Patent ID: 8890692

Claim:
A system for aiding in recovery of lost articles, comprising a computing arrangement configured with a database that contains article identifiers of a plurality of articles and associated data that identify owners of the articles; wherein the database is further configured with data that identify a plurality of trusted finders; a handheld computing device configured with instructions that, when executed by the handheld computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations including: reading an article identifier from an identification tag attached to an article; transmitting the article identifier to the computing arrangement; and transmitting a finder identifier in association with the article identifier to the computing arrangement; wherein the computing arrangement is further configured with instructions that when executed by the computing arrangement cause the computing arrangement to perform operations including: reading the data associated with the identifier that identifies the owner of the article in response to the identifier received from the handheld computing device; determining whether or not the finder identifier matches any of the trusted finders; in response to determining that the finder identifier matches one of the trusted finders, transmitting the data that identifies the owner to the handheld computing device; and in response to determining that the finder identifier does not match any of the trusted finders, bypassing transmitting of the data that identifies the owner to the handheld computing device.