What We Lose on the Subway

By COLlive reporter

Besides for the memory of the trip, which can be swift or an inconvenient crawl depending on the day, what else do you leave behind after a NY subway ride?

The list of lost and found items left on New York City’s subways is as varied as its riders and the architecture and interior design of its stations.

The inventory of 161,409 items gives a snapshot into the habits, tastes and eccentricities of the people who ride it, says the website subwaymaven.com.

You have the cell phones (28,482), digital cameras (701), rings (853), bracelets (606), baby strollers (72), flutes (70) and even air conditioners (2).

The analysis points out that print is still the medium of literary choice on the subway. Compared to the electronic category which lists only about 400 e-readers, there are over 9,000 books (more paperbacks than hardcover).

“We get false teeth almost every week,” William Bonner, supervisor of the New York City Transit lost-and-found office told the Associated Press. “How do you lose your teeth?”

As expected from a city that is home to the largest community of Jews in the world, the subway has a designated “Jewish” category for lost and found items.

There are exactly 10 items filed as Tefillin, the small black leather cubes containing parchment scrolls, wrapped on the arm and head of adult men during weekday morning prayers.

It was not specified if they are 10 pairs and whether they are Rashi Tefillin or Rabbeinu Tam Tefillin, or perhaps Mivtzoim Tefillin.

Either way, the lost and found office has a 60% return rate. “We are the most successful lost and found in the country and possibly the world,” the MTA’s Melissa Gissentanner told the AP.