Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Strange Lost and Found Items

This is topic Strange Lost and Found Items in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Chris Mosel (Member # 1451) on 01-06-2008, 08:48 PM:

Two weeks ago we found a (fake)cell phone that is actually a stun-gun. This has got to be among the oddest items found in my 17 years. No one has called or come by asking for it yet. Has anyone else found anything this far out of the norm?

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 01-06-2008, 09:35 PM:

Off duty cop lost his gun here on Sunday night about 7 years ago during the 7.15 show. He discovered it was missing around 10.45 and came back to look for it at closing---11.30 or so. The cop and 3 theatre employees looked for it for 30 minutes before it was found, far from where he had been sitting.

Posted by Jim Bedford (Member # 4) on 01-06-2008, 09:48 PM:

I've come across a 45mm automatic that a guy found uncomfortable in his belt so he put it on a baseboard heater behind a curtain; a number of bindles or other containers of cocaine (ah, the 80's!), underware, a bra, all forms of lost bills (highest was $65), wallets with up to $400 and credit cards, cell phones by the scad, etc. Luci says the strangest is over the years how many glasses (reading and prescription) she's found that have not been claimed that she's taken to the Free Box. (Telluride has this place where you can drop off things you don't want for others to glean.... it's the Free Box.)

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 01-06-2008, 10:10 PM:

Underwear, mens and women is found often and frequently together(no surprize). Most money in a found wallet, $1200. What is truly amazing is the stuff that they don't come back for.

Posted by Ron Curran (Member # 3631) on 01-06-2008, 10:26 PM:

A wallet with $9,000 and no id. Handed it to the police station where it was claimed a week later.

Many sets of keys, including car keys ... do they walk home and forget that they once had a car?

Posted by David Favel (Member # 1125) on 01-07-2008, 02:35 AM:

Yep $8000.00 in a wallet. It belonged to a guy that was working for my father.

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 01-07-2008, 06:19 AM:

Back in 1996 I found an FBI I.D. wallet. I thought it was fake for about a day and a few of us went around acting like we were Mulder from the X-Files. Then the FBI agent who lost it showed up and we realized that it was real!

[Eek!]

Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 01-07-2008, 06:36 AM:

At a theater I worked at 25 years ago, some assistant to the India ambassador left $12,000 in a briefcase after watching “Gandhi”. He claimed it the next day, but in the meantime the staff was going a little crazy deciding what to do with it!

Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 01-07-2008, 09:58 AM:

Just the other evening we found a purse with quite a bit of cash inside. There was an ID but we couldn't cross reference it to a local phone number. The theater manager realized the address was not far away and he stopped there on his way home to return the purse. On Sunday the woman baked a big chocolate cake and brought it in for all the theater staff.

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 01-07-2008, 11:38 AM:

I remember one of my old managers finding a sex bag (including some butt plugs).

Posted by Christopher Crouch (Member # 3784) on 01-07-2008, 11:38 AM:

A prosthetic arm. The guy came back for it the same night, but how in the world does one forget their arm?

I've also found dentures several times. Again, how do you forget your teeth? And, why would you remove your teeth in a theatre to begin with?

Posted by Alan Plester (Member # 852) on 01-07-2008, 11:49 AM:

We had a box to keep eveything found in the cinema for three months, cheque books,credit cards, keys, hearing aid,and the all time favourite of ours was the left stilleto shoe. Worked at the place for nigh on 20 years, and we never got rid of it,just in case.

Posted by Alastair Comrie (Member # 4313) on 01-07-2008, 03:10 PM:

At my other job (non theater) I found an entire dead lobster in the parking lot. A little strange considering it is a theme park in the middle of the city..

Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 01-07-2008, 03:25 PM:

One of my employees found a dead chicken in the parking lot. Still had feathers and a beak.
Likewise, we too get a lot of sunglasses and prescription glasses. When a customer returns and tells me they lost their sunglasses a week or so ago, they seem quite astounded when I bring down the large box we keep the sunglasses in...

Posted by Mike Sellars (Member # 4042) on 01-07-2008, 03:45 PM:

Better false teeth question is... why would one take out their uppers and only leave those? That's the weirdest thing I ever found!

[thumbsup]

Posted by Anslem Rayburn (Member # 1267) on 01-07-2008, 04:07 PM:

Most random thing we've found is a map of Germany printed on crushed velvet.

I don't know where one would get such an item, why one would need it, or how one would forget in in a movie theater, but there it was.

Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 01-07-2008, 05:04 PM:

We find a variety of items almost every weekend, everything from shoes (Hey.. no Tennessee shoeless people jokes!!), cell phones, shirts, socks, lawn chairs (my favorite), flash lights, assorted car parts, toys and action figures (my boys love those!), cigarette lighters (we have a popcorn bucket full of lighters now), bungy cords, cargo nets, golf balls (have a bucket of those too - seems someone can't read the No Tresspassing signs), and the list could go on.

We generally don't keep the shoes unless it's a matched pair. The clothing and underwear get tossed in the dumpster. With the cell phones we try to scroll thru their stored contact list and see if they have a contact for HOME, and we'll try to call them from their phone and let them know we found it. Phones that have been crushed by cars get tossed. Every lawn chair we have at the theatre for the employees to use have been "donated" by the last 3 1/2 years of customers. Flashlights, bungy cords, and cargo nets all end up in my truck. Any money that's found goes to the person who picks it up. The most I've ever found was a $5 dollar bill that ended up as 2 - 2 1/2 dollar bills while I was mowing the grass!

The best find for the 2007 drive-in season was the pillow case left on the grass on Screen 2. I found it while cleaning the lot that night, and inside I found assorted girls clothes (t-shirt, underwear, bra, etc... and the best... a fully charged Nintendo DS gaming system with a Mario Karts game cartridge , all in a neat little zippered case. I held it in the office for 3 weeks, but no one ever called or showed up to claim it.
My boys love that thing!

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 01-07-2008, 05:18 PM:

quote:
The most I've ever found was a $5 dollar bill that ended up as 2 - 2 1/2 dollar bills while I was mowing the grass!

Ha. The most I found was $100. I turned it in to the manager on duty and about a month later I got it.

Posted by Kelly Skaggs (Member # 1780) on 01-07-2008, 05:57 PM:

Watch out when checking purses for IDs. About a dozen years ago an assistant manager open a purse to check for a ID and almost stuck her hand in a pair of mens underwear, that was full of crap [bs]

. I am not kidding on this one.

Posted by Peter David Bruce (Member # 4447) on 01-07-2008, 06:40 PM:

while cleaning the womens toilets at the end of the night i found a HUGE stash of gin, vodka and bacardi 'travel-size' bottles hidden behind the pipework.... just caught the edge of a label in the corner of my eye and in the end we uncovered about 50! of the things. all empty!

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 01-07-2008, 06:44 PM:

quote:
Watch out when checking purses for IDs. About a dozen years ago an assistant manager open a purse to check for a ID and almost stuck her hand in a pair of mens underwear, that was full of crap [bs] . I am not kidding on this one.

Once had a guy exit a movie and say "One of the stalls in the men's room needs to be looked at."

I go in there and see that the toilet is clogged with a huge pair of athletic underwear. I get a rubber glove and chunks of [bs]

fall out. Apparently someone (likely the guy who mentioned the problem) crapped his pants and tried to flush the evidence.

[puke]

Posted by Ed Alvarado (Member # 2760) on 01-10-2008, 03:20 AM:

I kid you not but i used to work at the wedgewood cinema in texas and one day before shutting down the theater for good i was cleaning up the booth and i always wanted to see what was up in this room that nobody had keys to and for the time ive been there and had new managers nobody has ever open the door so i figured well im not going to get in trouble so screw it i have to know whats in the room so i went home got some tools to crack it open and what i found was some old popcorn bags and old signs of the theaters named before it and then in this small little closet i found and old box with reels to [thumbsup]

DEBBIE DOES DALLAS [thumbsup]

and BLAZING SADDLES now im not sure what they are worth but im happy i own the movies. oh and old old posters for movies like starwars and superman and some other stuff ive never heard of but its all mine now. [thumbsup]

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 01-10-2008, 05:46 PM:

Someone's little brother. [Razz]

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 01-10-2008, 06:05 PM:

When I was working at a Drive-In for the first 5 years in the industry, I used to also do everything at this place, including yard cleanup.

and finding money on the yard grounds and along the fenceline was quite the treat ... like finding $400.00 in one week from blown away money from a windy night before..

-Monte

Posted by Kara J. McVay (Member # 1285) on 01-10-2008, 08:01 PM:

It was back in 1990 with the release of "Teenage Mutant Ninga Turtles" We sold out the first 4 shows at 320 people per show and over 200 for the 5th. So needless to say it took a very long time to clean. We started cleaning from the back of the theatre about 11:30 and reached the front row around Midnight, just picking all the crap up off the floor. When we got to the front row, I kid you not, there was a 4 year old boy sound asleep in the front row.

The police were called and arrived very promptly, to find a "mother" sitting out front of our totally DARK theatre in her car just waiting on the child. I am sure CPS showed up at her house the next day.

Posted by Ed Alvarado (Member # 2760) on 01-11-2008, 02:07 AM:

whooaaa thats missed up ok you won this one

Posted by Andy Muirhead (Member # 712) on 01-11-2008, 08:09 PM:

quote:
while cleaning the womens toilets at the end of the night i found a HUGE stash of gin, vodka and bacardi 'travel-size' bottles hidden behind the pipework.... just caught the edge of a label in the corner of my eye and in the end we uncovered about 50! of the things. all empty!

Just an idea, but have you suspected they may belong to the cleaners? [Wink]

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 01-12-2008, 05:32 PM:

Maybe a flight attendant just cleaned out her purse?? Louis

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 01-12-2008, 09:33 PM:

See this thread.