LUST PROPERTY Kinky sex toys left on tubes and buses
LOST TRACK: More than 34,000 phones and 45,000 bags were left behind on London’s trains, buses and trams
A HOST of randy passengers who left their sex toys behind on public transport later turned up at lost property to collect them.
Figures from Transport for London (TfL) reveal 35 sex toys or aids were handed in to lost property in 2016 after being found on the city’s network of trains, buses and trams.
In 15 cases the owner of the gadget turned up at the lost property office and was reunited with their device.
Amongst the cases of lost property last year there were also four occasions where Viagra tablets were handed into lost property, although in none of the incidents was the sex aid medication reclaimed by its owners.
Officials also revealed people left behind 744 crutches on the transport system as well as 135 wigs.
A total of 31 of the crutches and 14 of the hair pieces were later reunited with their owners.
Among the thousands of books left behind was a copy of Peter Mandelson’s political memoirs, The Third Man. The book was handed into lost property but its owner did not return for it.
TfL revealed that it has raised more than £1million the last three years from selling off items that forgetful travellers have left behind in the city’s buses, trains, trams and taxis.
Incredibly another £628,000 in cash was left on London’s transport system in the same three-year period and not claimed by those that lost it.
The details of the avalanche of cash and valuables that is flooding into to the lost property office of TfL has been revealed in a Freedom of Information Act request.
In total the income from the office surged 15% last year to £734,641 as a record number of items and cash were forgotten on the transport system by absent-minded passengers. Many items are donated to charity when they are not reclaimed but the higher value pieces are sent to an auction house for sale to the highest bidder.
In recent years TfL have received £731 from the auction sale of a forgotten Apple MacBook Pro, £641 for a Vertu mobile phone and £1,707 for a Canon Digital camera and lens.
Also auctioned off have been a £2,350 gold and diamond ring as well as a £3,700 men’s Zenith Platinum wristwatch.
All the money raised is used by TfL to fund the lost property office.
There were a total of 329,205 items handed into the lost property office of TfL last year, a rise of 7% on the previous 12 months.
Figures from TfL show that 34,362 phones were left behind last year – at the rate of almost 100 every day – of which just under half were reclaimed by their owners.
There were also 45,218 bags, 91,867 books or documents and 12,535 sets of keys left behind.
Figures show there were 10,523 umbrellas forgotten, most of which were mislaid in June, with just 2% reunited with their owners.
The TfL statistics also show that almost 60% of items are recorded as being forgotten on the bus fleet, with most of the rest being found on the tube system.
TfL says that items found on the network are held for three months before either being donated to charity, recycled, binned or sold at auction. Cash is held for a year before being banked by TfL.
Officials say the majority of unclaimed items are donated to TfL’s charity partners: The British Red Cross, the Salvation Army and Scope. DAILY STAR SUNDAY, August 6, 2017