Cartier boutique. This was on of those boutiques I would think twice before wasting mine and their time by saying “I am just looking around”. Especially when I knew very well that there was not a single thing in their shelves that I would freely be willing to give out my hard-earned money for.

I increased my walking speed to faster reach the Tram station and just as I bowed my head even lower and pulled my hoodie nearer to my face, I saw an object that startled my mind. I wasn’t sure if should stop or just continue walking. Laying on the ground just half a meter away from Cartier’s entrance was a Spuerkeess visa card. I finally decided to pick it up, turn it around and saw the name and pin at the back.

I wasn’t sure if someone had truly lost it or if it was one of those just for laughs pranks. On the other hand, who would have the time and energy to pull such a prank in this downpour.

Although totally inconvenient to my travel schedule, I walked over to the Spurkeess bank just behind Hamilius to drop off the card. Unfortunately, it was already closed and to my surprise they had no letter box! The police station was situated at Place Guillaume which was another fifteen minutes walk away.

As this situation was inconveniencing my travel schedule, I decided to take care of the lost and found item the next day. As I sat on the bus a thought came to my mind. We do live in a social media era and finding anyone is way much easier than before and most of the Luxembourg employees that I knew of were on LinkedIn.

The name of the person I was looking for was vey unique and therefore I knew that my chances of success were higher. LinkedIn proved to be more challenging than I had anticipated. I was able to find the person but not text them as they were not in my contacts list. I tried my chances on Instagram which had lesser restrictions and managed to text them that I had found their visa card and that they should contact me for details.

As I had not received any reply by the next morning, I headed straight to the Spurkeess bank to drop off the card but their opening hours were disastrous. It stated at the door that I had to wait until 09:00 am! This little adventure was costing me more time and effort than I was prepared to invest. As I was heading towards Place Guillaume I decided that I would drop it at “your friend and helpers place” at least they were open 24 hours. On my way there, I received a ton of messages on my Instagram account, where the owner had contacted me that she had lost the card and was grateful that I had found it and reached out to her.

We exchanged information on where we could meet and when she finally arrived, I confirmed her personalia and asked her to check her bank statements and if necessary, block her card. She thanked me over and over again and left.

When I retold the incident to a friend of mine, they were in awe and said that most people would have used the card to do online shopping especially with the card number and pin right at their reach. I explained that I was raised with integrity and honesty and that I would wish for the same if I ever lost my bank cards.

It is said, do good to others and it will come back to you in unexpected ways.

What would you have done in this situation?

By: Nessa