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A new life for lost property

By Victoria Watts
December 7, 2009 at 10:08 am

Lost property basket

You could say I’m a professional loser. Cameras, jackets, wallets, hats, books – I’ve lost at least one of each. And when it comes to gloves, it’s as if I buy them simply to lose them.

This scatterbrained problem has taken me to some of the country’s finest lost property stores – restaurants, clubs, hotels – all treasure troves of garments. These places are littered with fashionable and valuable property, and much of it goes unclaimed.

So what does happen to it? Where does it go? Do the staff get it? Do they sell it? Burn it? Or does it simply get chucked?

Last week, I discovered the answer I’d like to see: it gets donated to Red Cross charity shops. It was a light bulb moment inspired by the Chelsea Red Cross charity shop’s annual designer sale where they were selling a Chanel bag donated by Harrods lost property that went for £750.

If someone lost and left a Chanel bag in Harrods, can you imagine what else you might find across the country? Think of all the discarded glad rags people must leave at clubs each weekend, the bags left under tables and the coats left on trains.

The country, and indeed the world, must be teeming with lost property. It’s a gold mine!

Now I’m not pretending this is my idea – the Chelsea shop already has first dibs on Harrods lost property, and a quick scout on the internet shows me that Transport for London donates some of its lost property to the Red Cross and there are similar auctions elsewhere – but I do think it could be taken further.

If every Red Cross shop volunteer, or everyone reading this blog, called a club, a restaurant, a shop, or any other place they could think of, and offered to collect its lost property and take it to their local Red Cross shop or even hold an auction – can you imagine the funds that’d be raised?

I think it could be phenomenal. So why not pick up the phone and try? In this case, there really is nothing to lose!

Image © Robert Lincolne www.sxc.hu

Comments (4) »

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 7th, 2009 at 10:08 am and is filed under Fundraising and events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • Rod Sutton

    Rye, Sussex Red Cross were doing this in 1995 thanks to a deal I did with the managment of the local Pontins Holiday Camp.

  • Rod Sutton

    Rye, Sussex Red Cross were doing this in 1995 thanks to a deal I did with the managment of the local Pontins Holiday Camp.

  • Tim Kerby

    I wonder if with our emergency services links we could get first look at items going into Police auctions. They might be willing to donate a proportion to our charity shops or perhaps anything too small to be worth auctioning

  • Tim Kerby

    I wonder if with our emergency services links we could get first look at items going into Police auctions. They might be willing to donate a proportion to our charity shops or perhaps anything too small to be worth auctioning

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Victoria Watts

Victoria used to write about all things fundraising for the British Red Cross, but now she's working overseas.

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