People Still Wonder What Happened To Owners Of These 47 Lost Things As They Never Came Back For Them

I didn't work in lost and found but any employee that turned something in would essentially be tagged to that item. If it wasn't picked up in 90 days, the employee got to keep it. It was a theme park I worked at years ago and I found someone's digital camera. Lots of family photos from what appeared to be their entire vacation. I felt bad once I was called to retrieve the camera due to it not being picked up. I went through every photo trying to find them. Thankfully they took a photo of themselves in front of their church sign back home and I was able to find the contact info for the church, send a couple photos to confirm they were members and send the remaining photos via Photobucket. They didn't want to ship the camera (international) because the camera wasn't worth much.

I, one time, left my garage door opener in a rental car. I went back to the rental office and told the clerk and he said, “oh yeah, we found it” and set an opener on the counter.

I looked at it blankly and told him that that was not my opener and he said, “No? Maybe it’s one of these” and plopped a large box full of dozens of openers on the counter that renters lost and never claimed.

I wondered if the pulled that same joke on everyone who was looking for theirs.

PS: I did find my opener in there and got it back.

As the rides manager of a Six Flags, we had unusual items found underneath rollercoasters all the time that people wanted back. I'll never forget the time that someone lost their glass eye under the biggest rollercoaster in the park and WE FOUND IT! We sent it back via snail mail and received correspondence back that it wasn't the correct glass eye. Ooops! We never found the one that the person was looking for.

I worked at a gym. The sheer AMOUNT of car keys that are just chilling in the list and found area is ASTOUNDING. HOW DID THESE PEOPLE GET HOME?!?! I’m talking about more than 10 sets y’all. It doesn’t make any sense.

Managed a restaurant back in 2015 in Brooklyn. Lots of things left behind, but one time someone left a Loro Piano scarf. I had no idea about it for like 6 months until we did a purge of items people never returned for. The scarf was really nice, pure cashmere. So I looked up the brand and realized it's like a $1,200 scarf. I took it home that day, still have it.

I work in home improvement retail. It’s amazing how many canes get left behind. I always say: “we cured another one!”.

Similar vein but I knew someone who was an apartment complex manager for a while. They amount of stuff tenants leave when they move out is incredible. Her boss said either toss it, sell it or keep it they didn't care. She furnished her whole house with all the furniture and sold a bunch of other stuff. Lots of free electronics too.

Had somebody leave a pair of Burberry sunglasses in the shop once. It was a tourist area so I had assumed they traveled back without them. After two weeks I took them for myself.

I’d been using them as my car-shades for another two weeks when I got a call.

“Sorry to bother you, but did you find a pair of designer sunglasses in the store?”

“What make?”

“Burberry.”

“I did, but I’ll be honest with you, after no one picked them up for two weeks I took them home. I can bring them back into the store tomorrow. Once again I’m very sorry, but I didn’t think anyone was coming back for them.”

“Wait, how long ago did you find them?”

“A month ago.”

He lets out a long grumbling noise and goes “they aren’t mine, they are my sons. I noticed he hadn’t been wearing them, and asked him where they were. He said he lost them two days ago. Not only did he lose them, he lied to me! You know what, you keep them. He will just loose them again.”

I lost them about six months later lol.

Not the same but I used to work at a luxury wilderness lodge in the middle of a national park in Alaska.  Was about a 6 hour drive on the single road to get from the park entrance to our location. No private vehicles allowed, so we drove guests in and out on buses twice a week.


One day the bus driver radioed us to tell us a departing guest had left his wallet, they were already hours down the road. Sure enough we found it in his cabin. We were friends with the guys who ran the only air strip in the park, and they happened to be flying out that day, so we gave them a bunch of fresh baked goods in exchange for them taking the wallet with them to the park entrance.


When the guest arrived at the park entrance that day, his wallet was waiting for him at the airstrip. Now that's (Alaska) customer service! He was really excited about it and mailed us an additional tip.

I worked in a nightclub and someone left a Prada coat. Because of how it expensive it was, we kept it twice as long as we normally did for other items. Never claimed or even enquired about - a £2000 coat!

My grandmother once paid for the entire extended family to do an all inclusive in Cancun (this was mid 90s). I used the room safe for my watch (very cheap watch, but I wanted to "use" all the amenities because I was a broke college student and wanted the full experience).

When we left I felt all the way back to the corners of the room safe and found a set of herringbone gold necklace, bracelet and diamond stud earrings. All fairly hefty (especially the diamonds). I gave the diamond earrings to my sister because my ears weren't pierced. I kept and wore the gold necklace and bracelet for about twenty years. ETA god 30 years. Where does the time go.

I eventually got another, opal, necklace and bracelet from my husband when we were out of grad school and he was first starting to make some serious money.

Unfortunately I'm not a jewelry kind of person so I only wore each set a handful of times. Then a couple years ago I was attending a wedding and brought both sets to the hotel because I couldn't decide which I wanted to wear.

Yep, left both behind in the hotel and only realized it the next year when I wanted to get them out to wear them again.

I hope the person who found them gets as much enjoyment out of them as I got out of the gold set I found 30 years previous.

My buddy had a stack of half a dozen boxes of cremated remains locked in his airport office away from the normal lost and found.

He suspects they're from people traveling for distant relatives' funerals and people having to take the remains home, but didn't want to/didn't care.

After a visit from a TSA bigwig, they went away.

I used to be a receptionist for a company that had people fly in from all over for seminars. Someone left a nice LL Bean canvas coat- like the one George Costanza sometimes wore - and I put it in the coat closet behind my desk where all the lost and found items were kept. No one ever claimed it. After about three years I took it home. Everyone my family has worn it at one time or another. It’s a great coat.

I worked for a cleaning company many years ago, cleaning the million dollar rentals on holden , baldhead, and hilton head. Rich folks would leave everything and anything you can imagine. Full surfboards, chairs, toys, electronics, jewelry, books, food, expensive liquor, pet kennels, cigars, cartons of cigarettes, skateboards, fishing poles , movies, projectors, you name it they left it. On the up side, you got to keep alot of the stuff. down side, your working for minimum wage cleaning houses where people can afford to leave entire fridge and freezers full of untouch food, sound systems, electronics etc without a care in the world. its depressing,.

There was a prosthetic leg in the lost and found at the Daytona Beach airport when I worked there.

My dad did like school trips for high-school and college kids. Mostly wealthy people.... and those kids left so much stuff behind..... LOADS of meds.... mostly Adhd, anti depressants etc. Then there were the full makeup kits, some amazing CD and DVD collections, I discovered so many good bands. Lots of nice winter gear and snowboards. But sad once someone left their childhood blanket like one of those rag looking things.... she eventually claimed it and left a big tip, 'twas lovely.

I once accidentally left my dogs ashes at TSA. The l&f department went above and beyond and called my vet office bc her cremation info was still in the velvet bag she came back to me in.
I was able to recover them by calling in a favor to a friend in that city.

Someone once lost their entire Diabetes testing kit including their CGM and a bottle of insulin.


I kept it on hand for like 6 months before tossing it.  I knew the insulin was long bad but surely a glucose monitor is worth tracking down.

Not quite the same thing but I work at a courier company and our lost property (when labels come off parcels) always gets lots of family photo albums and old wedding dresses, most are never claimed (we hold them for 6 months).

Most personal? A wallet with $850 cash US, about another $200 in other currency, ID Card, Green Card, so many credit cards. Held on to it for 2 months and let the other areas lost and found departments know we had it in case she called them. Never did come back for it.

We weren't allowed to track or call customers for valuables. Did it once to be Good Samaritans and one lady cussed us out and accused us of stealing her belongings because she wasn't the type to forget valuables like that. Why would we call you if we stole it??? Really?

Fun stuff I got to take home after over a month: Chanel earrings, designer sunglasses, umbrellas, nice coats and jackets, designer perfumes, etc.

Weird stuff i did not take home: walking canes, gold or silver grills, dentures..