One of My Strangest Finds

[Bert Kemp]

I found one of those 16' folding ladders many years ago, that was a great find. Still using it today. Can't for the life of figure out how the guy who lost it didn't know he lost it, must of made quite a racket when it fell off

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Love when that happens. A few years back, a buddy and I were grouse hunting in some thick woods...dog tried to eat a porcupine. In the haste to get to the vet, we lost his leash.

The following year hunting in the same spot, a bright spot of orange shined through the leaves. Sure enough, the leash. In pretty good shape I might add.

When I was younger I was shooting pics of an old water-powered mill in Arkansas. I got stung by a bee (or probably a yellow jacket), and made a hasty retreat. Later that night, I realized my very expensive Leica 24mm lens was missing. It had to have fallen out of my pocket when I made the hasty retreat. I made the 3 hour drive back to where I was that day, and began looking for the lens. I found nothing. I went to Radio Shack to buy a metal detector, but they didn't have one. I decided to make one last try and went back to the tall grassy area where I was certain I had lost the lens. Suddenly I got stung again, but this time I said, "AHA! I'm close!" I looked down, and there was the lens in plain view, laying on the ground. I've never been so happy to be stung by a bee.

[Mel Fulks]

Interesting story,Malcolm. And that's coming from a tradesman who understands that a stinging rebuke can bring an opportunity to see through a different lens.

[Malcolm McLeod]

I found one of those 16' folding ladders many years ago, that was a great find. Still using it today. Can't for the life of figure out how the guy who lost it didn't know he lost it, must of made quite a racket when it fell off

I had my brother-in-law's new, heavy-duty, wheelbarrow that I'd borrowed come loose from a 22' trailer I was towing. It made quite a racket when it fell off. I flipped on the emergency flashers, slowed down, found a place to U-turn, and went back the 200 yards or so to retrieve it. I got to within ~100' feet of the wheelbarrow, only to see someone stop and load it in their truck. They ignored the horn and with the trailer I couldn't chase them.

I guess they think it was a great find and I guess they are still using it today...?

I bought the BIL a new one.

[Robert Payne]

Not a road find, but certainly a fortunate one for me -- Nearly 50 years ago I was working for the US Geological Survey on a study of heavy metal deposits along the No. Cal and So Oregon coast line. We were taking sample (10-15# each) and climbing up steep cliff faces between the pocket beaches and toting the day's samples in a backpack. After collecting about 5-6 samples and with both my endurance and smarts down a notch or two, I decided to venture around a headland to the next pocket beach. Tied my boots around my neck and headed around, only to get knocked over by an incoming wave as I neared my goal -- darn -- up-ended me with a wee bit of ballast above center. I scrambled up and out okay and didn't lose either my samples or now wet boots. But I lost my critically important bifocals in the surf and it was high tide. I trudged back up the cliff to my car and drove (illegally I might add as my DL required corrective lenses) back to Gold Beach, OR where we were staying. 5 hours later when the tide was out and with about an hour of daylight left, I went back and started to search for my specs. I looked out away from the rocks toward the incoming wave line in small pools and rocks that were all over the exposed beach. I worked back to where I was sure I had taken my unexpected tumble and searched every little tidal pool, hoping to find the proverbial needle in the haystack. Suddenly I saw a short straight inch long piece of tortoise shell ear tip from one side of the glasses sticking out of the sand in a tidal pool. I grabbed it, thinking I had found a remnant. Much to my surprise, it was my entire set of glasses with both lenses intact and unscratched! I put them back on (as if to confirm they were really mine) and headed back to Gold Beach. How incredibly lucky!

[Tom M King]

I lose stuff that isn't even lost, and never find anything, even stuff I look for.

[Jim Koepke]

she was going to put it through his nose. I wonder what she meant by that...

Exactly what every wife means when they say that!

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

When talking to my wife after posting this we recalled the time we were driving up US 101 out of Eureka at night when I saw pieces of paper blowing across the highway. I knew they weren't just any pieces of paper. I hesitated but turned at the next intersection and when back on the frontage road. I was able to pick up $181 dollars. Another fellow told me his wife found a few $100s and $50s.

My biggest mistake was handing it to my wife to count. She didn't hand it back.

I still did get to spend some of it in junk stores and antique shops.

jtk

[Chris Parks]

Back in the late 1970's we found a wallet in a brand new Honda Accord that a production line worker had obviously lost. I always wondered what his reaction was when he got it back.

[ken masoumi]

Interesting finds but I bet none compares to what I found years ago , one summer's day in early seventies I was driving on a road near where I used to live (Montreal,Canada),this road had houses on one side and a flat farm on the other, as I was driving I saw something moving in the bushes in the middle of the field.
I slowed down to get a better look and I saw a little boy sitting in the middle of the field (just off the busy road), looking around but not crying or anything . I pulled to the side, walked to the boy who was probably just under two years old and had just learned to walk, picked him up and asked him in English where his home was, he happened to be french and didn't understand what I was saying,so I asked him again in broken french, this time he just pointed toward all the houses on the on the side .
Holding him tightly in my arms( to make him feel secure) I crossed the busy road, asked him repeatedly to point to his house ( and there were hundreds of houses )but at that time of the day no one was around so I could ask if they knew the little boy,it was basically up to me to find his house before he got too nervous and panicky,as we were walking on a small street he said one word which made a world of difference in my mood, he said "la" (there),so I walked to the house he was pointing at, the door was wide open, yelled "hello, hello" this man in his thirties walked up the stairs and sees me with his son in my arms,I asked ,is this your boy? oh yeah, he says, I said: did you not notice he was missing? No ,he said with an embarrassed look on his face.after I made sure the boy was his,I told him where I had found him,he wasn't that surprised,probably it wasn't the first time the little boy had walked out of the house on his own.

I didn't know what to say, should I yell at him should I threaten to report him to the police or what? the man grabbed the little boy's hand and says okay(whatever his name was),let's go, then turned around and said: okay, thanks and went ahead to close the door so I said, hey, he could have been killed/kidnapped,god knows what. he just said yeah you're right, thanks with such indifference on his face that I have not forgotten in more than 40 years.

I wonder sometimes what happened to that boy.

[Mel Fulks]

Ken, You certainly did what a kind and responsible man would do. But there are some kids who are just eerily intrepid at an early age, doesn't sound like he was scared. Years ago there was a big story about a missing boy 2 or 3 years old. They didn't find him, he just walked home...right down the hall. He had been entertaining himself in another apartment that had been unlocked by maintanance while the woman who lived there was out of town. The kid had fed himself from the fridge, played with and spilled her make up, really made a big mess of the place. So, don't worry! I bet he's fine.

[ken masoumi]

Mel, you are absolutely right about the kid's character, throughout this ordeal he seemed so calm and collected at that young age,didn't seem phased by anything that was happening at all, never cried once, in fact I was the only one that was anxious.

[Jeff Johnson]

My family does reenacting. As a woodworker, I make my boys wooden toys for when we are at an event. One year at Military Through the Ages in Greenbelt, MD, one of their ash swords went missing. We figured it had "walked off" or was lost in the woods. The next year we find it buried in the leaves, and it had turned the most beautiful color. I've since considered using burying other ash pieces in the woods as a finishing technique.

[Bert Kemp]

Nature does wonderful things to wood

My family does reenacting. As a woodworker, I make my boys wooden toys for when we are at an event. One year at Military Through the Ages in Greenbelt, MD, one of their ash swords went missing. We figured it had "walked off" or was lost in the woods. The next year we find it buried in the leaves, and it had turned the most beautiful color. I've since considered using burying other ash pieces in the woods as a finishing technique.

[Ed Labadie]

A friend found a rusted up shotgun, leaning against a tree while hunting rabbits in the UP.

Next time his dad was there to hunt, he showed it to him.....

"You should've left it there, like I did, it jammed one to many times"

Ed