A Wedding, A Missing Purse, and the DVDs To Provide the Solution?

[Ian Atkins]

This might possibly be the weirdest email I have ever received. I've changed the names to protect the innocent. LOL. I've contacted the wedding planner to see how to handle it, but this could just as easily be a terrible scam or a legitimate finding:

Good Morning,

My name is John Doe. My friend found Jane's purse on a running trail in Richmond, Virginia. We are hopeful that it was stolen, and that Jane is safe and well. There are 3 wedding video’s in the purse produced by Ians Creations, which is why I’m reaching out to you.

Would you please foreword the couple my contact information? I’d like Jane to get her purse and it’s contents back (minus a wallet, unfortunately) I will also be contacting the police in the morning to report it found.

I’d greatly appreciate your help in this matter, and thank you in advance.

Regards,

John Doe

[Clive McLaughlin]

Interesting. The person named was in fact one of your clients? Do you give out three copies like he found? Was he able to describe what the wedding films looked like?

I'm terrible in these instances. I'd be inclined to continue the communication out of curiosity! Where would the harm be in giving HIS details to the couple. Not like he's asking you to give HIM details about THEM.

Could be genuine... but seems weird alright!

[Roger Gunkel]

One thing that seems slightly odd to me is that he mentioned that the wallet was missing. How would he know there was ever a wallet in it if he hadn't contacted the couple unless of course he had taken it himself and was perhaps hoping to also get a reward from the couple for 'finding it'. Also why is he contacting you rather than the'friend' who found it? His comment about contacting the police might be a ploy to divert attention from his own involvement.

I'd first ring your client to check that they lost the purse and videos, although I'm surprised they haven't contacted you already for replacement copies.

Roger

[Jim Michael]

Naturally one would look for identification in a wallet in order to find the owner. Seems like a reasonable request for someone trying to find the owner given the missing wallet. Why not contact your customer and ask if she' s missing anything like a purse?

[Kyle Root]

Yeah man. Call your clients and check and see from their side if they've lost anything.

For some reason, scams on video and photo folks are really on the rise it seems in recent months. On several photo forums I'm on, I've noticed an increase on reports of "questionable" inquiries. Myself, I'm now "more regularly" getting very odd (bad English) requests via email and text even.... within say the past 2-3 months.

Be careful out there.

[Ian Atkins]

Originally Posted by Roger Gunkel

One thing that seems slightly odd to me is that he mentioned that the wallet was missing. How would he know there was ever a wallet in it if he hadn't contacted the couple unless of course he had taken it himself and was perhaps hoping to also get a reward from the couple for 'finding it'. Also why is he contacting you rather than the'friend' who found it? His comment about contacting the police might be a ploy to divert attention from his own involvement.

I'd first ring your client to check that they lost the purse and videos, although I'm surprised they haven't contacted you already for replacement copies.

Roger

Roger...I wonder about every single question you have asked. The only element that has truth to it is that I did provide the bride with 3 DVD copies. But she lives nearly 3 hours from the location where the purse was found.
I'm hoping the planner can serve as the intermediary so that I don't come across as weird for emailing her out of the blue and asking..."Hey! Have you lost your purse recently?" LOL. Will update...

[David Barnett]

How long ago did you ship the DVDs? If it was a week or so ago it may be plausible. If it's a month or two ago I would find it unlikely a bride would be carrying around all 3 dvds with her.

Does seem odd tho, if it's a scam of sorts I wonder where its heading, unless its the whole 'Please wire transfer me the money to cover shipping costs' or something.

[Jeff Harper]

I just want to know how the story ends.

I would contact the couple directly, but that's just me. Please just tell us how it plays out.

[Mark Watson]

Tell him to turn it over to the police and have the police contact you for assistance.


Mark

[Ian Atkins]

The bride emailed me. He car was in fact broken into on Saturday!
Somehow the purse and DVDs traveled over 120 miles away before being abandoned.
I have forwarded her the contact information for the person who emailed me and offered my assistance in any way I can help. I didn't ask if she was missing her wallet, but I'm hoping she will let me know once the purse is retrieved. I also emailed back the finder but have not yet heard from him.

[Jeff Harper]

Guess you'll need to burn a few copies of her wedding video.

I wonder if the person who contacted you was the thief.

[Vince Pachiano]

How sad that we have crafted a society where we automatically are suspicious of a good samaritan :(

In a opposite story, Fed-Ex delivered my package to the wrong house.
The seller already credited me a refund, but somewhere,
somebody has a package with my name & address on it.

A simple google-search would reunite me with my package, but the SCUM decided to keep it.
Thievery is thievery, no matter how acquired. Maybe not in the eyes of the law, but in the eyes of Karma!

[Kyle Root]

How long has the package been missing?

I just read a thread on our neighborhood FB page where someone was saying a package of theirs had been dropped off in our hood, but not at their house... and she was asking everyone to look.

It took about 36 hours before it was returned to her. I'm not sure if people were out of town or what.

I know personally, we rarely check our front porch unless we know we're getting something because we always enter and exit through the garage.

[Ian Atkins]

From the finder:

Thank you for those kind words…John Doe just picked up Jane's purse. The good news is, her wallet was not in that particular purse at the time of the theft. The bad news is, their back window got busted in in the process of the crime.

Hopefully they can put the whole incident behind them.

Thank you for making it all possible!

[Denis Danatzko]

It seems to have turned out well; glad for that, but I must be missing something. If I was contacted out of the blue like this, I'd simply ask the the "finder" to ship the DVDs to me COD and once I rec'd them, I'd review them and, if legit, then I'd contact and deal with my customer. I don't see the need to go back/forth with some stranger, potentially subjecting a customer to unnecessary grief, and I suspect the good will it might generate between me and my customer could prove worthwhile in the future. Even if this were a bogus attempt of some kind, the worst that would happen is that I'd be out a few bucks for shipping.