Why losing possessions need never happen again

Irish people lose more than €400m in personal possessions each year.

A recent survey by market researchers OnePoll, which questioned 3,500 people found that 43% of people lose two or more belongings annually, with the average person losing property worth €192. Less than half of lost items are recovered.

The stress and inconvenience of trying to find lost luggage, smartphones and laptops may become a bit easier thanks to a new product that helps reunite owners with lost property.

The tagging system, LuggageHunters, which has been developed in Ireland and China, is a set of coded labels and tags linked to two mobile phone numbers chosen by the owner.

LuggageHunters is the brainchild of Brian Walsh and Ken Bogle of iServe Technology Limited, in Rathcoole, Dublin, and the company has invested in the region of €150,000 developing the product.

The OnePoll research also found most property losses occur between 8am to 9am and from 6pm onwards. Property loss also spikes between midday and 2pm weekdays with most losses occurring in December.

Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick are prime locations for lost property with more items reported lost or stolen there than any other cities and towns in Ireland.

The most commonlylost item is the smartphone which accounts for 39% of all item lost by men and 27% by women.

“LuggageHunters is a secure product letting ‘finders’ communicate with the owner, and alerting the owner to where their property is,” says Mr Walsh of iServe.

“LuggageHunters allows people of different languages to communicate instantly, with an automatic online translation feature, and total anonymity as only a code, never a mobile number or any personal detail, is used online, protecting the individual’s identity,” he says.

The system is priced at €14.95.