Lost and found on public transport

NZ Bus duty supervisor Jo Anderson calls herself the Sherlock Holmes of the lost property department.

And like any good detective, Anderson goes to great lengths to crack a case.

She has used her snooping skills to successfully reunite owners with many items left on Auckland buses.

But some cases are more unusual than others.

Just before Christmas a child ended up in the NZ Bus depot’s lost property, Anderson said.

‘‘We had a child here, she must have been about three or four, and basically the mother had three kids, they were doing their Christmas shopping, it got a bit hectic the kids ran for a bus, but they must have run for separate buses and she kind of lost track of one,’’ Anderson said.

‘‘We found the child, the driver brought her into the depot and then consequently for about twoand-a-half hours we were babysitters. [The mother] must have thought, ‘I’ll take advantage of this and finish my Christmas shopping’, so this little girl sat at the control desk watching Mickey Mouse cartoons and loving the attention.’’

Anderson has also been able to reconnect a very grateful Brazilian tourist with the $5000 she misplaced in a travel wallet that had slipped down between the seat and the side of a bus on the City Link route.

Anderson said the lost child and missing money were extreme examples, but a skill saw, a set of suitcases, a folder of legal case notes and enough varied musical instruments to start an orchestra were among some of the more unusual items to pass across the lost property desk in recent times.

The depot currently has a lost property cupboard and drawers brimming with the commonly left-behind items of sunglasses, wallets, cellphones, house keys, car keys, swipe cards, school uniform pieces and umbrellas. Groceries also get forgotten when people exit the bus.

Wallets, cellphones and other electronics are kept at the depot for three months, clothing is kept for four weeks and perishable items like food is disposed of in 24 hours.

Any money from unclaimed wallets is given to the Auckland City Mission and over the years cellphones have been donated to recycling programmes like the the Starship Foundation Mobile Phone Appeal.

Passports are handed to police.

FELICITY REID/ STUFF Mobile phones are just some of the left-behind items NZ Bus duty supervisor Jo Anderson and her team deal with.