About lost and found
If you have found lost property, you must hand it over to the police. If you find lost property at public institutions, amusement establishments, shops, or public transport, you can alternatively hand in the lost property there.
If you immediately can see who the lost property belongs to, you may hand it over or send the lost property to the owner. This could be the case, for example, if you find a membership card where the name and address are provided. You must deliver the item immediately.
Lost property can be handed in to the nearest police station. Find police station
When you hand in lost property that is cash, you will receive a receipt.
You will only receive a reward if the lost property has a value of mininum 500 DKK, if it is handed over to the police, and if the owner is found. As a general rule, the reward is 10% of the value of the lost property.
However, in the case of large amounts of cash or items of significant value, the police may decide that the reward is to be less than 10%. If the item found is sold by auction, you will be paid one third of the earnings after deductions and costs.
You cannot count on receiving a reward in the following cases:
- When you submit lost property unreasonably long after it has been found
- When you find the owner yourself
- When you hand in motor vehicles, bicycles, strollers, or carts that are found in a street, road or other public space
- When the lost property is found in homes, stairwells, basements, courtyards, shops, public offices, entertainment establishments, pubs, public transportation, or similar places.
You can choose to call for items that have a serial number or other unique number. In such cases, dial 114 and report it to the police or show up in person. You will receive a receipt when you report something lost.
The receipt can be used to document the incident for your insurance company or in order to apply for an emergency travel document/passport. If your passport or ID-card has been lost, the police will report it disappeared in an international database to avoid misuse.
If you have lost an object on the train, contact DSB Customer Service. DSB stores lost property for seven days, after which it is handed over to the police.
If you have lost an item in a public institution, business or similar location, the item may have been stored there.
Lost property is registered in the police district where it has been handed in, and thus cannot be searched for in other police districts. Therefore, you must show up in person at the lost and found office or police station in the police district where you believe you have lost the item, where the police can help you search among the many filed items.
You can also send an email where you specify what you are looking for. It speeds up the proces if you write in the subject field that the inquiry is regarding lost property.
When you contact the lost and found office regarding a lost item, you must be able to identify yourself in order to collect it. If the item has a serial number or similar identification number, the police will expect you to know the number.
You must also expect to pay a reward to the person who has handed in your lost prorperty.
The police keep lost property for up to three months, depending on the nature of the lost property. Please note that bicycles are only stored for one month. If the owner of a piece of lost property has not contacted us before the above deadline, the police sells the submitted item at auction.
Special rules apply to lost property which is worth less than 500 DKK. Like all other lost property, items must be handed over to the police. However, the police are not required to store these, pay rewards to finders etc.
This means that these pieces of lost property are stored in a lost and found box for a short period of time. Lost property, which is not collected, is either destroyed, handed out for public or charitable purposes or sold at auction.