customers leave the darnedest things

[AKWalMartCartGuy]

so today at work I found a raw steak, not even wrapped up or anything, just laying there. I've found a lot of weird shit out there, but this one, by far, is the weirdest

[Nyx]

...the fudge...?

Well I've had an old lady leave her cane once. She came in with her daughter and could barely walk, then she left it there. How do you not notice you can't walk? I tried to catch her car in the lot, and just for the heck of it I waved the cane in the air like an angry old man. She came back later once they remembered.

[AKWalMartCartGuy]

my co worker found a fairly nice cane once, and we had some carts on the electric cart pusher, which i'm not old enough to operate, so he had me take it to lost & found, and I took something else there a week later and the cane was still there

[Polenicus]

We've had all sorts of stuff show up in our lost and found that you'd think people would come looking for.

NUMEROUS cell phones. From the crummy freebies to the newest, most expensive trendyphones.

iPods. Not one, but something like SIX this semester. All unclaimed.

Car keys. Piles and piles and PILES of car keys.

Credit cards. Lots of credit cards.

USB drives. With final projects/reports/other vital student data on them.

That these people never even INQUIRED about these lost items astounds me.

[queenbb]

my boyfriend has the same thing happen to him, he says that the most expensive stuff never gets claimed.

but you leave your 5$ sweat shirt people will be banging down the doors.

other than the normal ice rink related type stuff (ie skates, hockey gear and miscellaneous warm clothes)

game boys (a few of them) expensive watches, ect. but no ipods apparently.

we would donate the coats and sweaters to the program that i worked for, other stuff after it has been there for a long time, he would eventually take home, we got a real nice game boy that way, it was there for about 6 months, he would play with it while he was score keeping hockey games.

[thehippie777]

My mom has a horrible memory, and sometimes forgets to grab her cane. She does remember before she has left the building though because she realizes she is having issues walking. Although, she uses a cart to walk with when she has a cart with her, and puts the cane inside.

As for lost & found stuff. The most common left-behind item in the hotel here is: cell phone chargers. We finally had to toss some because we had two medium sized-boxes full of 3 month old+ cell chargers.

[Shangri-laschild]

No matter how much things stop surprising me or how much faith I lose in people, it never stops amazing me how many coats we get turned in in the winter that don't get claimed. How do you leave the building without your warm coat when it's snowing outside?

[edible_hat]

Things found in the car wash, in increasing order of rarity:

-rags
-gloves
-spare parts
-floor mats
-tools
-porn
-used condoms
-underwear
-a bikini top
-a dead fruit bat (ETA: we tried to get the not-KFC people to put it in the deep fryer, but they cited some arcane law about public health)

[Dthehalfdragon]

Oh the things people leave. I work at a pet store so here are the things some people leave.

-keys
-credit cards
-plush animals
-Hair peices
-box of guinea pigs
-kittens

dont worry about the live animals. We put them in adoption places that dont put down animals.

[queenbb]

at my shop some one left a coat.

it was a nice suede leather chargers jacket, so i stick it in the office, and it was there for literally months,

the date that it was left behind, black friday, (ie day after thanks giving)

day that the guy asks for it

march,

so the operations manager asks me about this jacket, i say yah some on left one a few months ago, and i put it on the hanger of the office, but i hadnt seen it in a while,

we look, nope not there, the guy was mad cause we didnt have the jacket, lost and found can be claimed after 30 days by who ever found it.

the jacket was ripped under the sleeve anyway.

[Mordecai]

I remember finding several cans of chewing tobacco and bottles of wine when I started my job.

[Bramblerose]

leave a raw stake? Isn't that heresy?

Another good source of left-behinds- the dry cleaners! It can be amazing what is lurking in the basement waiting for the owners to come redeem. The step-in-law tends to keep them for a year then donate the remains.

the only lost and found that has astounded me a work was more quantity than item. I directed a tent of four elementary kids in packing (I have a sure-fire method that packs a tent in 10 minutes or less). Somehow I wound up with 3/4 of a milk crate of unclaimed socks. From *one* tent. I brought it with me for check-out and grabbed each mom and explained then let them reclaim as the would.

Unsurprisingly, forgotten underwear (solo, not in a set) is never claimed.

[VenomX]

At the gas station/tobacco store we mostly get keys, wallets, and cell phones left.

What is odd is that these people pull up, turn off the car, take the keys out, come inside, lay the keys down and walk off and forget them.

Most remember them when they get in their car. But we have had many who have never came back for them. How do they start their car and leave? If they had the keys before they came in surely they would know they must have left them on the counter....

Me and my boss were talking about this today. Theres a key ring with like 15 keys on it that was left last week. It has a few different car keys on it. How did this guy drive off without the key to his car?

[depechemodefan]

at my shop some one left a coat.

it was a nice suede leather chargers jacket, so i stick it in the office, and it was there for literally months,

the date that it was left behind, black friday, (ie day after thanks giving)

day that the guy asks for it

march,

so the operations manager asks me about this jacket, i say yah some on left one a few months ago, and i put it on the hanger of the office, but i hadnt seen it in a while,

we look, nope not there, the guy was mad cause we didnt have the jacket,

I guess he was out of the country. That is the only thing that would make sense, besides a traveling sales man.

I left my mom's purse at the hospital. Luckily nothing really worth much was left in it, since I took out a bunch of stuff before I brougth it back to the hospital (she kept on remembering things that she needed from it). I went to lost and found and the guard looked in this book that lists everything brougth to them and they didn't find it. I call about 5 days latter and the security guard said that the purse was found, that they were calling me all day. The purse was in the ICU. I get transfered up there and they said they were going to give it to lost and found downstairs. I go the next day and the same security guard who didn't find it that first day went back to the book and said it wasn't listed. I tell him that I was called yesterday by security, and that the ICU people said they were going to give it to security. He wasn't very helpful (he didnt' mention "go to the ICU, maybe it's still upstairs" or "let me check the office). It wasn't listed in the book Luckily his boss passed by and he mentioned it to the boss and the boss went to get the purse from the security office. I was pissed but I stayed in control. I didn't throw a fit or make faces or anything. But it was irritating.

[Plaidman]

Had gameboys, keys, cellphones, jackets, clothes, backpacks.

Once found an elevlope with 800 dollars in it. Boy was I tempted on that one. But I put it in lockup, told manager. Told no-one else. Next day someone asked about it, and even listed what was in it and how much. (Had it been a month later, that would have been alllllll mine).


Also found a used tampoon once.