Stadium lost and found software: 50,000 people went home, some of their things stayed.

The match-day problem

Every event ends the same way: a sweep of the bowl, the concourses and the hospitality areas produces bags of phones, keys, jackets, water bottles and children’s toys. On Monday the calls start, and every caller describes the same jacket. Staff walk to the storage room, hold items up to a phone description, and guess.

The volume is the killer. A description-based system that copes with five items a day collapses after a sell-out crowd. Photos scale; phone calls do not.

How vFound handles event volume

Collection teams photograph and log items on their phones as the sweep happens, adding the block or gate where each was found and the storage bin it went into, while vFound AI suggests the title, category and description. There is no per-seat licence and no hardware: any phone with a browser is a logging station.

• Fans browse the photo catalogue from home instead of calling. The page is on your own venue address, printable as QR signage at gates and guest services.
• Claims arrive with private identifying details, so your team verifies ownership before anyone travels back to the venue.
• Fans can book a pickup time within your hours, with an add-to-calendar link and a reminder, or arrange a return by post in the claim’s private messages. Every return is recorded with staff attribution.
• Unclaimed items age against your holding policy, with expiring items surfaced so disposal or donation is deliberate, not accidental.

A full house leaves a full shelf. vFound AI writes the listings.

A full house leaves a pile of look-alike jackets, bottles and phones, then a wave of messages from fans who have gone home. vFound AI writes the listings during the sweep and helps fans find their own things afterwards.

• Stewards snap a photo and vFound AI suggests the title, category, colour, a brand it can read on the item and a description, ready to check and save.
• Duplicate warnings flag a jacket that looks like it was logged twice, and staff keep the earlier record or dismiss the warning.
• Team members can email or forward photos to your venue’s private address, up to 100 a day; each waits in Inventory, where vFound AI fills in the details when staff open it. Only your own team’s addresses are accepted.
• After the event, a fan can describe the loss in their own words and language; vFound AI asks a few short questions and fills in the report for the fan to check and send.
• Likely matches come back ranked, each with a one-line reason, and a standing watch emails the fan each time a likely match is logged, for 90 days.
• The claim check compares each fan’s answers and proof photos with your private record and raises red flags, such as answers copied from the public listing. AI suggests. Your team decides.

Multi-event, multi-team, one record

Because items are logged with dates and locations, a fan who lost something at last week’s concert searches last week’s items, not this week’s match. Team members have individual logins, so a claim accepted by the events crew and collected via the box office still reads as one clean history. The workspace shows what needs review and what expires soon, at a glance.

New claims, lost reports and pickups can post to a Slack, Microsoft Teams or Google Chat channel, with no guest personal details included. One line of code adds the lost and found to the stadium’s own website, as an embedded page or a floating button.