No dog in the fight here, but I thought I'd briefly mention how
lost and found items are handled at my place of work.
I work for a very large State agency, with several thousand
employees. Consequently, lots of items get picked up and turned in
to the L&F counter. Umbrellas, sunglasses, car keys, coffee
mugs, watches, jewelry, wallets, CDs, even electronic devices like
calculators and MP3 players. How anyone loses a set of car keys and
not claim it back, is beyond me.
Once a month, L&F items turned in and unclaimed within the past
30 days are displayed on a looooong table adjacent to the
reception area in the lobby. The table stays for a couple of days,
and then any unclaimed items are gathered up and thrown into a
L&F bin in the Building Maintenance department and kept for
another month. During this time, employees can request to rummage
through the bin to look for lost items. After the month in storage
is up, any remaining L&F items are released for disposal and
either distributed to local charities or simply junked.
Incidentally, I have no doubt that some of the people helping
themselves to the items on the L&F table aren't the owners of said items, but
realistically, what can the reception area staff do to curtail
that?
