Comments on: Losing, but not always finding, something in the subway

By: Benjamin Kabak

Benjamin Kabak — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 22:47:18 +0000

That’s a great point, Mike. I invested the time because my sunglasses — between the lenses and the frames — can cost around $350. But if I lost an umbrella, I’d just buy another one. It’s probably generally not worth the time or effort to try to recover items lost on the subway unless they’re of high value.

By: Mike Nitabach

Mike Nitabach — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 22:44:47 +0000

It is an interesting economic decision whether to expend the time and effort seeking to recover a particular lost item. I have never lost anything on the subway, but I once lost a Blackberry in a taxi. I made the economic decision not to even bother investing the time and effort required to interact with the TLC and seek its recovery.

By: Alon Levy

Alon Levy — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:41:25 +0000

It’s not just the population. I once found a backpack on the subway. I took it to the station where I’d disembark, and tried to hand it to the station agent, who said he can’t accept anything that doesn’t fit under the slit. The agent told me to go with the bag to LPU, which was completely out of my way. I looked in the bag and it included a letter addressed to the owner, who turned out to live close to where I work, but that was sheer luck.

By: rhywun

rhywun — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 03:01:49 +0000

The elephant in the room here of course is the mindset of the population. As New Yorkers, we naturally don’t expect our “fellow” commuters to do the honest thing and turn in a lost item–and the 18% recovery rate certainly bears that out. I remember living in Germany around 1986–I lost my keys somewhere in the town that I lived in. And they turned up at the village hall’s lost and found several days later! I was astonished (and I wasn’t even ever a New Yorker yet–just an American).

By: Alon Levy

Alon Levy — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:57:45 +0000

I once lost my bookbag on the subway, with a laptop, a DVD I hadn’t finished watching, my passport and immigration documents, and about $500 in Euros. It wasn’t found. The MTA people kept sending me from the LPU to the Livingston Street headquarters back to the LPU.

By: Skip Skipson

Skip Skipson — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:38:03 +0000

I liked the Cobra in the left hand portion of the banner. According to the artist that created this banner (who created the banner based on what people lost), someone actually lost a Cobra and got it back from the lost and found! Would have liked to see what was put on that application!

I heard that the Tokyo transit (thought I saw this on NY1) has a ‘lost & found’ rate of 99%! Amazing!

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:24:15 +0000

My boyfriend lost his checkbook last Sunday in the subway and received a call from the lost and found the next day. They had his checkbook.

I was floored.

By: KB

KB — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:35:42 +0000

I saw that “Inside Grand Central” documentary (NatGeo) on Grand Central Terminal recently. Their lost and found claims to be “well over 65%” in regards to return rates.

It shocked me at first that there would be such a difference compared to the subway. But then I realized, trains end at GCT and are then usually searched and cleaned by crew and staff, which, I assume, are much more likely to return a lost item.

By: Benjamin Kabak

Benjamin Kabak — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:34:42 +0000

Nope.

By: SEAN

SEAN — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:34:11 +0000

Were your sunglasses ever found?