Where there's blame

Item: Wet floor sign.
Description: Plastic.
Location Whitworth Street.

Either this is lost or Manchester is so rainy, we now need wet floor signs on the streets.

Time is of the essence

Item: Metro newspaper.
Description: Paper, ink.
Location: Lever Street.

Today’s Metro. Useful up until 11:59 tonight.

You can’t take your eyes off them

Item: Pram.
Description: Blue.
Location: Brown Street.

“Now where did little Leanne get too?” On Brown Street is where.

Make your own spork

Item: Fork.
Description: Steel.
Location: Fountain Street.

I’m pretty sure you can’t buy sporks in shops. So someone has ran over this fork to turn it into one. They just forgot to pick it back up.

Zola Bud's?

Item: Shoe.
Description: Black leather.
Location: Granby Row.

How do you lose a shoe? Surely it’s something you’d notice?

Embarrassing or not?

Item: White socks.
Description: Cotton.
Location:Oldham Street.

Exposed g-string I get.
Bra straps on a backless top I get.
Wearing white socks I don’t get.
So don’t be ashamed to come back for these. I’m on your side.

No time to lose

Item: Balloons.
Description: Red.
Location: Above.

Found floating over Manchester today. Can’t guarantee they’ll be there for much longer though.

Getting nowhere fast

Item: Shovel.
Description: Steel.
Location: High Street.

To my knowledge shovels aren’t very effective on concrete. That’s why the person who tried, got the hump and stormed off.

Candidate for new year’s honours

Item: Sponge.
Description: Yellow.
Location: China Town.

The street cleaner who's lost this sponge takes his/her job extremely seriously. Talk about professionalism of the highest level.

Do as you're told

Item: Parking Ticket.
Description: Plastic, paper.
Location: Turner Street.

Us English are law-abiding citizens (the policeman I posted about earlier was a one-off). So I’m fairly sure there’s a good reason for this being on the floor. I mean it even says the words ‘do not ignore’ on the front of it.

Travel Yellow Pages

Item: Yellow Pages.
Description: Tattered.
Location: Sidney Street.

Who carries a Yellow Pages around with them? I mean unlike the dictionary I found earlier, it doesn’t really slip into the pocket unnoticed does it?

CSI Manchester

Item: Ruler.
Description: 30cm, white.
Location: Major Street.

Was this ruler used by a forensic team to highlight the scale of a key piece of evidence? If so it needs to be claimed quickly because lives are on the line. I’d have returned it myself if it weren’t for all the pictures I have to take for this site.

Have a go hero

Item: Policewoman’s Hat.
Description: Black and white.
Location: Peter Street.

The owner of this hat was obviously caught drinking on duty and so had to make a sharp exit – leaving her hat behind. What kind of example is she setting? If I saw her in the act, I’d have carried out a citizen’s arrest.

Not newsworthy

Item: Medical glove.
Description: Rubber.
Location: King Street.

Yet another glove, but this time of the medical variety.
I did check the local paper the day after finding it, to see if a baby was delivered or open-heart surgery had taken place on King Street, but I couldn’t find anything. Just the story of a woman, who used her nose to roll a pea down the high street for charity.

Burning rubber

Item: Hubcap.
Description: Plastic.
Location: Oxford Road.
This must’ve flung off in a Fast and Furious style chase down Oxford Road in the early hours. But in the Manchester version, the race was probably between two overfilled Magic buses headed for Fallowfield.

Sauce rationing

Item: McDonald’s sauce tub.
Description: BBQ.
Location: Oxford Road.

If you’ve ever asked for some sauce at McDonalds you’ll know that they give you a tiny pot with hardly anything in. That’s why this one has definitely been lost, because there’s more than a good few good dips left.

Slap dash?

Item: No entry sign.
Description: Metal.
Location: Sackville Street.

This is either a case of butter fingers or a lazy workmanship. With the reputation of our builders, I’m pretty sure which.

Hit or miss?

Item: CD.
Description: Heavily scratched.
Location: Oldham Street.

Unless this is the latest Soulja Boy album, I am guessing it was lost and not just thrown away.

17 pence closer

Item: Charity box.
Description: Plastic, purple (unsure of charity).
Location: Charlotte Street.

The million pound target has no chance of being raised with charity boxes like this being lost. Then I wondered if there was more trust in strangers these days, so it was left here on purpose. So just in case, I put some loose change in.

Heal the world

Item: Battery.
Description: AA, blue, grey.
Location: Princess Street.

Because of the damage they cause to the environment, we all know that batteries should be disposed of in the correct way. That’s why I’m convinced that this one must’ve fell out of a walkman or something, and not just thrown to the floor. If it looks familiar, come pick it up and save the planet.

Losing more than you think

Item: Key.
Description: Metal.
Location: High Street.

The effects of losing a key can be more devastating than you think.

Here’s the proof.



So please, let’s all make an effort to find the owner.

Man on the run

Item: Boxers.
Description: Light blue, cotton, medium.
Location: Watson Street.

After finding these boxers, I wondered how acceptable it is to for men to throw their underwear at people. When women do it, it’s seen a compliment. But when men do it, it’s probably classed as rape.

Pocket dictionary

Item: Collins German Dictionary.
Description: Red.
Location: Oxford Road.

I‘m guessing this dictionary got lost because its weight caused the person’s pocket to tear. In that case they should’ve checked the tension of their pocket before setting out this morning. A lesson to us all.

A scorching -5

Item: Fleece.
Description: Plain black.
Location: Whitworth Street.

Maybe it’s not as cold as I think, because there’s me walking round in hundreds of layers, when others are happy to shed their clothes without even noticing. I was so cold when taking this picture, I nearly claimed it for myself.

Ahead of its time

Item: Argos pen.
Description: Blue, plastic.
Location: Shudehill.

Argos and their unique concept of shopping. It’s completely random. Groups of families huddled around a screwed down laminated book, the scribbling down of numbers on a bit of paper, the anxious wait for your number to appear on a screen and then the joy of seeing your item being placed on a shelf behind the counter. I wonder when everyone else will cotton on? Personally I think it’s great, so I’m going to take this pen back myself.

Shelves and statistics

Item: Shelf
Description: Black, chipboard.
Location: Harter Street.

Flat pack furniture has always had a pretty bad reputation. Hard to put together, time consuming to do, and most importantly bits are always missing – like this one. So instead of becoming another statistic, I hope this shelf gets picked up.

Rumble in the tummy

Item: Sandwich.
Description: Tuna mayonnaise and sweetcorn.
Location: Brown Street.

If you work around Brown Street and keep hearing the sound of a rumbling belly nearby, give that person a nudge and then tell them to claim this sandwich.

Never forget to remember

Item: Note.
Description: White paper.
Location: Sackville Street.

Is this a code for something? Or maybe the owner of it has a bad memory so it’s to remind them they’re in Manchester. Which would also explain why the word isn’t finished. Come to think it, they won’t even recall losing this note, so this post is useless.

Littering dustman

Item: Dustcart.
Description: Plastic, two wheels.
Location: Long Millgate, Urbis.

Until the dustman who’s left this cart reclaims it, he’s using other people’s litter to litter. Which I think would make it second hand litter.

Just say no

Item: Spoon.
Description: Stainless steel.
Location: Oxford Road.

I don’t condone drugs, but if you’re the crackhead that misplaced this spoon, you should come get it.

Answers on a postcard/email

Item: Unknown.
Description: Fabric, black, red.
Location: Princess Street.

I’m not really sure what this is because I didn’t want to touch it. But if it resembles something you’ve lost, come grab it.

Welcome to Manchester

Item: Welcome mat.
Description: Palmyra, brown.
Location: Mosley Street.

Manchester must be a really friendly place, because we have welcome mats on roads too. If that was your reason for leaving it on this street, let me know and I’ll remove this post.

It could be yours

Item: Raffle ticket.
Description: Paper, yellow, black.
Location: Watson Street.

After finding this raffle ticket, I tried to find out where it might’ve come from. The nearest place was the manche235ter casino, which was strange because I never thought raffles fell under the casino umbrella. Anyway, whoever owns it, must claim it. A lovely 2 day break in Long Eaton might be awaiting you.

Baggy trousers

Item: Belt.
Description: Black, leather, would fit approx 34 – 36 inch waist.
Location: Princess Street, Manchester.

There’s an obvious explanation for this missing belt – which I found outside Efes all you can eat restaurant. The owner of it must’ve spent lunch in there, and to get his money’s worth he went back for seconds, thirds, fourths – cramming food onto his saucer (definitely not a plate) each time. This consequently put an enormous amount of strain onto his belt, which then flung open as he left.

Columbo.

Making a comeback

Item: Comb.
Description: Black, full set of teeth.
Location: Arndale Centre, Manchester (outside Foot Asylum).

I always thought the era of guys carrying combs around with them had passed when the Fonz and Happy Days was taken off air in the 80s. So you can imagine my surprise when coming across this one.

Blue-handed minor

Item: Glove.
Description: Black, left hand, would fit a 2-3 year old child.
Location: Oldham Street, Manchester (outside Oxfam).

I knew it was a matter of time before I came across my first glove, and here it is. So if you see/know of/are the kid walking around with a very cold left hand, come claim it. Especially because the weather forecast says it’s going to get extremely chilly by the end of the week.

Then a few metres up the road I came across this:



Item: Dummy.
Description: Orange, blue, white.
Location: Oldham Street, Manchester (by Forbidden Planet).

Could it belong to the same child? If so he/she must be extremely unlucky. Or should that be careless? Either way it doesn’t point to a very bright future. Poor kid. I blame the parents.

A sober Saturday night

Item: Beer keg.
Description: Half barrel.
Location: Corner of Waterloo and Princess Street, Manchester.

Day 1 in my quest to reunite people with their missing items, and I come across this. Can you imagine the horror when the owner tips up at home and realises it's not in their hands? Their heart must've sank. I can only assume it's like the moment you pat your pockets for your keys or wallet and find they're not there.