Can you guess the top 3 items lost on the Metro? As the 2nd busiest metro in the nation after New York, the Washington Metrorail gives approximately 758,000 rides to commuters per weekday and a whopping 209 million rides per year. With that number of distracted travelers bumping and jumbling around, you know many important items are bound to be forgotten. Indeed, the Washington Post notes that the Metro’s Lost and Found recovers essential and expensive piles of keys (300+), glasses (300 or so) and wallets (200) every month. The expense and inconvenience of paying $100+ to replace a key fob or having to pay and wait for a replacement pair of glasses would incentivize most travelers to stand in a lost and found line. The most nail-biting of all is when a wallet goes missing and with it, a driver’s license and credit cards.

Related Article: (Protecting Your Valuables 101)

Many more items are left behind in the Metro system. In fact, another article by the Washington Post states that the Metro received 1,442 items in the month of October, 2014 with everything from iPods to computers to strollers. In addition to the everyday items are the unique and bizarre, which give the Metro’s lost and found personnel a fair amount of laughs. A lost alligator head and a specimen of sea creatures certainly are in the top ranking.
The best takeaway from the Washington Post article regarding the Metro is that people, despite their busy schedules, still make it a point to turn in lost items. Not only are honest people turning things in, but it is also done in a way that the owners are getting their valuables back. It looks like the staff at the Metro’s Lost and Found are doing a great job.

Don’t forget to take a basic inventory of what you brought with you next time you board the Metro. Look around, go through an essential check-list and peak at your seat before your leave your next bus or subway. You never know what you might find for someone else or what you may leave behind otherwise.