[URBAN NOTE] "TTC Lost Articles is Toronto's strangest lost and found"

[rfmcdonald]

Matt Switzer's brief post at blogTO caught my interest.

Every day at around 1 p.m., more than 200 lost and forgotten items from TTC vehicles and properties are delivered to the TTC Lost Articles Office located in the Bay subway station.

Wallets, cellphones, textbooks, booze, umbrellas, jackets, pants (how'd that happen?), towels, hats, jewellery, bikes, and even sex toys get recorded into a database, and then sorted and stored.

Part librarians, part investigators, the TTC Lost Articles team work tirelessly to reunite more than 4,000 items at any given time back to their owners.

"The job is rewarding," says Tara Mercorillo, Supervisor of the Lost Articles office.

"Just a few weeks ago we tracked down a lady who left her purse behind with $6,000 cash. She came in the next day, in tears, giving us all hugs. She was very grateful," Tara recounts.