Left something at a Korean restaurant or café?

A wallet or phone left at a table is often set aside by staff — Korea has a strong culture of handing in found items. Move fast and contact the exact venue.

Step 1: Contact the specific restaurant or café

Call or return to the venue as soon as possible. Tell staff roughly when you were there and where you sat, and describe the item. Found items are usually kept at the counter or in a back office.

Step 2: Chain café? Use the customer center

Large chains (for example, coffee franchises) have a customer center that can check a specific store — contacts are in the restaurants directory.

Step 3: If it was handed to police

Unclaimed items are often turned in to a nearby police station and appear on Police Minwon24 (formerly LOST112) at minwon24.police.go.kr, searchable by date, area, and item type.

Tips

The sooner you call, the better — busy venues clear tables quickly. If you paid by card, your statement can confirm the exact place and time.

If it has reached the police

An item a venue hands on appears in Police Minwon24 (formerly LOST112) at minwon24.police.go.kr. How to search it is in the police lost & found guide.

Two things are true wherever the item came from. Nothing appears there for days after the handover, so an early search proves little and is not a reason to stop looking. And the record shows where the item was handed in — the office, depot or station that received it — not where you lost it, so keep the region wide and lead with item type and date.

If Korean is the barrier

1330 is Korea's tourist help line, run by the Korea Tourism Organization. It is free, answers 24 hours a day, and offers interpretation in English, Japanese, Chinese and other languages.

It is not a lost & found office — it holds no items and keeps no database. What it does is interpret, including on a three-way call with a restaurant, a cafe or a police station, and explain what a Korean-language page or notice actually says.

If the item is located but you cannot collect it in person — you have left Korea, or the venue is hours away — it can be released to someone acting for you with written authorization and their own ID, and shipping abroad is arranged by whoever collects it: here's what that takes.