Did Germany introduce an automated system which will return lost items to the owner and protect their privacy at the same time? No, that's not true: The picture on social media features an AI generated image of several automated kiosks installed on a public sidewalk. The post originated from a page that is mass producing stories of urban infrastructure innovations which are not real, but are presented as fact, naming the country where they are purportedly already in use.
The picture appeared in a post (archived here) published on Facebook by the page Fact 27 on Nov. 22, 2025. The caption of the post begins:
In Germany, losing a wallet doesn't always mean losing peace of mind. Scattered across several cities are sleek robotic mailboxes -- designed to accept lost items like wallets, keys, or IDs and return them to their rightful owners without human involvement. Once dropped inside, the mailbox scans the contents using internal cameras and AI-trained object recognition systems.
This is the AI-generated image included with the post:
(Image Source: Lead Stories screenshot from facebook.com/photo?fbid=823419217062928&set=a.560105350060984.)
The text captioning reads:
In Germany, lost wallets is dropped in robotic mailboxes - scanned, anonymized, and sent directly to registered owners.
While the lost wallet return kiosk is fictional, there is a central lost and found office at the Tempelhof Airport serving the capital city, Berlin. The website has a page with detailed instructions for finders (archived here), but there is no mention of an option to drop the item in an automated sidewalk kiosk downtown.
There are several clues that the image in the post is AI-generated (see detail below):
- The signs on the nearby buildings do not form actual words;
- The bicycle rack across the street contains a haphazard collection of irregular wheels and frames, but not individual functional bicycles;
- There is a folio hanging out of the slot of the first machine;
- There are four machines in one location, suggesting crowds of found item returners line up for service all at the same time;
- The instruction stickers are not consistent from one kiosk to the next;
- The person near the kiosk has an abnormally flat face.
(Image Source: Lead Stories screenshot from facebook.com/photo?fbid=823419217062928&set=a.560105350060984.)
The Facebook page where this originated, Fact 27, which has page managers in India, has published scores of similar posts using the same formula. The fake human interest news begins with the name of the country where the fictional innovation has been implemented; Ireland, Brazil, Finland, Belgium, Poland, Italy, and South Korea are examples. Many posts echo themes of public aid and help for the poor. There is also a recurrent theme where the technological interface allows for anonymity in the exchange between people. The caption in the Facebook post about the lost wallet kiosk goes into detail:
To preserve privacy, none of the personal data is stored -- just matched long enough to determine the recipient. An anonymous text or email is triggered if contact info is linked, letting the owner know it's on its way. Some mailboxes also display stats -- number of returns this month or items successfully rerouted -- offering quiet assurance that honesty still has infrastructure behind it.
Another Facebook page, Fact Fuel, also with page managers in India, is posting similar AI-generated images of fictional techno-utopian innovations. The types of images posted by the two pages are shown in the composite image below.
(Image Source: Lead Stories screenshot from facebook.com/profile.php?id=100081845715245&sk=photos and facebook.com/FactFuel9/photos.)
A Nov. 6, 2025 Fact Fuel post features public lock box drawers for borrowing and sharing items anonymously (pictured below). The post caption says:
In parts of Germany, a quietly powerful idea is taking root: **community drawers** built into outdoor walls -- a system where people can share or pick up essential items like clothes, tools, or small appliances without judgment or bureaucracy. These are not your average donation bins. Designed with weatherproof panels and passcode access, each drawer allows individuals to either give or receive with privacy and dignity.
(Image Source: Lead Stories screenshot from facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1351628719965238&set=a.745844660543650.)
