Losing your passport or valuables

Information

Losing your passport or valuables
1. Examine everything to make sure you haven’t simply misplaced the item or items.
2. Note the time, place, and exact description of the item.
3. Find the closest police station and report the loss. Attention: The police will complete a “Verlustprotokoll” (Loss Report) which you must keep. It serves as proof to insurance companies, officials, etc. as to what happened.
4. Look for the local Lost and Found Office and report the loss. These offices are frequently co-located with the so-called Bürgerbüros (Citizens’ Offices), which are the first places citizens can go for assistance at City Hall or its administrative offices. If someone else found the lost item and turned it in, you may recover it by handing over the Loss Report, whereupon the item will be returned to you. If there is no Loss Report, you will be required to give an exact description of the item and how it was lost. As a rule, missing items can only be returned if the rightful owner can be absolutely identified.
Attention: The rightful owner owes the finder of the item a “Finder’s Reward” of 5% of the item’s value, as long as the value is no greater than 500€. With more valuable items, the reward rises to 8% above a value of 500€. Special conditions apply to public transportation, where you owe no Finder’s Reward for objects with a value up to 50€, but 3% for values above 50€. The reward is also 3% for lost animals.
Attention: Transport agencies such as the German Railways or Airports maintain their own lost and found offices, and generally have their own rules and regulations. Items will be kept at least four weeks and at most 6 months. If not claimed by the owner within those times, the item defaults to the finder. If the finder doesn’t register his/her information with the office and can’t be located, the item is considered to belong to the city in which the lost and found office is located, and the item may be auctioned off.
5. If your travel documents are lost, you can get a temporary/emergency replacement. You can get it from the Bundespolizei (Federal Police) or foreign officials. In addition, you can get it from officials handling international transit controls, such as customs officials or the Coast Guard. Once you arrive in your home country, the document becomes invalid.