By Bethany Sanderson/reporter
FOUND: One breast prosthesis. Still unclaimed after five years.
Students frequently lose textbooks, jackets, umbrellas and keys.
If they are lucky, their lost items will be recovered and turned in to the campus Lost and Found. If they aren’t lucky, the items may go to the hand that believes in “finders keepers.”The occasional cell phone or backpack turns up in the Lost and Found on campus, gets logged in and sits there for days upon end.
But several years ago, SE Campus had one interesting item turned in: a breast prosthesis.
The source who uncovered the prosthesis remains anonymous, and the item remains unclaimed.
SE Lost and Found was also the recipient of a tooth implant, the metal filling for a tooth.
The owner shouldn’t expect the Tooth Fairy to pay a visit as long as the tooth remains in the Lost and Found on SE Campus.
Lost and Found is located in the business services office on each campus.
Items turned in to lost and found are chronicled in a log book, and personnel try to contact the owner by as many avenues as possible, either by phone or e-mail.
“We try to contact the person because we have so much stuff we want to get rid of,” said SE administrative accounting clerk Cindy Scott.
On TR Campus, common items such as textbooks and disk drives are turned in, administrative accounting clerk Dianne Leander said.
The office workers look into the flash drives to see if they can identify whom they belong to.
The majority of items turned in are purses, wallets, jackets, iPods, identification cards, bathing suit tops or bottoms and the occasional loose cash.
For purses and wallets, two employees go through them because of the possibility of cash, credit cards or other valuables, try to identify the owner and call as many numbers for the person as possible, Scott said.
A SE Campus student turned in $120. When no one claimed it after 30 days, the student who recovered the money was allowed to keep it.
SE Campus donates the jackets and coats collected during the semester to Mission Arlington.
Scott recalls a time a wallet smelled so badly it was put in a bag and set in another room. To the relief of the employees’ noses, a student came in to claim the wallet.
