Once my husband snagged a camera in an A&P parkinglot - it was a fab Canon fancy camera...and we took it home...and I felt bad...but we had the film developed (I thought I'd post a pic in the A&P saying "we have your camera") and it was a bunch of punks...so we kept the camera. They didn't deserve to ahve it back.
Long story short...somewhere along the way WE lost that camera, too...someone else has OUR pics now.
Too bad about the briefcase....probably birth certs...
I will soon be posting a thread about "What to do when you have other adoptees records in your reach but don't know if you should disseminate them" ....stay tuned...