Lost and found log for a restaurant: a form, a 30-day rule and what to do with what's left
Every restaurant collects things: sunglasses on the patio, a phone charger at the window seat, a kid's jacket, a wallet under a booth. Most of it is never claimed. The few calls you do get ("I think I left my keys there on Saturday?") go well only if someone knows where Saturday's keys are.
This is a lost-property routine for a café or restaurant: a tag for each item, a log, a claim check before anything is handed over, and a holding period with a plan for what's left. Injuries, illness complaints and other guest incidents are a different form, covered in our incident report form.
This is general information, not legal advice. Lost property law is set by each state, and some cities add their own rules. Check yours, or ask your local police department how they want found property handled.
What the law says (Florida, and everywhere else)
There's no federal rule for lost property at a restaurant; it's state law. Florida's is a useful example, because it has a section written for restaurants.
The general rule. In Florida, "Whenever any person finds any lost or abandoned property, such person shall report the description and location of the property to a law enforcement officer" (s. 705.102(1), Florida Statutes). Keeping it is theft: "It is unlawful for any person who finds any lost or abandoned property to appropriate the same to his or her own use" (s. 705.102(3)).
The restaurant option. Section 705.185 gives restaurants their own procedure. It covers property found "on the premises of a public food service establishment or a public lodging establishment licensed under part I of chapter 509, if the owner or operator of such premises elects to comply with this section". If you opt in:
- Found property "must be delivered to such owner or operator, who must take charge of the property and make a record of the date such property was found." So the employee who finds it hands it in, and you log the date.
- "If the property is not claimed by its owner within 30 days after it is found, or a longer period of time as may be deemed appropriate by the owner or operator of the premises, the owner or operator of the premises may not sell and must dispose of the property or donate it to a charitable institution that is exempt from federal income tax under s. 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code".
- The owner "may reclaim the property from the owner or operator of the premises at any time before the disposal or donation of the property".
So in Florida: log the date, hold for at least 30 days, never sell, then dispose or donate to a 501(c)(3). Quoted from the 2026 Florida Statutes.
Outside Florida: look up your state's lost property statute, or ask the police non-emergency line what they want from a business. Don't assume a restaurant option like Florida's exists where you are.
Our house rules
These are the choices this template makes. Change them to fit your state and your place.
Rule | Our choice |
|---|---|
Who takes items in | The manager on duty. Staff hand it over right away; nobody keeps anything "to give back later" |
Where it's kept | Ordinary items in a labeled bin in the office. Valuables (wallets, phones, cards, IDs, jewelry, cash, keys) in a locked drawer or safe |
Holding period | 30 days for everything, counted from the date found. We don't sell anything |
Food and drink left behind | Thrown out at close the same day. Not logged |
Medicine | Kept locked for the holding period, then ask the police non-emergency line how to get rid of it. Never donated |
IDs and bank cards | Locked up. If the person can be identified (name on a card), we try to reach them; after the holding period, IDs go to the police and cards are cut up |
Phones, laptops, tablets | Locked up and charged once a week so they still work when the owner calls. We never try to unlock them |
After 30 days | Ordinary items donated to a 501(c)(3) charity; anything that can't be donated is thrown out. The log records which |
Two things never to do: post a photo of a found wallet or ID on social media (it's someone's personal information), and hand an item over just because someone says "that's mine".
The item tag
Tie or tape a tag to each item when it's handed in. The number on the tag is the line on the log.
Lost and found tag | |
|---|---|
No. | |
Date and time found | |
Where found (table, booth, patio, restroom) | |
What it is | |
Found by | |
Logged by (manager) | |
Kept in | Bin / locked drawer |
Hold until | Date found + 30 days |
The lost and found log
No. | Date found | Where | Item and description | Found by | Kept in | Hold until | Claimed on | Claimed by (name, phone) | ID checked by | Disposed or donated on, and to whom |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Write the description so only the owner could match it. "Black phone" isn't enough to check a claim against. "Black phone, cracked corner, sticker of a lemon on the case" is.
Handing it back: the claim check
When someone calls or comes in:
- Ask them to describe it first: what it is, the color, anything distinctive, roughly when and where they left it. Don't describe the item to them.
- Match the description to the log. For a wallet or phone, ask something only the owner would know (what's in it, the lock screen picture).
- Check a photo ID for valuables, and write the name and phone number in the log.
- Have them sign or initial the log line, with the date.
- Someone collecting for a friend? Only with the owner on the phone and the description matching.
- Shipping it? Only once you're sure who it belongs to, and at their cost, by a service with tracking.
The monthly clear-out
On the first of every month, the manager goes through the bin and the locked drawer:
- Anything past its "hold until" date: donate or dispose, and fill in the last column.
- Valuables past the date: follow your rule for IDs, cards, phones and medicine above.
- Anything without a tag or a log line: tag it today, and remind the team that every item gets logged.
Where Mays fits
- The log as a form. Under Tasks → Types, build a Lost and found form with Repeatable rows: Text for the description and where it was found, Single choice for the kind of item (Clothing, Phone or electronics, Wallet or ID, Keys, Other), a Photo of the item and of the tag, and Single choice for where it's kept. Leave the rows optional, so a night with nothing found takes one tap. See Building custom forms.
- On the closing checklist. Add the form to the closing checklist, and the closer logs the day's items on the phone. Every row lands in Task Data, and Export CSV is your log by date range. See Task Data.
- The monthly clear-out. A Monthly checklist on the 1st with the three checks above. See Creating a checklist template.
- A valuable or a claim the next manager needs to know about. Post it in the Logbook under Customer, with Needs follow-up. See The manager logbook.
- The house rules. Put the table above in a Knowledge Base article so every shift can read it on their phone. See Your knowledge base.
What Mays doesn't do: there's no lost-and-found screen that tracks an item from found to claimed. The claim, the ID check and the disposal go on the paper log (a manager can correct a submitted form on the web, under Tasks → Tasks, but a form isn't a running list). Staff can't start the form on their own mid-shift; it comes with the closing checklist. And the logbook doesn't take photos.
Thirty days, then let it go
Tag it, log it, lock up the valuables, check every claim, and clear the bin once a month. In Florida, you can make it official by following s. 705.185; everywhere else, check your state's rule and write your own down.
Start your free trial: 30 days, every module, no card needed. Or book a walkthrough and we'll set up the form and the closing checklist with you.