According to data from the Ministry of Interior, authorities recorded 22,467 reports of lost items and 36,403 reports of found items over the past year.
A black jacket left behind at Dubai International Airport containing €30,570 (about Dh121,974) in cash was handed over to police on New Year’s Eve.
A 39-year-old male supervisor arrived at the airport police department at 5:56 pm on December 31, 2025, and submitted the jacket, which also contained a small amount of loose coins. The report was officially recorded and later closed after no one came forward to claim the money.
That jacket was just one of tens of thousands of items handled by UAE authorities in 2025.
According to data from the Ministry of Interior, authorities recorded 22,467 lost item reports and 36,403 found item reports over the past year.
When it comes to lost items, identity cards ranked highest with 21,076 reports, accounting for 93.8% of all cases. Passports followed with 1,126 reports, while mobile phones and vehicle licence plates each recorded 19 cases, and laptops accounted for 11.
On the found items side, cash topped the list. More than 3,363 reports were registered for found money under a single category, and when all cash-related entries are combined, the total reaches 8,726 reports.
Wallets ranked second with 1,208 reports, followed by personal ID cards (1,168), residency IDs (724), and rings (666).
Out of 36,403 found-item reports across the UAE, 36,076 cases—or 99.1%—were recorded in Dubai. Dubai International Airport alone accounted for the majority, appearing in 34,845 cases.
December was the busiest month, with 2,806 lost-item reports and 3,680 found-item reports, coinciding with the peak winter tourism season.
