As someone who works at a customer service counter, I will tell you what happens to the things you turn in to Lost and Found (at my company, and in my state, so keep that in mind). YMMV
We have to log, in an official binder, anything and everything that is turned in to us. This includes the date, finder's information, what it was, and any details about where it was found. If you (the finder) want to make a claim to the item(s), we write that down too. If it is cash, we have to add it to our register and record it as "found money" in our accounting system. (We have an exact procedure we must follow to do this, and our corporate office will see records of this.)
Anything less than $50 has to be held for 90 days, at which point the person who made a claim on the item can come and pick it up. (Again, there is a specific procedure we must follow to record the payout in our accounting system, and corporate will see the records.)
Anything more than $50 (or worth more than $50) has to be turned over to the police at the end of the 90 day period.
Anything that is not cash (and worth less than $50), has the same 90 day hold period and, if not claimed during that time, has one of three things happen to it: an employee claims it after 90 days, someone throws it in the trash because they're sick of looking at it in the L&F, or someone drops it off at a local charity/donation center (this one is the rarest because it requires effort outside of work).
When an item is claimed, the person claiming it must sign and date the official log, indicating that we gave them the item.
Our store is audited regularly by higher-ups, who come in and review all of our records and match them to camera footage for verification. They literally pick a week, pull the records for that week, and sit and watch tapes of every minute of every day. So, in this case, if the camera shows a customer turning in a wallet, they check the L&F log to verify that an entry was made.
If anyone was caught pocketing something meant for L&F, they would be fired for theft. I have yet to see an item turned in to L&F that is worth losing my job over, and I'm 99.9% sure my colleagues would agree. This includes untold numbers of iThings, other phones, wallets, purses, checkbooks, toys, etc. I also have yet to see any of the expensive/personal info items NOT be claimed within 12 hours. (And no, we don't just hand it over to the first person who says "oh yeah I lost an iPhone"-- What's the password? What's your home screen? Can you name some apps that are on it? Is there an app that has your name in it, that we can access to verify against your ID?)
You have every right to follow up on any claim you put in, and if it's a store you regularly shop at, it's totally worth the 2 minutes it would take to stop by the CS desk and inquire. I would definitely follow up if I were you. An extra $33 would be great to have!
Also, I'm disappointed to see the pessimism about customer service workers in several of the posts here.