A PROSTHETIC LEG, false teeth and a box of crickets are just some of the bizarre items that have been left behind on the capital’s public transport system.
Other strange items that made their way to the lost and found departments include a glass eye, shark teeth, toupees, wheelchairs, crutches and white canes for the blind. Mobile phones are the most common item that passengers leave behind, according to a spokeswoman for Dublin Bus, who said about 40 mobiles ended up in the lost property department every week.
“Strangely, we also get quite a lot of dentures left behind,” she added. And while passengers have to pay a €2 levy for the return of lost property, it’s a small price to get one’s limb, teeth or pet back, says the spokeswoman.
Joe Elliot, who has worked in the lost and found department of Dublin Bus on and off for the last 15 years, said the strangest item he ever came across was a live rabbit. “The owner never even claimed the rabbit, so one of the girls working here took it home.”
“Fifteen years ago, umbrellas were the most popular item left behind. We would get hundreds of them. Now it’s mobile phones.”
Most items are kept for a month and then either scrapped or donated to charity. Mr Elliot said more valuable items such as jewellery are kept for a year and a day and then given to a charity shop. Money is also kept for a year and a day before being sent as a reward to the person who found it.
A spokeswoman for Veolia transport said mobiles, wallets, gym bags and school bags were the most regular items left on the Luas. Hearing aids, dentures, baby buggies and wheelchairs were among the more unusual things left behind. “We often get joke calls from kids asking have we found their grannies,” she said.
One woman kept leaving handbags on the Luas. “She left a handbag behind every day for two weeks. In each bag she left her story, which was typed up, detailing personal information such as where she was living. We soon realised she was deliberately leaving the bags for someone to contact her.”
A memorial stone for a grave was the strangest thing left behind by a passenger at Dublin airport, said a spokeswoman for the Dublin Airport Authority.
“The passenger most likely left it behind after they discovered how much the excess baggage charges were,” she added.