No - I did not get arrested.
Back in October - specifically the first of - I lost my keys. This REALLY sucked because cutting keys is expensive - the cheapest place in Jyväskylä was 30€ for a key and it's not an identical one because of the brand name.
Thing is - if you lose your keys - you better hope to God you can find them - depending on your rental agreement plan. My friend's rental agreement states that if he loses a key - of which he has 2 or 3 copies - he must pay nearly 400€ (some crazy amount of money anyway) to get new keys made along with the installation of a new lock. Yeah - this stuff is crazy expensive!
If you lock yourself out - your building maintenance company will charge you - minimum 10€ to let you back inside and if it's late at night - even more.
Every building has different rules - so check your rental agreement!
ANYWAY - lost my keys on my way to work October first. I was super upset because I also had my keys to my storage unit upstairs (of which I only had one copy), I had a key for my ex's home in JKL, I had a couple key chains of sentimental value and I was stuck outside my door with 4 bags of groceries...a lot of it needing to go into the fridge or freezer!
I was able to get back in since my friend carries a spare and was leaving work soon anyway - so I got lucky.
I re-traced my steps multiple times and no luck. I checked the Föli bus station, the local shops nearby, my landlord's office, turned my flat inside out...even my work place - nope.
Then I heard I should go to the Turku Police station - where you can only pick up lost & found items between 9am -12pm. This was the tricky part because I work during those hours...but I managed to arrange my schedule to go down two days later and no luck.
Once you enter the police station - you must leave your belongings into a tray and it needs to be scanned before you are allowed inside.
Inside there is a glass tower case full of keys and each month they are received - they are collected together on a shelf. Every 3 months they empty out the oldest month's worth of keys.
I checked a total of 3x over the last three months and no luck.
I had called and e-mailed them and they said they would let me know (back in October) that if they saw my keys - which were pretty distinct - they would call me - but never did.
Anyhow - not a huge deal because my ex moved out of his place over the Christmas holidays and his rental agreement was not so strict - so I just paid to have a cheap copy of his key cut and that was acceptable.
It was thanks to a Facebook group called "Turkuintel : varastettu/etsintäkuulutus/sos" that a friend recommended I post there a photo of my keys - that I knew my keys were back at the police station.
Someone was in the police station last week and kindly shared a photo of the lost keys cabinet.
I zoomed in on the photo and spotted a dog clicker that could be mine - I mean, what are the chances anyone else carries a dog clicker on their key ring??
I went in there yesterday morning and checked the cabinet before taking a number - and SUCCESS! They were there!
I was so happy!
I then went to the front where I had to get a number and I pushed "INFO"...I waited 30 minutes to find out I pushed the wrong button.
PUSH THE THIRD OPTION!!!
She matched one of the keys and I was free to go!
Finland is known as one of the most honest countries in the world - and I am so grateful I live here!
I have previously lost a wallet in JKL years ago - with a freshly loaded monthly bus card, about 10€ cash and a ton of cards - bank card, library card, various loyalty and membership cards....and I got it back within 2 weeks. Nobody called me - even though my identification was in it.
Nothing was taken. The bus card wasn't even used!
Whereas one time I did lose my bus card - again freshly loaded and someone did use it and once I reported it to the bus office - they locked it down and it was confiscated from the person who used it. They got quite lucky to use it to begin with because it shows your gender and year of birth to the driver...
My ex has lost his passport in the woods while hiking - it fell out of his backpack and he got a call from the police as someone had dropped it off.
Not only is it quite safe to live in Finland - it's a very honest country - which is greatly appreciated by many.
LAFA
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