Road find

[Age]

A couple days ago, I was on my bike, on my way the the drug store in Middlefield, when I saw cars purposely driving around an object in the road as if it were a stalled Amish buggy.   (happens when a horse dies or somethin')  As I approached  the object (a few yards before a few Amish road apples) I recognized it and immediately pulled my bike over, and ran to retrieve the shiny object. This time it was a new 9k lb, 5 1/2" drop trailer hitch. No, I don't have a truck, but it was just too good to pass up, so I tossed in a saddlebag, and went: Mwoaaahahahah! I'll prolly just end up giving it away, but it's still kinda cool. I've been finding cool stuff on the road all my life and this is just the latest.

My Aunt Ida told me, when I was just a suckling, to "look down, and you'll find all kinds of good stuff." So, I've been doing that all my life, and sure enough, the old girl was right.  What have you found?

[John Broecker]

One person's trash is another
 person's treasure.

That's the triangle of life, and it
turned 180. A regular boomerang.

I picked up a perfectly good
bread toaster, and a floor mop,
both on different occasions.

Although it wasn't found on the
road, I found a playable key of A
Marine Band diabolic harp, on
stage while I was playing a gig.

It had loose covers, but still
sounds great.

Best Regards, Stay Alert
for Treasures.

JB

[brorat]

That's a nice hitch!
I got similar advice from my granddad about "looking at the path".  When I was a kid, we vacationed from time to time at Virginia Beach.  Lots of Navy ships go in and out of Hampton Roads and then sail along the coast.  Sometimes, those guys toss stuff overboard!  I would get up and walk the beach at low tide just after dawn (whenever the tide was low at that time of day).  I'd ALWAYS find cool stuff washed up on the beach.  Canteens, complete with covers, cups and accoutrement belts.  Helmets.  All kinds of cool stuff to "play army"  ... or maybe navy!  Now I walk the beach for exercise.  Miles of beach walks!  Today, I look for shark's teeth, beach glass, and great shells.  When I play golf, I'll usually scan the rough and find LOTS of good golf balls.  Granddad told me to "ignore irregular shapes and look for shapes that at not natural".  Smooth, perfectly round objects in the woods along a golf course are not put there by nature!

[Gary Richardson]

I had noticed a brown cardboard box in the ditch down from me.  This has been a couple of years ago.  The box stayed there for a week and it had rained during that time.  I use a hand grip extended claw to pick up trash by the highway (county road) in front of my home.  Beer cans, fast food wrappers and cups, home building contractor job trash etc.  I filled a five gallon bucket up and walked down to the box I had noticed.  It is a U-Haul Moving box sealed with tape.  So I take it home.  The box is wet and the packing paper inside is damp.  The contents were a small velvet pillow that vibrates, a digital photo display that sequences, two large pieces of sea coral that had taken the brunt of falling to the highway.  But several pieces large enough to be of worth  for salvaging.  Then three dragon figures.  One large metal one that seems to be of some numbered series for collectors.  A smaller metal dragon and a dragon designed for hanging or being suspended.  The box had no information written on it.  The digital photo display did not have any photos stored.  I had hoped it would and that by  some twist of fate I would recognize the owner.  FYI similar dragons like the large one go for over a C note on eBay. 
I have found tools, fishing lures, fish hampers, galvanized link chain, lots of stuff along side of roads.  There has been lots of good stuff I have to pass up due to not wanting to get run over.

[Lockjaw Larry]

Over the years with many thousands of miles traveled I have also found numerous treasures.  Ex: nice ball glove, come along to tighten chains etc.  Just about five weeks ago I found a like-new orange plastic scoop shovel.  I was happy to circle back and scavenge it but honestly I don’t know if I’ll ever use it.  I mean, plastic?  All my real shovels are metal and that’s fine with me.  Maybe I’ll look for a job stirring cottage cheese in a cheesy factory.

[Age]

Yeah, found a fishing rod and reel two weeks ago.

[Lockjaw Larry]

My best find was a nearly new gas leaf blower.  My worst loss was a box with one of my wife’s newly made quilts fell off my trailer unbeknownst to me at the time. 

[Keith]

When I cycled, I used to find tools, I reckon half my toolbox was made up of 'finds'.

[streetlegal]

I've picked up quite a few odds and ends too from time to time - an adjustible spanner, a rather rusty but still usable hammer, one of those extra long flat head screw drivers. I think that the workmen often leave the back doors of their vans open at the back and when they go round corners, loose items can fall out. Roundabouts can be a good place for these kind of finds - I picked up a brand new wooden fence post there last year. Someday it might come in useful .

[Age]

I probably average finding stuff (good stuff that is) about once every six weeks or so; usually hand tools. Many times, I'll pull over and walk back to see something that turns out to be just junk, so I just kick it to the side of the road so it doesn't end up in someone's tyre.

[Crawforde]

This motivated me to get off my bike and go get my truck.

[Gary Richardson]

Man Crawforde, that will hold a lot of harmonicas.

[Age]

Surprised it didn't banged up. That's a heck of a find. Don't you dare tell me it was fulla new Snap-On tools.

Once in Hawaii I did a service at a Samoan A'G church, and on the way up there (kinda in a jungle just east of the Pali Hwy, I saw a Goldwing laying in a ditch. I asked the pastor whose bike that was, and he said: "It's been there for a month so it's yours, if you want it." It had all kinds of good stuff on it. I just popped off the carbs, and a few other goodies (as much as I could fit in a suitcase) So, it even works when I'm away from home.

[Crawforde]

It was a little banged up, drawers were stuck, and the front was jammed.
Some PB Blaster and  Gibbs lubricant and I got everything moving smoothly.
It was full of rusty and broken junk, but some goof stuff too.
And a few old lunches that may have been I there for a decade.
I simply cleaned it and lubed everything up.
Now I need to build drawer dividers for my chisels and gouges and rasps and planes, braces and bits….
 It will hold most of my tools and I built a small wood workbench with vide that I can sit on top.
It’s probably the luckiest find I’ve had. 

[Edward Brock]

Only thing I found recently was a nail in my tire.  Twas Not a keeper.

[Danny G]

I found a $50 bill laying on the ground at a storage unit a month or so ago.

[Aluvsupreme]

When I was 15 years old my friends and I found a box of Playboy magazines in the woods.  If I took any of them home I would have gotten a beating.           
       O yeah I found a 100 dollar bill during CHRISTMAS time.           Brian

[Age]

When I was 12 years old (shining shoes in beer joints) this drunk lady gave me her red shoes to shine. while shining them i found what looked like several hundred dollars in them. I finished the job and gave them back to the lady, and told her about the money. She became furious and began to scream at me about how much trouble I would have been if were to have taken the money. It was so bad, I had to leave the bar (without ever getting paid)  That bar was one of my usual places, and I never saw her in there again. The bar tender told me they threw her out after the incident. He also said I shouldda just kept the money. THAT wouldda qualified as a pretty good find, aye! 

[Edward Brock]

When I was 12 years old (shining shoes in beer joints) this drunk lady gave me her red shoes to shine. while shining them i found what looked like several hundred dollars in them. I finished the job and gave them back to the lady, and told her about the money. She became furious and began to scream at me about how much trouble I would have been if were to have taken the money. It was so bad, I had to leave the bar (without ever getting paid)  That bar was one of my usual places, and I never saw her in there again. The bar tender told me they threw her out after the incident. He also said I shouldda just kept the money. THAT wouldda qualified as a pretty good find, aye![/color] 

You sorry piece of Hungarian Goulash sucker..  
How dare you go and try to be honest when you could have
kept the Moolah, spit in her shoe and put the cash to good use.   
No good deed bro..   They walk among us. 

[Gnarly He Man]

When I was 12 years old (shining shoes in beer joints)

Hey! I did that, in Sallisaw Oklahoma, when we moved here from Napa.
I must have been 11, turned 12 while we were there, moved to Norman late 1964.
First time I ever saw a snooker table.

[Age]

Our birthdays are about two weeks apart so Mama and I decided to bake ourselves a birthday cake and eat it all ourselves. Mwoaaahahahah! Between the two of us, we're 156 years old this month.
So we ran off to Middlefield to buy some goodies for our private little party and on the way, guess what I found on the side of the highway? Easy to guess since it's pictured below. . Check this out: it's over half fulla gas! Ha ha!

[Keith]

...obviously someone knew it was your birthday, & left it there for you to find....... 

(Sounds like you two enjoyed your day....hope you get lots more, in good health.)

[Lockjaw Larry]

A friend in Virginia found something laying beside the road he picked up for his side business selling junk.  Turned out it wasn’t discarded but temporarily left there by the landowner.  He got arrested and sat in Jail several days. 

[Age]

Well, actually there was a state patrol car about 40 yards away, and he watched me pick it up, and just smiled as I drove past him with the thing in my trunk. So if you don't hear from me for a couple weeks, you'll know what happened, aye!

[brorat]

This is surely stretching the topic (yes, Age, I read it!), but ... here goes.

Last week I found something unusual on I-95. 
I was returning from a meeting in Virginia, and was headed south back to SC.  I had passed Fayetteville when I noticed a ramp ahead of me with two cars who would be merging into the traffic of which I was a part.  So, like the nice guy I am, I signaled and moved into the left lane to leave them room to merge into the right lane.  As I approached the ramp, the first of the two merged effortlessly into the flow.  The second car also merged, but immediately came over into the left lane ... into a space that I was occupying at the time! 

I swerved hard to the left and actually ran off the road and partially into the median.  I quickly regained control (while blowing my horn!).  The car beside me swerved back into the right lane, and I looked over to give a look of disdain to the driver.  As I did, I noted for the first time that the car that had run me off the road was a NC State Trooper!

I moved ahead and got back up to speed, and signaled and moved back into the right lane.  Within a half mile, I noted in my rear view that the trooper passed a couple of cars, got behind me, and turned on his lights and siren.

What the heck!?  I gave a signal, and moved off onto the right shoulder and came to a stop.  The trooper parked his car behind me.  As I fiddled for my registration and license, he got out of his car and walked to my driver's side window.

When he got there, he took off his hat and said, "Sir, I wanted to apologize for that horrible display of driving I just did, and I wanted to make sure you're ok."

I replied, "Thanks so much for stopping to tell me that, and I was perfectly fine until I saw those blue lights come on behind me!"  He laughed, apologized again, and told me to have a good trip.

So, I found a bit of humility and good manners in the person of a state trooper on the side of the road!  It's nice to find them anywhere, but that was truly a "one of a kind find" for me!

[Age]

Wow! That definitely cool. Wish I had one that good.

[Age]

Oh wait! back in "66" (I believe) while working third shift on the railroad, my day job was a "courier" for  a local TV station. While hurrying back to the studio from the airport (cuz the plane was late) I was stopped by a Parma cop. I pointed to the back of the van and said: that box on the left is tonight's StarTrek, and it starts in about twelve minutes. The cop's eyes got real big and he shouted an expletive, and said "My kids would kill me if I mad'em miss the show." Go! Go! Go!"

[smojoe]

So..Aaaanyway Larry. You never said what the item was that was sitting along the road.
Note: 1..There are 3 kinds of property.
a... stolen (no explaination required)
b... lost (It is incumbent on a person that finds something that 'might' be of intrinsic value, to make an honest attempt to ascertain the owner. And arrange for it's return.
c... abandoned (In most jurisdictions a person is 'ALLOWED' to assume that the item is discarded IF it is sitting along the curb or road right of way). There are some obvious limitations here. One is ..If a vehicle, if obviously NOT junk, of apparent value, etc. In this case the owner has no other prerogative but to request that their property be returned. THEN the burden is on the retreiver to return it in good faith.

conclusion? It should not have taken a 'couple days in jail' for the investigating officer to clear this case. An office visit of 45 minutes would have sufficed.
conclusion? Bogus police dept. AND one of the reasons that people don't like police.
conclusion? I give him/her an 'F'.

jo-zeppi

[Lockjaw Larry]

Smo, I wasn’t sure what it was( that was some years ago) but my missus thinks it was a trailer with a machine on it.  Well shucks, that wouldn’t be abandoned junk I judge.  In which case he musta stolen it, which would justify the Charlottesville police’s actions.  He did frequently pick trash bins for items to sell in his little “junk” store.  Thankfully he wasn’t a friend, just a person we frequently saw at the local music venues. 

[Ed McCullough]

I already told you that I last summer I found HuNDREDS of dollars worth of printed music between a sidewlk and a street. Included maybe 15 thick books. I gave a fakebook of hymns to church music director and I'm keeping the rest. Two thick books of music from the big band era has two pages of text and photographs to accompany every piece of music. 
--I gave four books of Christmas music and 8 books of  beginning piano instruction to a 6th grade girl. She had mentioned liking choir in her school and the Christmas music they are working on.   If this girl learns something about reading music and finding notes on a piano, that will be wonderful.
--Back in '65 I was on a bicycle trip and found a twisted scrap of rubber that had ripped off a retreaded truck tire. (When was the last time you saw a retreaded tire?). The twisted rubber was a beautiful piece of abstract art.
--Below is a picture of a picture of Marx Brothers that's been hanging on my wall about 45 years. Last summer I found some twisted wire on a city street. It was twisted into a form that Picasso sometimes drew. It fits over the Marx Brothers.