From artificial legs to pythons, bizarre things left behind in public places
Sunday, September 12, 2004 By JENNIFER MASTROIANNI
Guess what was found in front of the stage after the Quiet Riot concert at the 2003 Hall of Fame Ribs Burnoff?
Twelve bras. Yep. In all styles and sizes.
This colorful tidbit of local lore got us wondering: What other strange stuff is lost and found in public places across the county, state and country?
Oh, the items people lose and find. Big bras. Big cash. Big reptiles.
But nothing more unusual than body parts.
Imagine this scenario: You are strolling past one of the death-defying roller coasters at Cedar Point Amusement Park, stuffing cotton candy in your mouth, minding your own business and something catches your eye. You look closer. Is that ... could that possibly be ... an eyeball?
It is! A prosthetic human eyeball!
Which might cause you to wonder: Is the owner looking for it? Does he or she carry a spare, or is the owner walking around with an empty socket? Should I keep walking, or pick it up?
“Twice we have had glass eyes,” said Janice Witherow, public relations manager at the amusement park in Sandusky. “Those are among our more oddball items. We’ve also had toupees and wigs. These things are usually located under the high-speed roller coasters.”
In both cases, kind souls turned the eyeballs in to the park’s lost and found. The rightful owners claimed them later the same day.
No eyeballs at Geauga Lake in Aurora. But the same phenomenon occurs on their breakneck thrill rides.
“We’ve found dentures and retainers and hair extensions,” said park spokeswoman Lexi Robinson.
Some doozies have been lost by fans at Tribe games. “The oddest thing we found was a set of dentures,” said Jacobs Field representative Bob DiBiassio. “Somebody’s dentures fell onto the warning track during a post-season game. Obviously, somebody screaming and yelling too loud. We found them pretty quickly.”
Lots of jewelry is lost. “We had one case of an engaged couple, and the fiancée threw the ring at the guy. A few innings later, she bummed out and couldn’t find it,” said DiBiassio. “And once we had a guy end up getting up and walking off without his crutches.”
DiBiassio had heard about the lost glass eyes at Cedar Point. “We had the glass eye scenario, too,” he said. “Wonder if it’s the same guy.”
Talk about a jolt of a find. In June, volunteers who tend beach habitats on Florida’s Shell Key encountered more than bird nests. In the sand was a prosthetic left leg, complete with a white sports sock and a snazzy Reebok sneaker.
The group placed a found ad in the local newspaper, hoping whoever was missing the limb would claim it. Someone did.
Turns out Dave Dixon of Orlando was tubing when his artificial leg (from the knee down) hit the water and came off. When he went to retrieve it, a boat sped by and the limb disappeared under the waves. He figured it floated out to sea. (We wondered, would a shark be enticed?)
Dixon already had been fitted for a new leg when he heard about the ad.
“We’re just going to keep that in the car as a spare,” Dixon’s girlfriend, Cindy Hendron, told the St. Petersburg Times.
Countless items have been lost during events at the Canton Memorial Civic Center. In 26 years as a maintenance technician, Larry Hilton of Louisville has found many personal items. After this summer’s rainy-day visit by President Bush, a couple of dozen umbrellas were left behind. Through the years, Hilton has found love notes, birth control pills, jewelry and cameras.
But nothing surprised him like the purse left behind after a convention.
“This was probably 18 years ago,” said Hilton, 51, who is now the facility’s main technician. “We had an Amway convention here. I found a purse with about $34,000 in it.”
“I was in total shock” Hilton said. “It was mostly large bills, $100s and $50s.”
Inside was an ID. Managers called the Barberton woman who owned the handbag.
“The next day, she came and got it,” Hilton said. “There was no ‘Thank you.’ She told us, ‘At least it’s all there.’”
Most of the public places contacted said cell phones are the No. 1 lost item, followed by glasses, umbrellas and small articles of clothing such as hats.
Oddly, that is not the accessory that turns up most at the Akron Canton Regional Airport.
“We’ve got a stack of men’s belts and that just blows my mind,” said Linda Decker, an executive assistant in the airport administration office. “If there is ever a fire, I can always use belts to get out of the window.”
One theory is that the belts are taken off and forgotten at security screening. Another is that they are removed for relaxation in the waiting area.
“It’s amazing that they don’t remember they took them off,” said Decker, of Jackson Township. “I guess their pants aren’t falling down, or they would be coming back.”
Personal items frequently are forgotten in hotel rooms. Philip Dumot, general manager of Belden Village Holiday Inn, discovered a shocker a few years ago when he was the manager of a Sandusky hotel.
“Housekeeping called me and said, ‘Mr. Dumot, we have an issue. A guest left something behind. Maybe you want to come down and have a look.’”
“I went in to look, pulled back the sheets and guess what it was. A 9-foot white python.”
No one claimed the snake.
“We looked at the registration card and (the name) was erroneous,” Dumot said. “My chef took it home for a pet.” That was the second time Dumot encountered a mammoth snake on a hotel property. The other was a Burmese python that had slithered out of its owner’s room and was found in a hotel pool.
Blossom Music Center’s lost and found is loaded with cell phones, said operations manager Mark Girton.
“Those that aren’t claimed we end up giving to a battered women’s shelter at the end of the year,” he said.
Car keys get lost a lot, too. At least a set every concert. They aren’t too easy to find in the grass. In the dark. After a few libations.
“We don’t let people stay overnight, so they have to get someone to come pick them up or take a cab. Most of the time, a guest or cleaning crew finds them that night or the next day.”
About those 12 bras at the Quiet Riot show ...
Apparently, zealous female fans tossed their bras on stage.
“Twelve women went home without their bras. That is, that we know of,” said a Hall of Fame Festival spokesperson who preferred to remain anonymous. Exhausted festival volunteers discovered them during cleanup and, in their fatigue, got a little slap-happy.
“One of the volunteers was a size 2, and she found a bra that was about a 40DD,” the source said. “She put it on over her golf shirt and was wearing it around when we tore down.”
Weird items even turn up at the Stark County District Library.
“We used to find underwear in the book drop,” said Brenda Momirovic, circulation manager.
The explanation?
“I have no idea. I have no idea,” she said. “I wouldn’t even venture to guess. Maybe there is no explanation. Maybe that’s the explanation.”
You can reach Repository writer Jennifer Mastroianni at (330) 580-8304 or e-mail:
[email protected]
Lost and Founds:
Akron Canton Regional Airport
Frequent finds: Cameras, passports, CDs, Gameboys, shoes.
Happy ending: A passenger found a diamond ring, saying she would keep it until someone called her directly to describe it. Five months later, an older woman called the airport saying she may have lost a ring during a layover; it was a $10,000 heirloom from her deceased mother. Airport staff arranged for the two women to talk. They then met, went to dinner and the loser gave the finder a $1,000 reward.
Cedar Point
Frequent finds: Cameras, cell phones, jackets.
Happy ending: This summer, a Michigan guest lost the diamond out of her wedding ring. One of the employees found it in the ice skating theater and turned it in.
City of Canton, Police Property Room
Items turned in here are lost or stolen, but strange things that turn up are lawn mowers, wheelchairs, newspaper racks, lawn ornaments, floodlights, car washes’ change machines, cash registers and lots of bikes.
Cleveland Browns Stadium
Frequent finds: Glasses, jackets, binoculars. “Lots of volume but nothing really special,” said Browns rep Nathan Boudreaux.
Cleveland Hopkins International Airport
Frequent finds: Laptop computers, cameras, keys.
Surprise finds: Purses and satchels of cash. “We’ve had substantial amounts of cash left behind,” said Richard DeChant, assistant federal security director for screening operations. “People walk off and leave a handbag with $4,000 to $5,000, because they are going to Las Vegas. Fortunately, we usually connect people with their items.”
Jacobs Field
Frequent finds: Lots of binoculars and ball gloves. Unclaimed gloves are donated to Cleveland youth sports programs.
Palace Theatre
Currently in Lost and Found: Diary, rain jackets, golf cap, Tupperware container, single earrings, a dozen eyeglasses and a cellophane name tag with little girl’s name on it. “That is in case she gets lost,” quipped staff member Jackie Mitchell. “God knows where she’s at!”
2004 Professional Football Hall of Fame Festival
Found this year: 12 items. Eyeglasses, umbrellas, mugs.
Stark County District Library
Frequent finds: Drivers’ licenses, personal photos and documents left in copy machine.
Happy Ending: “An older lady said she left a tax-return check in a book,” said circulation manager Brenda Momirovic. “She knew what book she had read, the problem was, we had multiple copies. It was for $2,300, and we found it. She was so happy.”
Stark County Fairgrounds
Found items after this year’s fair: Hats, keys, cell phones, pagers, wallets, a stroller. “Nothing juicy,” said Pat Schafrath from the fair office.