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.

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.

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.

Sources: the Danish Lost Property Act, section 1(2), consolidated act no. 879/2014 as amended by act no. 124/2021 (venues); section 4 (the police).

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: the Danish Lost Property Act, sections 3 and 6, consolidated act no. 879/2014.

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. Soon you'll also be able to set up an automatic search agent that watches for you — join the waitlist and we'll notify you at launch.

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.

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

Source: the Danish Lost Property Act, section 1(2), consolidated act no. 879/2014 as amended by act no. 124/2021.

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: the Danish Lost Property Act, section 6, consolidated act no. 879/2014.

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.

Source: the Danish Lost Property Act, section 1, consolidated act no. 879/2014.

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: the Danish Lost Property Act, section 1(2), consolidated act no. 879/2014 as amended by act no. 124/2021.

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 will matter even more once our automatic matching feature launches.

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: the Danish Lost Property Act, section 1(2), consolidated act no. 879/2014 as amended by act no. 124/2021.

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: the Danish Lost Property Act, section 1(2), consolidated act no. 879/2014 as amended by act no. 124/2021.

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: the Danish Lost Property Act, section 7a, consolidated act no. 879/2014.

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.

Source: the Danish Lost Property Act, sections 4 and 7, consolidated act no. 879/2014.

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.

Yes — searching and finding the right place to ask is always free on hittegods.dk. Once we launch the matching feature (reporting lost/found items), a fee will apply, but only if a real match is found — we don't charge for searching.

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.

Not quite yet — we're building that feature. Once it's ready, you'll be able to report lost and found items directly on hittegods.dk and get notified automatically if there's a match. Join the waitlist and we'll email you at launch.

It depends on the venue — some update daily, others less often. Once our automatic matching feature launches, it'll happen instantly. Join the waitlist to be there from the start.