5 days ago
Ukuleles, spuds and an inflatable Jesus left on Irish Rail trains
Two ukuleles, a bag of spuds, a Christmas tree and an inflatable Jesus were among the items lost and found on Irish Rail services last year.
The rail operator said they had logged thousands of individual losses including common items like mobiles, ear phones, wallets, books and clothes.
But there were other more unusual items including a "cup with smelly stuff inside," a dog lead and a brown fur coat.
Several children were left without precious belongings too including a soft dinosaur, a cuddly cat, and a Spiderman stuffed toy.
Some of the items left behind were relatively pricey with one person losing two bottles of Tom Ford aftershave and a bottle of brandy.
Other high-value belongings misplaced included a Marc Jacobs purse, a "diamond and other stone ring," and gold earrings.
Some were not so expensive however, like the "fake Gucci handbag" that was retrieved on one service.
Another passenger lost a violin, one person mislaid a Yamaha keyboard, while two forgot to take their ukuleles home.
ID cards from visitors to Ireland were also discovered with a US driving licence, a Hungarian identity card and a Spanish passport.
Other identification documents lost included an "Irish Prison Service Card", an "Office of Government Procurement ID," and a University College Cork staff card.
Sports equipment was also a common discovery by rail staff with boxing gloves, a bicycle, a badminton case, and rackets all recovered.
Some of the more curious items listed included a "large brown envelope" though there was no indication of whether there was any cash inside.
Also logged were a number of religious items including a Holy Bible, an inflatable Jesus and a wooden set of rosary beads.
There were also some slightly more sinister finds including a flick-knife, a bag of knives, and a book on the history of witchcraft.
Even medical devices were lost with a sleep apnoea machine left behind on one service in Cork and an insulin stick found on another.
A spokesman for Irish Rail said lost and found items were a daily feature of rail travel and public transport everywhere.
"While there are few amongst us who haven't left an umbrella or glasses or similar behind us, we often find more significant and higher value items too, both monetary and sentimental," he added.
The spokesman said all items were collected and held for at least 30 days and customers could contact them through their website or the relevant train station to recover lost belongings.
