A tale of the unexpected at rail lost property office
From suitcases full of adult toys and thousands of pounds in cash, to drugs and false legs – these are some of the things handed in to the Arriva Trains Wales lost property centre.
Situated in Newport, the Aladdin’s cave is packed full from floor to ceiling with weird and wonderful items left across the Arriva network.
During her 11 years sorting and reuniting owners with their lost property, Gill Miles has come across wooden legs, rubber dinghies, drugs, violins, Tiffany jewellery, the skin of a tarantula and thousands of bags.
She’s even got the keys to a Porsche someone has left behind.
Lost property administrator Gill, 61, from Cwmbran, said: “I love it. I love seeing their faces when they realise we have it.
“We ask them all these questions to make sure it’s theirs, but you can tell straightaway when their face lights up and they know it’s safe. That’s the best part of the job.”
Gill said they are currently dealing with around 300 items per week, and said she has handled thousands of objects since she first started.
Anything handed in to the office is kept for 12 weeks, and if it remains unclaimed items are donated to charity. Although most items are kept and logged, some have to be dealt with more swiftly. Gill said: “I was sorting out this bag and I took out two small Pringles tubes. I don’t really like them, but it was Friday afternoon and I thought ‘I’ll have to throw them out anyway’, so I opened them – and inside it was stuffed full of all of these tablets. The owner didn’t come back for that one.”
One of the strangest items ever left behind required Gill to put on the rubber gloves.
Gill said: “There were these two suitcases and my colleague said I’d need to put on the rubber gloves for this one. So I opened it up and it was full of adult-sized baby clothes. The lot, potty and all. I kept the gloves on for that one.”
One area of the facility is stacked full of passports from across the world, with most sent to their embassies.
Gill said: “We did have one American girl the other day who had lost her passport. It’d been handed in and she came down all the way from Shrewsbury to come and collect it.
“She had a flight the next day so was very pleased to have it back, it was lovely.”
Although the storage facility may appear cluttered, Gill said she knows where everything is kept.
Almost every single item is given a tag and unique number which is stored on a digital database, meaning that when a customer asks if something has been handed in Gill can check in seconds.