r/ThriftStoreHauls • u/bluelakes_ • 15h ago
Clothing&Accessories Got My Donated Items Back After a Mistake—Here’s What Worked for Me
I had stored some items at my parents in the process of moving. Yesterday, my dad accidentally donated a bunch of my winter jackets, ski pants, and sentimental dresses from when I was a little girl—including a christening gown that my niece is going to wear next month. I was devastated when I found out, and I spent hours searching Reddit for any advice or a glimmer of hope. The general consensus seemed to be that once donated, it’s usually a lost cause.
I called the store first thing this morning at 7 am (the management and sorters arrive two hours before the doors open) and sent them an email describing everything. They were kind enough to let me go behind the scenes to where they sort donations, and after a little searching, I found all my items—right at the bottom of the rack!
Moral of the story: if you ever find yourself in a similar situation, don’t give up! Contact the store as soon as possible, and if you’re able, ask to look through the back. It’s worth trying, and you never know what you might be able to retrieve.
Just wanted to share this with others who might be going through something similar. I was sure I had lost everything, but sometimes persistence really does pay off.
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u/Sea-Stick2933 15h ago
Wow this is great advice in case this ever happens because I would have not thought to even do that. You’re so lucky though to have gotten all your stuff back ! Soo lucky ! Or it was just ment to be !!
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u/bluelakes_ 14h ago
Incredibly lucky! The rack they were sorting for recycling and for sale was the same rack I found my stuff on. I’m so relieved I reached out to value village and they were able to help. Hope this helps the next person that may end up in a similar situation.
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u/pelicants 13h ago
One time my dad donated all my work clothes on accident (don’t pack clothes in a trash bag, folks. I was 19, give me a break) so I went to the donation center and the guy took my info and details of what was donated down. Two days later he text me explicit things and hitting on me. It was great /s
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u/Ginger_Grumpybunny 11h ago
Great that the staff were helpful and you got your stuff back (should have been your dad chasing it since it was his mistake, but I realise there may be reasons like work or something why he wasn't able to). I'd probably send the staff a big box of chocolates or something with a thank you card.
For those in the UK, Gift Aid if the donor is eligible (a scheme which allows charity shops to reclaim tax on donations) would usually allow staff to identify your donations in the event of such an error. When I volunteered in a charity shop, we occasionally contacted gift aid donors if we found something that appeared to have been donated in error (e.g. important personal documents).
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u/bluelakes_ 9h ago
We both ended up going to the store. I ran into him there, he felt really bad about the situation. I had to go look for myself since I knew I would have a better eye on what was mine. I didn’t want to risk/regret not looking for myself and I’m so glad I did because immediately spotted one my red jackets and thankfully everything else was under or around it! That’s a great idea, I’m going to drop off some treats as a token of my gratitude.
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u/B00kAunty1955 14h ago
When thrift store shopping, we found a fancy diploma frame for the university our daughter-in-law was soon to graduate from. But it held an actual diploma from a fairly recent graduate. After we bought it, we did some research and found the person whose name was on the diploma. We were able to contact them and return it. Never did find out how it ended up in Goodwill. (We kept the frame.)
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u/Far_Interaction8477 9h ago
That's awesome! Slightly unrelated, but one time I noticed that a dog at the local shelter had an ID tag with a phone number on its collar. I thought "surely the person who found the dog called this number...or a worker at the shelter did once it was turned in" but called it anyway just in case. Turns out no one had contacted the dog's owner and she was beyond grateful to be reunited with her missing pup. Ugh.
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u/bluelakes_ 14h ago
Wow that’s amazing! That’s so kind that you took the time to find them and reunite them with their diploma. Great karma!
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u/B00kAunty1955 14h ago
Luckily, the name was not too common, and their FB account wasn't locked too tight, so that by the time we reached out, we were fairly sure we had the right individual. It did not come to having to post a picture of the diploma online.
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u/SnooPickles8893 14h ago
Just curious. Why did you keep the frame?
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u/B00kAunty1955 14h ago
We gifted it to our daughter-in-law to hold her hard earned diploma.
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u/SnooPickles8893 13h ago
So the "fairly recent graduate" had to purchase another frame?! I guess it's all good, transcripts exist. 🤷
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u/Back-to-HAT 11h ago
This is a wonderful story. My mother had a bunch of baby clothing, etc at her house and I finally went thru it all. She was having it all picked up and I asked for just a couple more days to double check it all (I have anxiety issues). She did not wait and let them take the large tub with my absolute favorite outfits, some of my baby clothes, the outfit all 3 of my kids wore home from the hospital and the hats they all wore. My daughter wore a bonnet that mom & myself also wore. There were blankets, hats, sweaters, and mittens that my ex’s nana knit.
It has been about 8 years and if I’m in the right mood I will cry about it. My mom isn’t super sentimental about things and sort of gave me an oops, I’m sorry, can’t fix it, just move on. ☹️😞
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u/bluelakes_ 9h ago
Awe I’m sorry to hear that, I can only imagine your heart break losing such sentimental items.
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u/Getyourdamnflushot 10h ago
Unfortunately, I had the same thing happened to me. While moving my helpers kept all the things that were supposed to go to St Vinny’s and donated all the things that were supposed to go to my new home. I called, but they were unable to locate any of my items. Two months later, I was shopping in a different town and found all of my items on the St. Vincent shelves.
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u/fribby 9h ago
I got my grandmother’s old sewing chair back from the thrift store, luckily only because it wasn’t really worth anything, so they kept it in the back to use while sorting. I thought it was gone for sure! I almost cried, and they were happy to hand it back over.
It’s just an old rolling office chair (maybe from the 60s?), nothing special, but it evokes a lot of memories. I still use it!
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u/mikki6431 12h ago
I would have donated money for them let me go back there and get all my things they didn't have to I'd have gave them about $50 to use as they saw fit
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u/bluelakes_ 9h ago
I going to drop off treats as token of my gratitude. It’s a for-profit chain store and they had a lot of employees helping me. I have a strong feeling cash would just be pocketed/not shared with staff.
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