Mostly Lost, Rarely Found
Oh the look of joy and smiling face of a concert goer who lost their phone and we have it for them. Not so much as the grown man with tears streaming down his face as we break the news that no phone was not turned in. Sometimes, things really pile up, especially in the winter months, when we run out of space to store the items. During the winter months at any given time we have at least 7 Rubbermaid bins full of items that were unclaimed by patrons attending concerts and sporting events that were found here by our ushers and cleaning staff after events.
Lost and Found is almost a full time job – and is also almost big business here at The Bud. We could open up a Sunglass Hut, or an umbrella shop, we have one full Rubbermaid storage bin for each of them. Prescription eye glasses, readers, sunglasses, eyeglass cases, all costly items to replace. We are actually amazed that people do not think to call us about these items!
Other items we have laying around include strollers, a camping chair, seat pillows, mittens, gloves, hats and scarves, even little Johnny has left the building in the mid of winter with no coat. It is still waiting here for him.
Earrings, bracelets and rings are popular as well. We recently had a woman lose a ring that we did find. Her hands were so cold during a hockey game she says she knows it fell off her finger. It belonged to her grandmother, an 18k gold wedding band. We were happy to hand such a treasured item over to her.
The number one item lost is definitely sunglasses in summer and mittens/scarves and toques in winter. We've collected too many baseball hats as well. Heaven forbid a player gets a hat trick one night. Now that’s a hat store! We also have enough camera batteries to fill a small basket! We have many checked items as well, still with the check ticket on it that people have forgotten to pick up after the event.
We had a stack of credit cards and various I.D. measuring 4 inches in height (we know because we measured it!) between the months of November and end of February this year…at which time they were all shredded. This stack included driver’s licenses, health cards, credit cards/bank cards, hotel room swipe cards, student cards and bus passes. Wallets containing money and identification are also common in our lost & found. Every attempt is made to contact the person using the enclosed ID and we are equally successful as we are not. I have managed to get a hold of a few people over the years who haven’t event noticed that they have lost their wallet, or cell phone for that matter. Many good deeds of the day have been done!
Oh lest we forget the black bra left behind. Don’t ask! We confiscated up to at least a dozen knives this past season from patrons being searched or bags being checked by security upon entry. We have a plastic bucket containing various set of keys, mainly car keys and many with car starters weighing close to 20 lbs - all waiting for owners to claim them. We currently use it for break time weight lifting ;) !!
Concert merchandise is often left behind as well, or the old shirt that they had on before changing into the concert T-shirt they just bought.
Our policy is to keep all items for at least thirty (30) days, at which time it is sorted and then sent to a local charity or the donation bins across town.
Please DO NOT HESITATE to call us at any time – you would be surprised, we may have your lost item here! Please call 519-667-5730.
Author: Judy Sullivan
