If you ever leave something behind on a bus or subway, there is a chance you could be reunited with it.
New York City Transit has a lost and found that tries to identify the owners of all of the items turned in. That’s how Troy, who did not want to give his last name, found his lost bag recently.
“I’m ecstatic. I actually am,” he said. “You know, like, feels like a lot of relief.”
What You Need To Know
The New York City Transit Lost and Found sees about 3,000 items turned in per month
Items like prosthetics, dentures and urns with human remains have been turned in
Items that are not claimed within six months are auctioned off
Troy was reunited with a bag of hair clippers he sells to salons at the New York City Transit Lost and Found. He thought he’d never get them back.
“The cops said, hey, you know we didn’t see anything about your bag. Then they actually told me, hey, we might have some something about your bag, so don’t worry,” he said.
He left the bag on the Franklin Avenue Shuttle, where transit worker Juan Frias found it.
“So I noticed a bag at Botanic Garden when the person hopped off the train and I just kept my eye on it,” Frias said. “When, shuttle train got to the last stop, which was, Prospect Park, I was able to grab the bag and, you know, pass it off to the train operator.”
The bag ended up tucked away at the lost and found under the A, C, and E at the northern end of the 34th Street Penn Station stop. Ron Young has worked there on and off for about five years.
“We do our best to identify the item. Find any contact information to notify the owner,” said Young, a superintendent in subways operations support. “We search our database in our web portal to see if you filed any report and if there’s anything similar that and try to match it, connect it to the owners.”
They say about 3,000 items get turned in a month — and they see some really crazy things.
“When I think I’ve seen it all, it always tops it,” Young said. “We get prosthetics, surfboards, crutches, dentures.”
That includes a pair of cremated remains. But Young says cellphones seem to be the item most often left behind.
“These cellphones are already beyond the six-month retention period,” said Young, in front of shelves of bundled cellphones. “We’ve either notified the owners and they haven’t come claim them or we are unable to identify the owner, because right now, the electronics are all locked.”
Those items get auctioned off. But the bundles of phones and stacks of items show losing something on a bus or on the subway is not a lost cause.
“Well, I’m trying not to lose anything again,” Troy said. “But I know, you know, if I do misplace something, I at least have some faith that somebody would get it back to me.”