This time it happens at Gare de Lyon, a french station, where I found a transportation card owned by someone that we’ll call Anna.
There was a picture on the card, so I start looking around me and said a bit loudly “Anna” to hope that someone will react. But no.
So I look for that person on internet, and found a LinkedIn profile that could match. Not every time easy with common name, but I had a good feeling ! With only her current company, I sent an email to [email protected]/fr, [email protected]/fr and it paid!
I received a minute later an OoO (Out of Office) message, with a mobile phone number.
I send a SMS to that phone number, and it works! I found the real owner of the card.
A bit scared at first on how I found her number, but pleased that I tried to find her and give her back her card.
That story is another one from a long serie, that I started in 2020 when I found an iPhone in the forest. Since, I like to find back owners of lost items. So far, I’m having around an 80% success rate.
I even created an Instagram account for that : https://www.instagram.com/iamhenriphone?igsh=dW5ibWpkcTM0MDZ4
In the end, I’ll be grateful if anyone tried to bring me back something I lost. So I just do it.
Since, I’ve discovered that my practice is called OSINT : Open Source Intelligence. Usage of public data to recreate a profile. And I kind of like doing it. Even if Dimitri find it scary 😅