We need a new etiquette rule. Most cars nowadays have hub caps on the weels. Expensive hub caps are screwed to the wheel, but most cars have those cheaper silvery plastic ones that click on. These sometimes fall off the car and end up by the side of the road. There’s one cluttering up my drive way right now.
Now, a car with a hubcap missing looks like a person with a tooth missing. If the car owner is the type of person to care enough about his cars appearance to get hubcaps, he will be the type of person to either want the hubcap back or to have it replaced, right? And as there are about a gazillion designs, usually that means forking out some around 100 bucks for a set of four new plastic caps.
So, what is the person to do who finds an hubcap that is still in one piece? Put it on Ebay? Bring it (black soot on the inside and all) to the lost and found? Is it likely that the owner will be on the lookout for the missing cap? Should I hang it on a lamp post the way you do when you find a childs teddy bear lying by the side of the road?
The person is not coming back for a lost hubcap unless you have one of those notorious potholes in front where every car loses something. Chances are great that the cap fell off because it is defective, missing a retainer or loose retainers. It is flotsam and you own it now.
The etiquette around here is to lean it up against the vertical surface, a fence post or utility pole, nearest to where you found it and facing the road. If someone comes by within a week and takes it, great; if not, feel free to trash it.
Followup question: When you hang up the teddy bears, do you use a tiny noose?
It’s also common around here to see hubcaps propped up against the nearest vertical surface. If they aren’t claimed, they usually stay there until the wind knocks them down or an inmate cleaning crew takes care of it.
I’m not familiar with the hanging of lost teddy bears. I pass by a house on my way to work that has had a stuffed turkey strapped to the mailbox for a few years…now I’m wondering if it was for decoration, or if it was a lost item.
My friend lost a hubcap once when we were in college. He made a point to go find it the next day and was very happy to see it.
People definitely come back for them.
When I had my Rambler convertible, I had the devil of a time finding hubcaps that stayed on; they were never very good to start with, and as they got dinged up over time, they fit even less securely. However, eventually I was able to accumulate four nice original hubcaps that fit well and stayed on.
I wrote “Reward” and my phone number on the back of them with a felt marker. 
(Never had to test my bright idea, though)
Well, the trash pick-up came by yesterday so that is one less problem.
I like the idea of putting a telephone number on the hubcaps. Problem is that the back of them gets pitchblack with soot so anything written there will be unreadable. and writing it on the front will probably not withstand going through the car wash.
Ah well, it is not in the best interest of the hub cap producing industry to solve this problem, so hubcaps are just one more addition to the trash problem. Pity. There should be a better solution.
Another option is to collect them, hang them in your house or garage.
Or on trees in your yard! Right next to the toilet seats! :rolleyes:
Silly Rocketeer. Everybody knows toilet seats don’t grow on trees.
Where is this universal “lost and found” you speak of?
Isn’t it that big gyre in the Pacific?
