Lost Property Office, London. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.
Problem
Anybody running an event or meeting is likely to find something left behind more than once a year. It could be a bag, a coat, an umbrella, a notebook, a diary, or just a pen - a valuable pen, or a simple pen.
List all the things you and your family have lost.
LOSS LIST
Have you lost:
Gloves
Hats
Scarves
Umbrellas
Phones, ipads, laptops or mice.
A diary.
I have read several stories of people who found jewellery such as rings lost on the beach, in their own back garden when gardening or sunbathing.
My family has lost:
A silver bracelet with a T-bar fastening.
A black mouse lost at the airport carousel.
Hotels have boxes of chargers and cables left behind by guests.buy chargers in colours so you can see what is yours and not the hotels.
Umbrella Story
Once I left an umbrella behind at a wine tasting in central London. Fortunately, somebody took a journey to collect it. Unfortuantely, they left it behind on the train home!
In the nineteen-eighties umbrellas with carry straps were the fashion. I serached all over the net to find something similar. Then I attached ribbons to all my umbrellas. A coloured ribbon can also be used to identify your item. Put your initials on the ribbon.
Plan Ahead - Pockets
Work out ways to keep your possessions with you.
Check all your travelling garments for inside pockets.
Buy travel garments with pockets.
Sew pockets in garments which need pockets. Add zips to garments with open pockets.
Check Before Leaving
Board early so you can keep your belongings in the overhead locker above your seat and not further away.
Note the number of items overhead. If possible link them with strings around the handles so you don't leave with your coat but forget the bottle of duty free or chocolates.
Before leaving an aircraft, check the seat pockets.
Look down the back of the seat.
Check under the seat.
Check anything left in the overhead locker and ask people nearby if it is theirs.
Have a set pocket for your travel tickets, credit card, phone.
Stay with your family at security and keep counting and checking.
Have a separate coloured bag to story your computer mouse and place this in the same box as the laptop. Buy a coloured mouse, not a black one.
Count the number of suitcases you check in. Photograph them for ease of identity. When reporting loss you will be asked the colour and brand.
When collecting how can you prove the item is yours?
Buy distinctive luggage. Attach coloured ribbons and stickers to luggage, and a distinctive luggage tag. Then you can see it from afar on the courousel and if it is left elsewhere such as by the outsize item area.
Check on Checking Out
When leaving a hotel room check in beds and under beds, children's cots, unused cupboards children may have put items there, bedside drawers even if unused by you - a hotel cleaner moved my engagement ring from the bathroom sink to the bedside cupboard drawer.
Never leave your rings or other jewellry on public basins. Put them in the safest place, inside your bag or better still in your jacket's inside zipped pocket or on the chain around your neck.
Whilst Travelling
Wear gloves over rings so as not to attract attention to jewellery and to prevent the rings falling off or losing a stone.
Have a purse on a string attached to your handbag. Keep your bags in front of you or beside you in public places, not behind you. Attach a chain or ribbon to a bottle or umbrella so it does not roll out of yur rucksack.
You would also notice somebody moving a colourful suitcase in the hotel lobby.
Left Luggage
Ask for a late checkout room, or a luggage room with a claim ticket, not for your luggage containing valuables to be left in a hotel lobby.
Do not leave bags containing credit cards in the boot (trunk) of a car when walking in the coutnryside. Car parks are a magnet for thieves.
Check the inside of the taxi, and the boot. Check for hats and umbrellas in cars and car boots (Americans say trunks).
Do not put anything on the roof of a car or taxi.
Restaurants
Do not leave phones on a cafe table. If anybody approaches remove your phone. A common trick is for a stranger to stop to talk, put down a newspaper on top of your phone, picke upt the newspaper and a moment later they leave with their newspaper and your phone.
Do not leave bicycles anattended outside buildings. Attach them with chains. Add bells.
Lost Family
Keep small children attached to you with reins so they cannot dart into the road. Give them shoes whish make a sound so they cannot disappear, or be taken unnoticed by somebody else. Teach them to sit next to you listening, watching, counting people, saying poems silently, or reading a book, at restaurants and in airports. Wear matching outfits.
Don't give up an old phone. Attach it to a jacket worn by a child or elderly person with Alzheimer's and use find my phone.
Lost swimsuit and hats
Photograph all jewellery, swimming costumes and swimming hats. When reporting loss you can show the picture to lost property. It's very hard to describe the shape of the links on a bracelet. I described a swimsuit as navy blue, but the person in lost proeprty did not have it. When I insisted that she show me any lost items, it turned out my swimsuit was there but she thought it was black. If I had sewn on a pink ribbon to the shoulder, and had a photograph of myself in the costume, she would have recognized it immediately.
Write your name inside branded items. In France my group arrived at a hotel where we swam. A French woman accused me of stealing her swimming hat. I burst into tears. Later we all learned that she had lost it two days previously, but my group had only just arrived. It was a well known brand, but rather unusual. If both she and I had marked our own hats, with a names inside, and a ribbon on top, she could have seen that my name was in mine, and that her name was not, that hers had a black ribbon but mine had a blue ribbon.
Suitcase Identity
I think suitcase manfacturers should supply pockets or tags on suitcases and sets of multicolour papers. Come to think of it, you might not want to put your name and address on the outside of a suitcase. Instead for quick idnetiy, photograph something such as your coloured shoes or coat or dress, or tie, and put the coloured paper in the luggage tag or paste it onto the outside of the suitcase.
Happy travelling. May you arrive safely, with all your credit cards, clothes, umbrellas and family
Pick up a leaflet about lost property at one of the London stations.
Useful addresses and websites:
These cover:
the Tube (underground railway in London), a London bus, the Dockland Light Railway (DLR), a licensed taxi, London Overground and Victoria Coach Station.
Years ago it was free. I think it was partly funded by the sale of unreclaimed items. You can go to a sale of unreclaimed items.
The Baker stree main exit is onto the big and busy marylebone road. You want to take the side exit onto Baker street and walk towards the Sherlock Holmes Museum. The Lost Property office is almost opposite. You have found it, and I hope the item you are seeking.
If you are looking for a mobile phone, you need the SIM or IMEI number. If you don't have it (look on the box your phone arrived it) contact your airtime provider.
ONLINE
tfl.gov.uk/lostproperty
PHONE
call 0343 222 1234 (from overseas +44 (20) 7486 5772
between 8.30 am and 16.00 (4 pm) Monday to Friday except public holidays.
TO VISIT IN PERSON
Lost Property Office
200 Baker Street
London NW1 5RZ
From 8.30 to 4 pm Monday to Friday exceept public holidays.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
