From time to time we receive items that weren’t meant to be sent in with the dirty laundry.

Sometimes it can be cash or valuables, items left in the pocket of a uniform, name or ID badges, wallets, pens and even food or table condiments. Some of these items need to be returned to the customer or employee that “lost” the item.  We try and make every effort to return items that are inadvertently turned in. Sometimes the person doesn’t even know they lost the item or left it in the dirty laundry. Some of the best stories told within our industry are cool stories about lost items being returned to the rightful owner. 

A story published in the TRSA weekly newsletter, a trade publication for commercial laundries, shared one story of finding a needle in a haystack and how that story had a happy ending. 

Posted Mar 9th 2017 at 6:59PM

Commercial or central laundries that pride themselves on customer service often will tell visitors about how their soil-sort staff turned in cash left in a pants pocket, lost cell phones, etc., but seldom do these stories attract attention from local media.

One recent exception concerns HLS, a central laundry in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, which recovered a very special item lost by a 93-year-old patient – his deceased wife’s wedding band (and his own). The man, Karl Steibl, Cornwall, Ontario, had carried the rings in his wallet, which was misplaced when he arrived at the hospital for treatment. His pants were mistakenly included in soiled linens, according to news reports.

Steibl was married for 66 years before his wife, Hilda, passed away three years ago. He was distraught at the loss of the items, and a friend, Catherine Moise, asked hospital staff if they could help recover them.

That led a nurse to do some investigating, which in turn led to the conclusion that the pants had mistakenly gone to the laundry, HLS, for processing with the bed linens. HLS launders roughly 1.7 million pieces of linen a week, so finding an item like a wedding band is no mean feat. However, hospital CEO Jeannette Despatie asked the laundry to look into the issue. Before long, HLS’s Director of Public Relations Krista Hubbard told hospital officials that they’d found the rings and wallet, which were returned to Steibl.

Moise said Steibl was relieved to get the rings back. She commended both the hospital and HLS for their efforts to recover the lost property. 

Sparkle has many similar stories just like this. One such occasion was a local Bakersfield owned company had an employee turn in a bag of dirty uniforms. In that bag, by accident, the employee turned in a bank bag with a few thousand dollars inside. Sparkle received the call of the missing bank bag and the panic in the employee’s voice gave away the need for urgency. Within thirty minutes the bank bag was recovered and returned to the customer. Every dollar was there and accounted for. The customer was very thankful for the swift and honest actions by Sparkle. Our local, customer focused attitude means Sparkle’s integrity is key to our customers trust. 

Can your business afford to take a risk on a rental laundry that processes their laundry out of town or is a national company with no local ties to our community? When looking at the “value” of a reputable rental company, consider a relationship with Sparkle as an honest and trustworthy supplier. When choosing Sparkle to partner with your business, we promise our service and quality will always be higher than our prices. 

Speak to our friendly office staff, never an automated attendant during business hours. Call us at 661.634.1130 today!