Good samaritan tracks down owner of lost wallet by sending messages to his bank account

When Tim Cameron lost his wallet while cycling home from work, he must have thought it was gone forever.

That was before a creative good Samaritan worked out a way to get it back to him - by sending messages to his bank account.

Online banking often allows users to send a short reference message when they transfer money to another account.

And because Tim’s helper had his bank details from the card, he was able to send four messages by transferring 1p at a time.

The story inspired some people to share their own unlikely experiences of returning lost property.

While others simply marvelled at the ingenious idea.

Tim told the Evening Standard:

I noticed the references so I gave the guy a call and it turns out he lived only 20 minutes from me.

I cycled round, got my wallet back and gave him a bottle of red wine.

It had all my bank cards and ID cards in it so it would have been an absolute disaster.

And the good Samaritan in question? That was a man called Simon Byford, who said the reaction to the story made his evening.

If you find a lost wallet now, you have no excuses for not returning it...

HT: Evening Standard

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