Questions and answers about lost and found property

Start by retracing your route — where did you last have it? Then contact the place as soon as you can: most venues only have to keep found items for a minimum of 30 days, so time matters. If it was cash, jewellery, or electronics, contact the police instead. Search our directory to find the right contact.

No — go back to the shop. Items found inside a shop may be handed in there, and the shop must keep them for at least 30 days. Only money and valuables — phones, jewellery, expensive clothing — are passed on to the police. Call or turn up as soon as you can, and be ready to describe the item precisely. Find the shop in our directory.

Source: Hittegodsloven (the Danish Lost Property Act) § 1, stk. 2 (lovbekendtgørelse nr. 879 af 4. juli 2014, as amended by § 3 of lov nr. 124 af 30. januar 2021, in force 1 February 2021).

Contact the operator, not the station — lost property on trains and buses is usually collected centrally by the company (e.g. DSB, Metro), not locally. The faster you report it, the better — many operators sort finds daily. Note the route, time, and carriage number if you have them.

Contact the hotel directly — hotels are covered by the same 30-day rule as shops, and reception usually keeps its own lost-property list. Give your room number and the date, and describe the item precisely. Many hotels will send the item on if you cover the postage. If you also report the item lost here, our search agent keeps watching in case it turns up somewhere else. Report the item lost.

Source: Hittegodsloven (the Danish Lost Property Act) § 1, stk. 2 (lovbekendtgørelse nr. 879 af 4. juli 2014, as amended by § 3 of lov nr. 124 af 30. januar 2021).

Block your cards immediately — call your bank. Report the loss of your health insurance card or driving licence to Borgerservice (citizen services) if they were in the wallet. Then search for the place where you lost it — many wallets are found and handed in the same day.

Use Find My iPhone / Find My Device to see if the phone is still there and lock it remotely. Block your SIM card with your carrier. Note the IMEI number (dial *#06# on another phone or check the box) — it's your proof if someone has handed it in.

At a venue (shop, station, airport, etc.): The law guarantees you at least 30 days. After that, the venue may legally sell, give away, discard, or keep the item. If the police themselves received the item — typically valuables — they keep it for up to 3 months before it's sold at auction.

Source: Hittegodsloven (the Danish Lost Property Act) § 1, stk. 2 (venues) and § 4 (the police) (lovbekendtgørelse nr. 879 af 4. juli 2014, as amended by § 3 of lov nr. 124 af 30. januar 2021).

Yes, if more than 30 days have passed. After 30 days a shop, a hotel or a station may lawfully sell, give away, discard or use forgotten items nobody has collected — and you then have no claim to the item and no claim to compensation. So every day counts: contact the venue immediately, and report the item lost on lost-and-found.dk (hittegods.dk, the Danish edition), so you hear from us if it turns up somewhere else. If the item is valuable — a phone, a wallet, jewellery — it isn't at the shop but with the police (see "What happens to unclaimed items?").

Source: Hittegodsloven (the Danish Lost Property Act) § 1, stk. 2, last sentence (lovbekendtgørelse nr. 879 af 4. juli 2014, as amended by § 3 of lov nr. 124 af 30. januar 2021, in force 1 February 2021).

It's usually free to collect your things from a venue like a shop or station. If the police are holding your item, they may charge a finder's reward and expenses before you can collect it — the amount is set by the police based on the item's nature and value. Searching and finding the right place on hittegods.dk is always free.

Source: Hittegodsloven (the Danish Lost Property Act) § 3 and § 6 (lovbekendtgørelse nr. 879 af 4. juli 2014).

Bring ID, and be ready to describe the item precisely: brand, colour, any damage, serial number/IMEI, and its contents (e.g. a bag). The more specific you are, the faster the venue can confirm it's yours.

Often yes, but it's up to the individual venue. Give the person a written authorisation with your name, their name, and what's being collected, and have them bring their own ID plus ideally a copy of yours.

The police typically hold onto keys longer than other items, since they're hard to identify without a description of the keyring or building. Consider contacting a locksmith if the keys give access to your home — and avoid keeping an address written on a keyring, whether you lose or find one.

First check whether the municipality has moved it as an "abandoned bike" — this typically happens near stations and in city centres. If it's gone without explanation, it may be stolen: the police keep a frame-number register at politi.dk, so it's worth knowing yours. If you're sure it was stolen, report it to the police rather than just searching for it as lost property.

This is a different process from ordinary lost property. Report the loss to the police, and order a new passport or driving licence via Borgerservice (citizen services) — these can't just be found and picked up like ordinary items. If you find the original again after reordering, it's usually no longer valid.

Your receipt tells you which company to contact — not a specific individual driver. If you don't have the receipt, check your payment app or bank transaction for the time and amount, and contact the company's customer service with those details.

Act fast — some airports only hold valuables for a few days before forwarding them or handing them to the police. Contact the airport's own lost & found office directly, not your airline, unless the item went missing on board the aircraft itself.

It's entirely up to the individual venue — some offer shipping for a fee, others require pickup in person. hittegods.dk doesn't broker shipping itself; ask the venue directly when you contact them.

Check back after a few days — new finds aren't always logged instantly. If the venue still hasn't found it and it's a valuable item, contact the police. If you register your lost item here, we also create an automatic search agent that keeps watching for you. You'll hear from us if a possible match turns up.

This varies a lot between policies, and the rules for loss (as opposed to theft) are often stricter. We can't advise on your specific policy — contact your insurer and ask specifically about cover for items lost outside the home.

It depends on what you found. Valuables — cash, jewellery, electronics — must always go to the police. Other items can be handed in where you found them; if you know the owner, you can also just return it directly. See the full step-by-step guide.

No. Things you find inside a shop can be handed to the staff — the shop then takes over responsibility under the law. If you find something in the street or another public place, the starting point is still the police, unless you know the owner yourself. See the guide to found items.

Source: Hittegodsloven (the Danish Lost Property Act) § 1, stk. 1 and 2 (lovbekendtgørelse nr. 879 af 4. juli 2014, as amended by § 3 of lov nr. 124 af 30. januar 2021).

Only valuables: Money, valuable jewellery, electronics, and expensive clothing must always be handed to the police — regardless of which venue found them.

Source: Hittegodsloven (the Danish Lost Property Act) § 1, stk. 2 (lovbekendtgørelse nr. 879 af 4. juli 2014, as amended by § 3 of lov nr. 124 af 30. januar 2021, in force 1 February 2021).

Yes, potentially — but the law doesn't set a fixed percentage. If the owner gets the item back via the police, the police commissioner sets a finder's reward based on the item's nature and value, where it was found, and the circumstances of the find.

Source: Hittegodsloven (the Danish Lost Property Act) § 6 (lovbekendtgørelse nr. 879 af 4. juli 2014).

No. Found property must be handed to the police as soon as possible, unless you know the owner yourself and return it to them directly — you can't just keep it. If it was found at a venue like a shop or station, you can hand it in there instead. Deliberately keeping someone else's property is unlawful. Keeping found property can be punishable as ulovlig omgang med hittegods — unlawful handling of found property — under straffeloven § 277.

Source: Hittegodsloven (the Danish Lost Property Act) § 1 (lovbekendtgørelse nr. 879 af 4. juli 2014, as amended by § 3 of lov nr. 124 af 30. januar 2021); straffeloven (the Danish criminal code) § 277 (lovbekendtgørelse nr. 1294 af 7. november 2025).

Hand it to the police, not an ordinary lost-property venue — suspected stolen goods (e.g. a bike with no owner nearby) belong with the police, who can check it against reported thefts and frame-number records.

Cash must always be handed to the police, regardless of the amount or where you found it. You'll get a receipt when you hand it in, and if the owner comes forward, you may be entitled to a finder's reward.

Source: Hittegodsloven (the Danish Lost Property Act) § 1, stk. 2 (lovbekendtgørelse nr. 879 af 4. juli 2014, as amended by § 3 of lov nr. 124 af 30. januar 2021, in force 1 February 2021).

The more specific, the better: brand, colour, size, distinguishing marks or damage, serial number/IMEI, and where and when it was found. Those details make it far easier for an owner to recognise their item, and they are exactly the details our automatic matching uses.

In short: you must hand in what you find — either directly to the owner if you know them, or to the police. If you found it at a venue like a shop or station, they can accept it instead, but valuables must still go to the police. The law dates from 2014 (as amended in 2021) — several other sites online still, unfortunately, cite an older, outdated version.

Source: Hittegodsloven (the Danish Lost Property Act) § 1, stk. 2 (lovbekendtgørelse nr. 879 af 4. juli 2014, as amended by § 3 of lov nr. 124 af 30. januar 2021, in force 1 February 2021).

The law guarantees you at least 30 days. After that, the venue may legally sell, give away, discard, or keep the item. Money, valuable jewellery, electronics, and expensive clothing must always be handed to the police — regardless of which venue found them.

Source: Hittegodsloven (the Danish Lost Property Act) § 1, stk. 2 (lovbekendtgørelse nr. 879 af 4. juli 2014, as amended by § 3 of lov nr. 124 af 30. januar 2021, in force 1 February 2021).

If the police assess an item as worth less than 500 kr, the law's ordinary rules on reclaim deadlines, auctions, and finder's rewards no longer apply to it — the police can decide its fate faster. That's one more reason to act quickly if you're looking for something of lower value.

Source: Hittegodsloven (the Danish Lost Property Act) § 7a (lovbekendtgørelse nr. 879 af 4. juli 2014).

At a shop, a hotel or a station: after 30 days the venue may sell, give away, discard or use the item itself. With the police: if the owner doesn't come forward within 3 months of the police receiving the item, it's sold at auction (bikes and mopeds after just 4 weeks, though). If the proceeds go uncollected, a third goes to the finder and the rest to the state treasury. Items of very low value may instead be donated or discarded. The police's auctions are held as internet auctions today — see "Where do the police sell lost property — can I buy it at auction?".

Source: Hittegodsloven (the Danish Lost Property Act) § 1, stk. 2, § 4 and § 7 (lovbekendtgørelse nr. 879 af 4. juli 2014, as amended by § 3 of lov nr. 124 af 30. januar 2021).

Yes. Lost property nobody has claimed within three months (bikes and mopeds: four weeks) is sold by the police at public auction or internet auction. Several police districts — among them Københavns Politi, Københavns Vestegns Politi, Nordsjællands Politi, Midt- og Vestsjællands Politi and Nordjyllands Politi — currently sell via Lauritz.com under "Politiets auktioner over hittegods, cykler og koster"; other districts advertise their auctions on politi.dk. What's on offer changes constantly. If you've lost something yourself, report it before it ends up at auction — after the sale the item is gone, and only the proceeds can be paid out to you, and only within the deadline. Find your lost-property office on the map of Denmark (opens in a new tab).

Source: Hittegodsloven (the Danish Lost Property Act) § 4 and § 5 (lovbekendtgørelse nr. 879 af 4. juli 2014); politi.dk and lauritz.com, checked 5 September 2026.

Not legally — the law doesn't distinguish between something being forgotten, lost, or otherwise misplaced. In practice it's treated the same either way: it's found property, regardless of how it ended up where it was found.

hittegods.dk is a portal, not a storage depot: we store nothing — we find the place. We bring together every lost & found office in Denmark — municipalities, police, transport operators, shops, and attractions — in one place, so you can quickly find the right contact. Browse the map of Denmark to find your area.

Both lost-and-found.dk and hittegods.dk (the Danish version) are completely free to use. Searching is free, registering lost and found items with photos is free, and automatic alerts about possible matches are free. Right now, being connected is also free if a possible match is confirmed. In time, a small service fee will apply to that final step, and only that: we never charge for searching or registering.

No. hittegods.dk doesn't store physical items — we point you to the right place where your things actually are. Your item is with the venue where it was lost or found, not with us.

Every venue carries a badge showing when we last manually verified it. If a venue hasn't been confirmed yet, we show that clearly rather than guessing at information we haven't verified.

Yes — use the suggestion form, and give us the place's name and city. We'll review it and add it if it fits.

Right now. Tap "I have lost something" or "I have found something" on the front page and we'll guide you through in a couple of minutes. If a possible match turns up, we notify you automatically.

It depends on the venue. Some update daily, others less often. If you report your item lost here, our matching engine automatically checks every new find straight away.