# The odd stuff you find while strolling along **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 27, 2005, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-odd-stuff-you-find-while-strolling-along/286927 "2005-01-27T15:35:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MercyStreet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a9adbd/32.png) [@MercyStreet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MercyStreet)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-odd-stuff-you-find-while-strolling-along/286927/1 "2005-01-27T15:35:36Z")
This morning while walking to work I spotted, all by its lonesome in the road, a measuring device of some kind. I figured it was the property of the utility guy working a few hundred yards away. Asked. Nope. Not his. I pocketed it and continued on my way. Turned out to be a sphygmomanometer – a blood-pressure cuff gauge – by Lumiscope (Googled retail value: $14.98.). … You gotta wonder whether anyone truly spikes a systolic of 300 (the limit on the dial) but I digress. If you happen to need a sphygmomanometer in a rather nice shade of blue, you know whom to ask. ---
**Author:** ![WIGGUM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@WIGGUM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WIGGUM)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-odd-stuff-you-find-while-strolling-along/286927/2 "2005-01-27T15:38:00Z")
I always like the random shoe (singular) you see lying on the side of the road. I always wonder about the circumstances of how it got there. ---
**Author:** ![klintypooh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3da27b/32.png) [@klintypooh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/klintypooh)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-odd-stuff-you-find-while-strolling-along/286927/3 "2005-01-27T15:48:59Z")
> [@WIGGUM](#): > > I always like the random shoe (singular) you see lying on the side of the road. I always wonder about the circumstances of how it got there. Alcohol in most cases I would assume. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![wheelie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b4bc9f/32.png) [@wheelie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wheelie)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-odd-stuff-you-find-while-strolling-along/286927/4 "2005-01-27T16:38:40Z")
Walking to the convenience store next door this morning, I found a HUNDRED DOLLAR BILL!!! I think today just might not turn out too bad after all. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-odd-stuff-you-find-while-strolling-along/286927/5 "2005-01-27T16:40:46Z")
Not very odd, but… Last night my daughter and I were walking along and I spotted a penny. I snatched it up and gloated. A moment later I spotted another, and did likewise. My daughter informed me that the first penny had been lucky (i.e., heads up), thereby enabling me to find the second penny. However, the second penny had been unlucky, or tails up, which meant that I would find no more pennies. At that very moment, we spotted three more pennies. :eek: Of course we both fell to our knees and scrabbled to get them away from each other. Immaturity really is blissful at times. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-odd-stuff-you-find-while-strolling-along/286927/6 "2005-01-27T16:54:27Z")
Oddly, a big rubber mallet, out here at the airport. And several years ago, in downtown Nashville, a Role Playing Game supplement for GURPS. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-odd-stuff-you-find-while-strolling-along/286927/7 "2005-01-27T17:10:48Z")
> [@wheelie](#): > > Walking to the convenience store next door this morning, I found a HUNDRED DOLLAR BILL!! I got you beat. A few years ago I found not one, but THREE hundred-dollar bills on the sidewalk near my house. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-odd-stuff-you-find-while-strolling-along/286927/8 "2005-01-27T17:15:47Z")
Last year the day after Xmas I found a brand new “Hello Kitty” purse with a bunch of foreign coins in it. It made me sad thinking about the little girl that just got it and lost it right away. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-odd-stuff-you-find-while-strolling-along/286927/9 "2005-01-27T17:24:44Z")
One time I found a ‘grabber’ – it’s a thing that allows you to pick stuff up from the ground without bending over. It’s come in very useful around the house. Another time I found a sandbag. Not one of those cheap ones you use to stem flooding, but a cordura nylon one with a handle that’s used for providing balast for stands. It had a couple of tears in it. I went to a park and got some sand, and I sewed up the tears (roughly) with some heavy thread. I use it for my light stands or tripod. Once a $20 bill flew past me while I was driving. Somehow, I _knew_ it was a twenty. I made a U-turn and picked it up. 🙂 (On another occasion, I had a twenty in my pocket, and it flew out unnoticed as I rode my motorcycle in the desert. You win some, you lose some.) ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-odd-stuff-you-find-while-strolling-along/286927/10 "2005-01-27T17:57:17Z")
> [@Dung Beetle](#): > > Not very odd, but… > Last night my daughter and I were walking along and I spotted a penny. I snatched it up and gloated. A moment later I spotted another, and did likewise. My daughter informed me that the first penny had been lucky (i.e., heads up), thereby enabling me to find the second penny. However, the second penny had been unlucky, or tails up, which meant that I would find no more pennies. > At that very moment, we spotted three more pennies. :eek: > Of course we both fell to our knees and scrabbled to get them away from each other. Immaturity really is blissful at times. 😃 The motherlode! You hit the motherlode! OK, it was a small motherlode. But you hit it. ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-odd-stuff-you-find-while-strolling-along/286927/11 "2005-01-27T18:42:49Z")
A bra… I suspect that one was alcohol related as well. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-odd-stuff-you-find-while-strolling-along/286927/12 "2005-01-27T18:46:06Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > The motherlode! You hit the motherlode! > > OK, it was a small motherlode. But you hit it. I told her I was saving for her college fund. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-odd-stuff-you-find-while-strolling-along/286927/13 "2005-01-27T19:53:55Z")
I walk in the mornings along a popular strolling, jogging, sunset-viewing road. The most plentiful items are condoms, pacifiers, and car keys. I leave the first two be, but I try to put the keys somewhere visible. Joggers, secure your pocketses! Or at least fill them with silver dollars. ---
**Author:** ![Verminary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/71e660/32.png) [@Verminary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Verminary)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-odd-stuff-you-find-while-strolling-along/286927/14 "2005-01-27T20:13:17Z")
Severed chicken head, in the gutter, in New Orleans (rather near the National D-Day Museum). If the rest of the chicken had been in evidence, I’d have chalked it up to roadkill, but it was just the head. Sitting there. Staring. ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-odd-stuff-you-find-while-strolling-along/286927/15 "2005-01-27T20:59:10Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > Oddly, a big rubber mallet, out here at the airport. > > And several years ago, in downtown Nashville, a Role Playing Game supplement for GURPS. Okay, now I’m curious. Which one was it? ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-odd-stuff-you-find-while-strolling-along/286927/16 "2005-01-27T21:20:16Z")
When my sweetie and I were in Florida a couple of weeks ago, we made $42 for parking our rental car – paid $8 to the attendant on duty, then found a $50 bill on the parking garage floor as we walked towards the exhibit area of the convention hotel. Always nice when “[Uncle Ulysses](http://www.terryco.us/Evidence/Evidence14htm.htm)” drops by for an unexpected visit! ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-odd-stuff-you-find-while-strolling-along/286927/17 "2005-01-27T21:20:47Z")
> [@Verminary](#): > > Severed chicken head, in the gutter, in New Orleans (rather near the National D-Day Museum). > > If the rest of the chicken had been in evidence, I’d have chalked it up to roadkill, but it was just the head. Sitting there. Staring. I’m picturing the voodoo priestess getting to a critical point in the frenzied ceremony and going “Where’s the chicken head? Who’s got the chicken head?!” :smack: ---
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-odd-stuff-you-find-while-strolling-along/286927/18 "2005-01-27T21:22:13Z")
> [@WIGGUM](#): > > I always like the random shoe (singular) you see lying on the side of the road. I always wonder about the circumstances of how it got there. A friend pointed this out a few years ago and now I _always_ notice lone shoes on the road. It’s somehow creepy. One time I found about an eighth of pot sitting on the sidewalk. It sat there for over an hour before I took action—a cop even walked right by it and practically kicked it. Good times. ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-odd-stuff-you-find-while-strolling-along/286927/19 "2005-01-27T21:36:24Z")
I found a $100 bill at a yard sale a few weeks ago. It was all folded up and I thought it was a one until I got it out of my pocket a couple of hours later and unfolded it. Score!!! About two weeks after that I found a $20 on the floor in Wally World. Keep your eyes on the ground folks! Several years ago, my mom saw something on the ground in a parking lot and swooped it up. It was a little baggie full of about 25 little chunks of whitish (sorta) small chunks. I almost fainted when I saw the baggie of crack in her hand! Cub Hubby and I flushed it down the john for her. I can only guess somebody got in trouble for the missing drugs. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-odd-stuff-you-find-while-strolling-along/286927/20 "2005-01-27T21:53:07Z")
A “friend” once picked up a closed umbrella on the bus. When it was opened about a month later, a baggie with white powder and some money in it fell out. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-odd-stuff-you-find-while-strolling-along/286927.md?page=2)