An NHS worker lost her purse in England, only to discover that somehow it was found by a man in Turkey over a year later.
Nikita Turvey, 24, lost her purse in September 2019 and after searching her house and workplace she gave up and accepted it was gone.
But after she'd started re-ordering her bank cards, work passes and IDs, Nikita, from Harlow, Essex, was shocked to be reunited with her purse.
In November 2020, she received a message on Instagram from a stranger, who sent her a photo of her student card, which was in her lost purse.
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The man who messaged her, named Kaya, works with recycling materials in Turkey and found her purse on the ground. He decided to give it back to its owner.
Nikita, who is an NHS Covid Test and Trace worker, said: "I was gutted when I lost my purse. It has all my college cards in it that I'd saved and my work pass.
"I have no idea when or how I lost it, I just know at that time I was working a lot. It might have somehow fallen into a recycling bin.
"I spent a solid week looking everywhere at home, at work, in all my coat pockets, in old bags. I looked everywhere but had no luck.
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"I had no idea that at that time it was already starting its journey to Turkey.
"Then in November I had a random request in my messages on Instagram. I was a bit wary at first.
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"But then I realised he had found my purse, and I was gobsmacked when I realised he wasn't from England.
"We talked a lot for a few days. He sent me a video out walking in Turkey and I was showing him what England is like.
"I'd definitely like to meet up with Kaya if he ever made his way to the UK!"
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While Nikita instructed Kaya to just throw the purse out, Kaya said he would keep the two 20p coins that were in it as a 'memory' - jokingly adding that he would bring the purse to England one day to return it to her.
Although she is thankful, Nikita warned of the dangers of England sending recycling to Turkey - both on a personal level and for the environment.
She added: "I had no idea our recycling went to Turkey. I kind of assumed we sent it abroad but I didn't realise the vast scale in which we do.
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"Since then I have learnt more about what we do with our recycling and wrote to my MP to share my concerns.
"We are literally overfilling Turkey, and other countries, with our recycling. It seems so backwards that we don't do it ourselves.
"It's unnecessarily adding to our carbon footprint.
"It also worried me because lots of people's data goes into recycling, and things like my purse could have led to fraud and other problems.
"But thankfully for me, I've made a friend.
"There's nothing Kaya could have gained from messaging me except just general excitement over the purse making it to Turkey and wanting to share it with me and there's something lovely about that.
"I think social media can be a negative thing in a lot of people's lives but this shows how it can be used to bring people together and connect people from overseas."
Featured Image Credit: Caters