People say if you lose something in Japan, you’ll usually get it back. Even valuable items like smartphones, credit cards or jewellery are handed straight into the police station by diligent citizens.

When you think your beloved possession is lost forever, perhaps you just need to be patient.

That’s what one Japanese man learnt when a mysterious letter from the police station arrived out of nowhere.

He wrote on his blog, that he wondered wildly what might have happened recently that would warrant him being contacted by the police. When he opened the letter, it said, ‘Your lost cell phone has been handed in to the police station.’

This wouldn’t be so strange, except that he had lost his phone 2 years ago. He’d already long bought a new one and moved on with his life. Why was it suddenly turning up now?

He wrote,

‘Who handed this in? The police said they don’t know. Anyway, I’m thankful.’

Despite having no use for the phone, he went to pick it up anyway since there would be old photos and memories stored on the classic flip phone.

The mysterious appearance of the phone raises many unanswered questions, but it just goes to show that things really do turn up when you least expect it.