KEY POINTS:
Increasing numbers of "honest thieves" are attempting to return stolen wallets with only the cash missing.
Up to 20 wallets are left in New Zealand Post mailboxes each week in Auckland alone - complete with driving licences and credit cards.
They eventually end up at the South Auckland sorting centre, where staff organise for them to be returned.
More often than not, only the cash is missing, prompting speculation that the thieves help themselves to a finder's fee.
One Aucklander told the Herald on Sunday she was overjoyed to receive a call from New Zealand Post last week telling her that her wallet - stolen three days earlier - had turned up at the sorting centre.
She was even more impressed when postal worker Doug McDougall, on his way home to the North Shore, offered to hand-deliver it to her workplace in downtown Auckland within the hour.
"It had my whole life in it," said the Auckland University researcher, who asked not to be named.
"A couple of [computer] memory sticks with important work documents on, hundreds of dollars' worth of ferry concession tickets, credit cards, cash, house keys and my driver licence."
Plus her business card, which allowed McDougall to contact her.
The woman's house key and $180 cash were gone - leaving her thankful she had taken police advice and changed her locks the day before.
But she said she was heartened the postal service went to so much trouble to return her wallet.
While it was possible her wallet had been pickpocketed or dropped on Saturday night, she could not figure out how it ended up being posted.
"Perhaps someone was taking their reward in advance for having found my wallet?"
New Zealand Post national communications manager Keith Fitzpatrick told the Herald on Sunday the phenomenon happened around the country, but no one knew how many wallets were found this way.
"We can only speculate as to how they got there. The wallets could have been nicked, or they could have been lost and someone thinks it's a good way to get them back to their owner ... we only find them when the bags are emptied at the mail centres."
