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Lost & Found

This Chicago family's dog went for a walkabout in rural Georgia last October, and he's only now been finally captured and returned to his owners.
Chicago family's dog found after 135 days lost in Georgia wilderness

A Chicago family was reunited with their 10-year-old dog after the canine spent 135 days lost in the Georgia wilderness.

The Lost Pet Recovery Team, part of the Atlanta-based nonprofit Animal Institute, said in a Facebook post that a dog named Leo escaped from his family's hotel room in Dalton, Ga., while they were eating at a nearby restaurant on Oct. 30 of last year. ...

Leo's owner, Danielle, and her mother remained in town for two weeks to search for the dog, but eventually had to return to Chicago empty-handed.

Leo was spotted on a homeowner's security camera in December, but he could not be located ...

A local resident snapped a photo of Leo in the woods behind their home Feb. 12, and the Lost Pet Recovery Team installed multiple trail cameras in the area that spotted the dog ...

Leo left the area and was spotted on cameras again Feb. 27 and March 11. A trap put out after the most recent sighting was successful in securing the long-lost canine.

Danielle was reunited with Leo in Georgia and the pair returned to Chicago this week ...
SOURCE: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2022/03/17/Chicago-dog-lost-135-days-Georgia/6891647549467/
 
I hope it was a happy reunion. If I were a dog and the human members of my pack had left me shut in a hotel room while they went off for some nice nosh I would have escaped as well! Not sure I'd ever have forgiven them. Still dogs are better at forgiveness than humans so hopefully all will be well. :)
 
A great find in an old book.

Dr Sarah Demelo was helping a researcher when she came across a handwritten letter pasted into a book. The letter was penned by Sir Thomas Fairfax, the Parliamentarians' commander-in-chief during the English Civil Wars. What is it like to discover such a document among the millions of items housed in the UK's network of "special collections"?

The Special Collection at Essex University lives within its own micro-climate where the temperature is rigidly kept between 18C and 20C (64F to 68F) and the humidity level between 40% and 60%.

Within its collection of between 20,000 and 30,000 items is an 18th Century copy of Philip Morant's The History and Antiquities of Colchester.
In the summer of 2020, Dr Demelo, the head of the special collections at the university's Albert Sloman Library, opened up the book to help a visiting researcher.

"He had an appointment to do some research on the Dutch refugees in the 17th Century in Colchester," Dr Demelo said. "I was helping him with his research and I looked at Philip Morant's History of Colchester, which is a well-known book about the area, and was flicking through the pages and just happened to come across a letter which looked to be in the hand of General Sir Thomas Fairfax. I saw it and, because we do have quite a bit of original Siege of Colchester material, I do know quite a bit about it so when I saw it, I did squeal and had a little moment, but then there are lots of questions."

The authenticity of the letter - addressed to a wealthy Justice of the Peace called George Walton, who lived in Great Burstead in Essex - has now been established. ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-essex-60778461
 
A great find in an old book.

Dr Sarah Demelo was helping a researcher when she came across a handwritten letter pasted into a book. The letter was penned by Sir Thomas Fairfax, the Parliamentarians' commander-in-chief during the English Civil Wars. What is it like to discover such a document among the millions of items housed in the UK's network of "special collections"?

The Special Collection at Essex University lives within its own micro-climate where the temperature is rigidly kept between 18C and 20C (64F to 68F) and the humidity level between 40% and 60%.

Within its collection of between 20,000 and 30,000 items is an 18th Century copy of Philip Morant's The History and Antiquities of Colchester.
In the summer of 2020, Dr Demelo, the head of the special collections at the university's Albert Sloman Library, opened up the book to help a visiting researcher.

"He had an appointment to do some research on the Dutch refugees in the 17th Century in Colchester," Dr Demelo said. "I was helping him with his research and I looked at Philip Morant's History of Colchester, which is a well-known book about the area, and was flicking through the pages and just happened to come across a letter which looked to be in the hand of General Sir Thomas Fairfax. I saw it and, because we do have quite a bit of original Siege of Colchester material, I do know quite a bit about it so when I saw it, I did squeal and had a little moment, but then there are lots of questions."

The authenticity of the letter - addressed to a wealthy Justice of the Peace called George Walton, who lived in Great Burstead in Essex - has now been established. ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-essex-60778461
That's a generally interesting article. It includes a mention of witches and how they were believed to steal men's sex organs - we have threads on that! - and one of T.E. Lawrence's excitement about acquiring a new Brough motorcycle.

It went like stink, he said, and within a month he'd crashed it and was dead.
 
Know anyone who's suddenly toothless in Royton, Oldham?
Full set of teeth left behind at British restaurant

A British restaurant is trying to find the owner of an unusual piece of lost and found property: a full set of teeth.

The Barclay Pizza & Prosecco, located in Royton, Oldham, England, said workers were cleaning in the early morning hours Sunday when they found a full set of dentures on the floor in the bar area of the eatery. ...

"We get a lot of things left behind after a night in the Barclay.. we've had house keys, phones, even a single shoe (she must have hopped home) but this is a new one," the post said.

Whelan said the teeth were found at the end of a particularly busy night. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2022/0...res-left-behind-Royton-England/5001647882033/
 
At work last week I mentioned to a customer that we sometimes find dentures that people have accidentally thrown away. We always retrieve them intact.
To my delight, the customer explained everything I said to her non English-speaking family and they all laughed.
The stupidity of others is funny in every language. :chuckle:
 
At work last week I mentioned to a customer that we sometimes find dentures that people have accidentally thrown away. We always retrieve them intact.
To my delight, the customer explained everything I said to her non English-speaking family and they all laughed.
The stupidity of others is funny in every language. :chuckle:
This brought back memories of 50 plus years ago. My mother sent me on an errand to the "Lost and Found" bus depot in Bradford. She had left her umbrella on the bus and it was a time when, if you lost something, you didn't think oh well and go and buy a new one. The guy behind the counter was clearly bored and said he'd go and look if I could guess what was the most common thing left on a bus but not collected. I guessed at umbrella but he laughed and said it was false teeth. He did in fact retrieve mother's umbrella though - it had her initials on it.
 
Britain’s longest overdue library book has been returned after 313 years

The 1704 copy of The Faith and Practice of a Church of England Man was handed back late last year.

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Sheffield Cathedral’s Reverend Canon Keith Farrow said he got an email from the family of a deceased woman saying she asked in her will for it to be returned

He added: “This little book left the library just over 300 years ago.

"Now it’s come back home so it’s a joy to have this little jewel back in the cathedral.”

A handwritten inscription inside reads: “This Book belongs to ye Lending Library in Sheffield Church 1709.”

With overdue fines of 50p a day, librarians could have charged the family more than £54,000 for the book — which is worth about £300.

The canon joked: “We might have got a new roof or something. But I did promise I wouldn’t charge them.”

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/18046891/britains-longest-overdue-library-book-returned/

maximus otter
 
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A UK chihuahua stolen 10 years ago was discovered and reunited with its original owners.
Chihuahua reunited with owner 10 years after being stolen in London

A British woman was reunited with her beloved chihuahua when the dog turned up at a playground 10 years after being stolen during a walk.

Tae Bennett, 22, said she was only 12 years old when she was walking her chihuahua, Ollie, at a park near her family's London home and thieves cut through the leash and fled with the dog. ...

Bennett said she was shocked when she received a call reporting Ollie had been found late last week wandering at a playground about 20 miles away from where he was stolen. ...

She said Ollie is settling in back at home with her family. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2022/03/30/stolen-chihuahua-London-playground-10-years/2311648671753/
 
A University College London library book finally made it "home" after being MIA since 1974.
Overdue book returned to London library after nearly 50 years

Officials at University College London said a library book recently mailed back to the school was nearly 50 years overdue.

Librarians said the book, an edition of the Latin-language play Querolus, was mailed back to UCL Libraries by an anonymous patron along with an unsigned note. ...

'Dear Librarian, I fear this book is some 50 years overdue! Please don't just throw it out, now that I've taken the time and trouble to return it. It must be an 'antique' by now," the note reads.

The book has originally been due back in the summer of 1974, officials said. The book would have accrued late fees totaling $1,648.56 at the rate of 13 cents per day. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2022/0...ondon-library-overdue-50-years/7911648757886/
 

Mysterious benefactor returns Charles Darwin’s missing notebooks after 20 years


Twenty years ago, two small notebooks written by 19th-century naturalist Charles Darwin mysteriously disappeared from the archives of Cambridge University Library. One of the notebooks even contains Darwin's iconic 1837 sketch of the so-called "Tree of Life." After multiple searches and a public appeal, the notebooks have finally been returned by an anonymous person.

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"My sense of relief at the notebooks' safe return is profound and almost impossible to adequately express," said Cambridge University Librarian Jessica Gardner.

Darwin famously set sail on the HMS Beagle on December 27, 1831, as the ship's naturalist. The expedition's purpose was to chart the coastline of South America, and Darwin's job was to collect and record specimens as well as investigate local geography at the various landing sites. He dutifully recorded all his observations in his notebooks.

In mid-July 1837, Darwin wrote down his ideas about life span and variation across generations of animals. He believed his ideas could explain all the diversity he had observed, particularly among the tortoises, mockingbirds, and rheas he recorded in the Galapagos Islands. That's when he sketched the famous "Tree of Life" in his "B" notebook, showing a genealogical branching of a single evolutionary tree and concluding that "it is absurd to talk of one animal being higher than another." He would publish the fully developed version of that tree over 20 years later in The Origin of Species.

darwin1TOP-640x427.jpg


A page from Darwin's 1837 notebook showing the "Tree of Life" sketch.

The "B" notebook with its "Tree of Life" sketch was stored along with Darwin's "C" notebook in a blue box about the size of a paperback in the archives of the Cambridge University Library. Together, they are known as the "Transmutation Notebooks," and while they are priceless artifacts, their value is estimated at several million pounds.

In September 2000, the notebooks were removed from the Special Collections Strong Rooms to be photographed. However, in January 2001, the librarians found that the small blue box and the priceless notebooks within were missing. Initially, the assumption was that the notebooks had been misplaced. Librarians conducted searches over the next two decades, but the Special Collections room alone holds millions of documents.

Gardner came on board in 2017 and launched a new exhaustive search in 2020. Numerous experts combed through the entire Darwin Archive and even made fingertip examinations. Still, the notebooks could not be found. Gardner and several other experts concluded that the notebooks had likely been stolen.

Cambridge University Library launched a public appeal for the return of the notebooks on November 24, 2020, coinciding with the celebration of Evolution Day—the publication anniversary of On the Origin of Species in 1859.

That appeal paid off 15 months later when a bright pink gift bag appeared in a public area just outside Gardner's office. Inside was a plain brown envelope simply addressed "Librarian: Happy Easter." The envelope contained the blue archive box with both notebooks inside, wrapped in plastic film and still intact.

https://arstechnica.com/science/202...ned-to-cambridge-univ-library-after-20-years/

maximus otter
 
Amazing these were being binned..

A mechanic went hunting for car parts in a skip and discovered a stack of artworks worth £2million.

Jared Whipple, had been tipped off by his friend George Martin about items being cleared from an old barn in Connecticut.

He drove up a few days later and found the waste removal team stacking a series of large canvases, including watercolours, pastels and drawings, into skips.

But when he spotted a signature, he enlisted the help of an art historian and appraiser, who discovered the works were the life’s work of Francis Hines.

Now the art including watercolours worth up to £50,000 a pop — are to go on show, with 30 offered for sale by the finder.

Jared will be putting over 30 of the artworks up for sale during the exhibition in in Connecticut and New York next month.

Hines is best known for wrapping the Washington Square Arch in polyester fabric in 1980, and lived in both the West Village and Connecticut.

He wrapped a number of buildings in New York as well as at JFK Airport and the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

He had stored his life’s work in a property in Watertown, which was only cleared out to be readied for sale after his death in 2016 at the age of 96.
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Maybe he had no family to leave things to. I bet the clearance people are kicking themselves. What a find.
 

Lost Charlotte Brontë Manuscript Sells for $1.25 Million


Nearly 200 years ago, a 13-year-old created a tiny book of poems in minuscule, print-like text and sewed it into a miniature book with needle and thread.

That teenage author was Charlotte Brontë, who would later go on to write Jane Eyre and become one of English literature’s most acclaimed novelists.

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The 15-page “A Book of Ryhmes [sic] by Charlotte Brontë, Sold by Nobody, and Printed by Herself” contains 10 never-before-seen poems.

The playing-card-sized book’s tiny handwriting, intended to look like the font of a printing press, is “impossible to read at a quick glance without a magnifying glass.”

The just-sold manuscript was last publicly seen when it was sold for $520 in New York in 1916; it was recently discovered in a private collection inside a letter-sized envelope tucked in the pages of a 19th-century schoolbook.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smar...e-manuscript-sells-for-one-million-180979955/

maximus otter
 
A stowaway cat who was flown ashore from a North Sea platform has been reunited with his owner - five years after going missing.

The one-eyed cat was discovered on Thursday inside a shipping container that had been shipped from Peterhead.
It emerged he had previously been a regular visitor to HMP Grampian, where prison staff fed him and nicknamed him "one-eyed Joe”.
The crew of the offshore platform fed their unexpected visitor on chicken from the canteen and called in the Scottish SPCA.

Animal rescue officer Aimee Findlay, who collected the cat, said: "We've no idea how the cat ended up there.

"After checking him for a microchip it turns out his real name is Dexter and he has been missing for five years."

She added: "We are so glad that he was well looked after for the time he was missing, but were even more delighted to be able to reunite him with his original owner thanks to his microchip being up to date."

Delighted owner Bridie Dorta told BBC Scotland she was "quite shocked" to have Dexter back.
"He's always been a wanderer," she said. "He went away a few years ago and we never heard anything about him since.

She hopes to be able to keep Dexter in touch with his fans at the prison.
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A Utah woman has been reunited with the taxidermied rat she'd lost while flying home from a taxidermy class in New York. The down side is that an airport lost and found department has lost its mascot.
Traveler reunited with lost taxidermy rat after nearly a year

An unusual piece of property in a Utah airport's lost and found was returned to its owner nearly a year later when she recognized her taxidermy rat in a TV news report.

Brett Christensen, supervisor of the lost and found at Salt Lake City International Airport, said the taxidermy rat was one of the most unusual items staff had come across. He said workers dubbed the rat "Stuart" and adopted it as an office mascot. ...

"We started getting hats for him. He's got a cowboy hat, and a black top hat," Christensen told KSL-TV.

A KSL-TV report on the unusual items at the lost and found came to the attention of Carrie Poulsen's husband.

"My husband called and he said you're not going to believe it," she said. "You know that rat you've been mourning?"

Poulson said she returned to Utah from New York in August after attending a taxidermy class. She said she was dismayed when she arrived home and realized she had lost her rat.

The traveler said she hadn't checked the lost and found for the rat because she was convinced that she had left it in a ride-sharing car. ...

Poulson said she was delighted to be reunited with her stuffed rat, which she said the lost and found staff kept in good condition. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2022/0...ake-City-International-Airport/1471651690966/
 
Two vinyl records were returned to the Kansas City Public Library 61 years after being checked out.
Two vinyl records returned to Missouri library after 61 years

A pair of vinyl records were returned to a Missouri library more than 60 years after they were checked out.

The Kansas City Public Library said a pair of vinyl records, releases by The Philadelphia Woodwind Quintet and Bela Bartok, recently arrived in the mail along with an apologetic note from David Izzard, who checked them out of the library in 1961. ...

Izzard wrote he was an "irresponsible young kid with no common sense" when he checked the records out and failed to return them. He said the records traveled with him to Los Angeles, where he had a career writing out scores for multiple TV shows, movies and award shows, before returning to Kansas City with him.

Izzard said he was recently going through old boxes when he rediscovered the records. ...

Library officials said Izzard had nothing to worry about, as the facility did away with late fees in 2019. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2022/0...City-Missouri-library-61-years/2191652215638/
 
Eat E.T,?

The family of a man who died have found a preserved marzipan model of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial that was bought in 1982.

Jim Robson, a fan of the hit movie and marzipan, received the confectionary as a gift from his daughter.
It was purchased for £1.75 from Simmons Bakery in St Albans to coincide with the film's release.
The bakery director was amazed to see the product 40 years on but said he "wouldn't recommend eating it".
Mary Duke said her sister, Sarah Hayman, then 18, bought it for Father's Day.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-61407292
 
This overdue library book made it from the UK to Croatia during the more than 60 years it was MIA.
NOTE: No, I can't explain why the book is claimed to have been checked ou in 1952 but the article says it was missing for "over 60 years" rather than 70 years.
Book found in Croatia returned to British library after 60 years

A British library said a book checked out more than 60 years ago was finally returned to the facility after being found at another library in Croatia.

Vedran Levi, an employee of Dubrovnik Libraries, found a copy of The Loving Couple by Virginia Rowans in a bag of apparent donations left at the Croatian library. ...

He discovered the book had been checked out from the Gainsborough Community Library in Ipswich, England, in 1952. Levi mailed the book back to its original home with a note explaining the discovery. ...
SOURCE: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2022/0...munity-Libray-60-years-overdue/8391653078564/
 
Uber has released its 6th annual Lost and Found Index - a summary digest of data on customers leaving items in Uber vehicles.
Uber reveals most common and most unusual lost and found items

Ride-sharing service Uber released its sixth annual "Lost and Found Index," revealing some of the most common -- and most unusual -- items left behind in drivers' vehicles.

The Lost and Found Index, released Friday, revealed the most common items left behind in Uber vehicles during the past year were phones/cameras, wallets, keys, backpacks/purses, headphones/speakers, glasses, clothing, vaping devices, jewelry and IDs. ...

Some of the most "unique" items reported lost by passengers included tater tots, a fingernail, "my grandma's teeth," 500 grams of caviar, a pizza costume, "a [expletive] painting of a moose," a Billie Eilish ukulele, an employee of the month plaque, a Bernie Sanders fanny pack, a crochet strawberry, a bucket of slime, a brown tortoise and a "ball gag and stethoscope."

Uber said more than 40 riders lost their CPAP machines, more than 30 reported lost retainers and five people reported lost dentures. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2022/06/03/Uber-Lost-and-Found-Index/2471654283257/

Here's the complete Uber report:

The 2022 Uber Lost & Found Index
https://www.uber.com/newsroom/2022-uber-lost-found-index/
 
A British Columbia library recently received a book that's been overdue for more than half a century.
Book returned to British Columbia library was 51 years overdue

A British Columbia library said a patron recently returned a book with a note apologizing for the tome being 51 years overdue.

The Vancouver Public Library said ... that the book, The Telescope by Harry Edward Neal, was returned recently with a sticky note apologizing for its tardiness. ...

The due date stamped inside the book was April 20, 1971.

"With our recent removal of late fees, they won't get charged a cent for their late return" ...
FULL STORY: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2022/0...ublic-Library-51-years-overdue/9931655235201/
 
A firefighter's helmet lost during a 2019 water rescue was discovered by a kayaker 422 miles away.
Helmet lost by firefighter during water rescue found 3 years later, 422 miles away

A Pennsylvania firefighter's helmet, lost during a water rescue, was found three years later after floating 422 miles to Kentucky.

Daniel Hughes said he was kayaking in the Ohio River in Maysville, Ky., when he found a bright yellow helmet tangled in some debris on the riverbank. ...

"... it was a firefighter's helmet with the owner's ID still attached to it," Hughes told The Ledger Independent newspaper.

Hughes shared photos of the helmet, which belonged to Franklin Park, Pa., firefighter Dave Vodarick, to the Franklin Park Fire Department's Facebook page, where it came to the attention of Chief Bill Chicots.

"The helmet belonged to Dave Vodarick, he's been a member of our fire department since 1974; he lost the helmet during a water rescue in October 2019," Chicots said.

He said the rapidly moving water nearly carried Vodarick away, and was successful in taking the helmet off his head. ...
SOURCE: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2022/06/15/firefighter-helmet-Ohio-River-three-years/8221655326107/
 
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