I left my guitar on the train tonight. A nice Martin. I can only hope that it is turned in to lost and found. There’s more of a story to this, but I’m too weary of myself right now to get into the details. I’ll fill you all in later (probably Sunday, 'cause I’ve got a lot to do until then, like self-flagellation). In the meantime, help me feel better by telling me about the briefcases full of cash, or Stradivarii, or priceless art you’ve left on the bus or train or park bench.
A lovely hand-knitted scarf, made for me by my girlfriend. That was the most painful. I’ve also left what feels like dozens of umbrellas, and a bag full of groceries once. In fact, I’ve left so many umbrellas on buses and the Tube that I feel I’m owed something. Maybe an umbrella. A nice one like the one I had, which said “Lovely Weather For Ducks”. Or perhaps something a bit more masculine and less effete.
Good luck finding the guitar!
You might find this amusing reading: http://www.timeout.com/london/big-smoke/features/2812/London_Underground_lost_property.html
In my first job here in Japan, we were paid monthly in cash. This was back in the early 90s. Anyway, I had the cash in my briefcase, which I put on the rack above the seat while I read a book. When the train got to my stop, I was still engrossed in what I was reading and almost missed the stop, but managed to run out as the doors were shutting, with my bag inside. I immediately notified the station master and they were able to recover it.
Someone else took my briefcase by mistake once, and returned it. He very nicely took me to dinner as an apology. Over the years, I’ve forgotten a number of umbrellas, a bag of blank video tapes, and gloves among other things, but the weirdest thing is a supporter used by women in Japan to wrap their stomachs after giving birth. My wife asked me to take the one she used to our friend after their birth, and I left it and the bag in the train. At least it wasn’t a box of tampons.
Quite a few umbrellas. I always seem to be donating to umbrella karma and never find one left behind when I need it.
I left my laptop case behind in a train station at the ticket counter once - but I went back and got it a minute later, whew!!
Just a charger for my iPhone, so nothing nearly as important as a guitar. I hope you get it back.
I have left nothing of any real value on public transportation, certainly nothing to compare with a guitar or a briefcase full of money, but I am posting because I was remembering this very situation just this week…
In the 80’s I went to the trouble of ordering a 12" single (Oh Yeah by Yello, of all things!) out of the music catalog to be sent to our record store downtown. It took a while to come in, and boy was I excited when they called… It was a mile’s walk to the end of the line for the bus, and then probably a 30 or 40 minute ride downtown to the music store. Hung out at the mall for a few hours with friends, hanging on to that thing like it was gold. When we all got off the bus at the end of the line, we must have been talking about something really good, because I left the dang record on the bus, and didn’t realize it until I was home. Lost and Found never received it, so there must have been at least one other dork out there who liked it…
I hope your guitar comes back!
A bunch of umbrellas, a cell phone, my kid sister (we got her back) and the tiny bits of my soul that have been chipped away by my daily commute.
Good luck with your guitar.
Only a not-so-good paperback book I was reading on my commute. I must have stopped reading and dozed off and not put the book back in my totebag and instead it was on my lap. Woke up when the bus arrived in the terminal, got up and left the bus. Only on my way down the escalator did I remember the book. It probably fell on the floor. I guess subconsciously I didn’t care about the book, so it left me. 
I hope you get your guitar back though. That sounds like a real loss. I vaguely remember a story a while ago where Yo Yo Ma left his cello in a taxicab. He got it back.
Virginity
Various books. I had been reading Pop. 1280 by Jim Thompson and not really digging it. Then – still early, maybe a fifth of the way into the book – something happened which really grabbed me right as the train pulled into my stop. I was so excited to rush home and read the next chapter. But the book was still on the train. Ugh. I’ve still never read it.
–Cliffy
On a trip to Vancouver i left my camera bag with a camera body, three lenses, and a flash unit on a bus. The bus trip i was making required a transfer, and when my girlfriend and i switched buses i left my camera bag on the floor of the first bus, under my seat.
About 5 minutes into the second leg of the journey, i realized what i had done. I went up and told the driver, and he was awesome. He radioed his base, explained the situation, and waited while they radioed the other bus. My camera was still on the bus, and they arranged to have it left at the transit office at the end of the line. We got off the bus, made the journey back to the transit office, and an hour later i had the camera back in my hands.
(For those who know Vancouver, this happened in North Van, in Edgemont Village. I picked up the camera at Lonsdale Quay.)
A couple months ago I forgot my camera bag on a taxi, there were over a couple thousand bucks of gear in it so it hurt like a mother.
Dervorin, don’t feel bad about the umbrellas, I always say that the primary function of an umbrella is to forget it somewhere. 
Ouch. I don’t suppose calling the taxi company was any help?
When i lived in Sydney, you could always get a free umbrella by going to the Lost and Found room at Central Station.
You would walk up to the counter and say, “I left my umbrella on the train yesterday.”
The attendant would say, “What color was it?”
“It was a black collapsible umbrella.”
And the attendant would then grab one of the hundred or so black collapsible umbrellas that he had behind the counter and say, “Is this it?”
“Well, that sure looks like the one.”
The ritual was over, and you had a free brolly.
Travelling back from Prague to Holland, I forgot to retrieve my overnight bag with clothes, which was in the luggage compartment. Lost and found got it, though.
What’s worse, I was given a wonderful 19th century map of Russia, in a very nice frame. I took it back from Germany on the train back to Holland, and I left it on a train in Duisburg or someplace like that as I was transferring. Never got it back. A damn shame.
When I was a kid, I left my Cabbage Patch Kid on the bus. I was very broken up about it. Luckily the same driver picked us up as dropped us off and he had her for me when we got back on.
When I was a young teen, I let my foster sister borrow a purse which I had “borrowed” from my sister. She then left it on a bus, with her stash of acid in it. I’m sure it was a potentially nice find for some druggie but I was petrified that someone would be able to trace the purse back to me and would think it was my acid (it wasn’t, I’ve never used it).
Other than that, a lifetime of riding the WRTA taught me to double check everything before leaving my seat.
I’m horrible about leaving stuff in the seatback pockets on airplanes. I left a Nintendo DS with case, charger, and about 20 games on one, my cell phone on another (although I got that one back), and an MP3 player on another.
My best rainbow hat, one I bought in Ann Arbor before I left Michigan. It was my piece of home. I left it on the New Jersey Transit commuter rail last year on my way home from work. I dropped it and tried to reach for it but I was in the front of the line and everyone was shoving me forward.
Gone forever… all I have are memories. I’ve looked all over for a replica online and I can’t find it. I really fucking loved that hat. Damn it. :mad:
I left my iPhone in a cab a few weeks ago.
I had given up hope, but my lodger called the base station, they said they’d get in touch with the cab, but if he found it then the iPhone’s trip would be chargeable. The dude turned up at my door about 10 minutes later with my phone. I gave him a £15 tip plus the iPhone’s “fare”.
A pair of earrings … When I was in college I was in England with my family and we took the train from London down to … somewhere (sorry Britons, it’s been a little while) for some special occasion. I had on a pair of earrings that were huge; I can’t believe that I wore them, but they were like little round, hand-etched bronze shields about two or three inches in diameter. I took them off on the way back because they hurt my ears (big surprise) and told myself not to forget them. I think I put them on the windowsill. I didn’t miss them until much later, probably when I was back in the USA.
Dervorin, his whole adult life my father never bought “nice” umbrellas because he always knew he would lose them. He basically bought the cheapest kind he could buy.
Most frequent: umbrellas and gloves.
Worst: Keys to a rental car. (They turned up at Lost & Found the next day, thank goodness.)