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Pink plushie all alone on the E Line
By adamg on Wed, 07/12/2017 - 11:15pm
Kate Estrop found this stuffed animal riding the E Line all alone tonight, wonders if it belongs to somebody.
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Comments
Adorable!
Just turn it in to the MBTA lost&found
That's where people call when they lose something.
If you publicize photos or details of an item, then some crazy person might claim the item.
Do both
Turn it in, but post for wider reach, and tell people to contact MBTA lost and found. You have to go to the lost and found office, fill out a form and describe the missing property, but you'll get your stuff back.
Crazy people with plush toys!
They are coming for us, armies of them, with their little lambs and bears.
Millennials
are doing this all the time on other sites: "Hey, I found this phone, camera, jewelry that obviously someone just lost. Let me make a photo collage and post about it on some website that the owner probably doesn't read, rather than promptly bringing it to the lost&found or police where the owner is likely contact."
In the meantime, the owner has a good chance of contacting the appropriate place, they say "sorry, no one turned it in, it's probably gone for good" or "the cleaning people would've turned it in or tossed it by now", and they probably don't keep calling back.
The only way to stop this breakdown of previously-working social behavior (just bring it to the lost&found, like we always have), is to keep educating millennials that this is not some unsolved problem that calls for corporate social media and a posting opportunity.
Crazy people and Millennials!
I'm having a hard time keeping up with all the villainous factions. It's as bad as Orphan Black.
Villainous factions
I dare not even mention the Belgian mafia angle.
Success of the system depends
Success of the system depends on the quality of the Lost & Found process. If found items are just kept at the local train station rather than sent to a centralized place, then it's really hard to find your item. The system probably works better as long as the person losing it knows that a centralized L&F exists and that this is likely the place where they lost the item.
The problem is we might pass a dozen places that keep a Lost & Found box before discovering our loss and we don't know where to look. It's great if you know you lost it on the T, but people don't always work that way.
As a side note, the "claim someone else's something at Lost & Found" is one of the tricks cited in "Steal This Book." Just showing up and saying you lost your iPhone might work.
Sigh
And if your mother had wheels instead of legs, she'd be a bicycle. But she's not and they're not.
Ya think? When I reclaimed lost property from the T, I had to fill out a form and describe the property in detail before they would give it back to me.
tl;dr: all these potential problems are ones that the MBTA appears to have thought of and addressed, so you can rest easy.
Yes, people don't always
Yes, people don't always trust a complex system and sometimes post notices on their own. With hundreds of buses and trains and employees, it's quite possible that found items never make it to the centralized point or don't make it quickly. I've noticed a number of IDs stuck in the window of T customer service cubbies, so there are some found items that never get where they are supposed to. Human nature says some things get diverted, thrown away or stolen.
That people don't always trust or understand the system shouldn't be surprising.
And people who lose things don't always know they lost it on the T. Sometimes social media helps to reconnect people with their items. No system is perfect.
Maybe Still The Case?
It used to be each MBTA "district" has its own lost-and-found. In other words, stuff lost on the Orange Line went to one place; stuff lost on buses was collected at the particular garage the bus was assigned to, etc.
Back in high school (10+ years ago) a friend lost her camera on the Riverside Line. The motorman or a passenger found it and turned it in. The Green Line lost-and-found, at least then, was at the Reservoir motormen's lobby and offices. We went down after school and after she described the camera and its case to the inspector, he reached under his desk and snagged her camera out of a cardboard box full of motley items.
Not sure if this stuffed pooch's owner would see this post but...
Things lost on the E Line would very likely be turned in to the inspector at Lechmere. That is where most of the E Line motormen report for duty and where they put-up equipment after their shifts. The inspector's booth is to the left of the faregates on the inbound side at the end of the platform.
"Cora, don't worry! It's okay to walk into the yard. We're here to see the official. Just don't step on any switch points... Otherwise it'll be the last thing you ever step on!"
poor thing
I'm a big guy in his 40s.. and I still have a soft spot for stuff animals. I hate seeing them left alone and unloved. I hope this lost lamb finds his home...
Jump, Set, Spike?
Good clue the owner is a volleyball player.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Bump, Set, Spike
Bump, Set, Spike