When I first arrived in Geneva, during one of the many conversations I had with people describing life and various resources in Geneva, I remember someone mentioning the Objets Trouvés office, a type of city-wide lost and found. The details were vague at the time and I thought no more of the topic at the time. However, after hearing recently that a friend had her keys safely returned to her via Objets Trouvés, I decided to find out more.
Located in the city center, Objets Trouvés is an office devoted to the recovery and return of lost items from umbrellas and hats to mobile phones, keys, and jewelry. If you lost an item that does not have your identifying information on it (e.g., sunglasses), you can go to the office in person to describe the object and see if someone has turned it in. If you lost an item that contains some form of personal information (e.g., a mobile phone, your TPG abonnement), you can phone the office and provide information about it to save yourself a trip to the office. It may take a day or two for the office to process lost and found items.
Like most everything in Geneva, the services of Objets Trouvés are not free. You must pay a fee to have your lost object returned to you; the list of fees is available here. At the same time, if you find some item of value that someone else has lost, you may be entitled to a small reward (a percentage of the object’s estimated value).
You can file a missing item report with the office if you wish. To do so, send information about the object to the office along with a CHF 40 fee and the file will stay open for one month (more details here). Objets Trouvés can also issue loss certificates, paperwork which may be useful when dealing with insurance claims for that object, whether or not your item is returned to you. The fee for the loss certificate is CHF 30 if paid in person (CHF 40 if paid by mail).
The complete rules and regulations for Objets Trouvés is accessible online here (in French). All of the different fees cover administrative costs of the office.
More information: Click here for the homepage of the Objets Trouvés office. It is located at 5 rue des Glacis-de-Rive, around the corner from the Terrasière tram stop, and is open Monday through Friday from 07:30 to 16:00.
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Living In Geneva 
Cortney, I have lived here forever and didn’t know about this office. This is great to know.
I always thought people turned lost items in to one’s local post office. But when I once asked them about something we lost in our village, they looked at me like I had three heads. Yet another time the Post Office in Meyrin mailed my son’s TPG card to him when his wallet went missing after a ride on the tram.
A few year’s ago my friend’s daughter found a small Cartier ring and turned it in to Objets Trouve. After a couple of years had gone by and no one had claimed it, the office called and she got the ring. (I think she had to pay a small amount of money to reclaim it.)