Dubai Police surprise tourist with USD 30,000 watch she lost one year ago

Ahmed

January 7, 2023

A Kyrgyz tourist, who lost a watch worth USD 30,000 (Dh110,000) during her visit to Dubai, never thought she would ever get her luxury timepiece back; after all, she didn’t file a report when it went missing one year ago.

When she returned to the city recently, however, the woman got the biggest surprise as the Dubai Police’s Lost and Found Department returned the watch.

It turned out she left the watch in the hotel room where she was staying, according to the Dubai Police’s General Department of Criminal Investigation.

The tourist noticed that it was missing only after a traffic accident she got into upon returning to her home country. Assuming that she dropped it somewhere during the incident, she did not report the lost item to the Dubai authorities.

Maj-Gen Jamal Salem Al Jallaf, director of the General Department of Criminal Investigation, said the watch was surrendered to them by a hotel that said one of their Kyrgyz guests left it behind.

“We couldn’t reach the owner straight away since the number left at the hotel registration was that of a travel agency. With further investigation, we got hold of her contact information and immediately tried contacting her through her phone number and social media account, yet to no avail,” he said.

The Dubai Police then kept the watch and recorded the incident — so when the Kyrgyz came back, the authorities were able to hand it to her.

The tourist, who had long given up on seeing her precious watch again, was extremely happy as she extended her gratitude to the police.