Countywide : Transit District Seeks Owner of Wheelchair

It was an unlikely place to find an empty wheelchair: on a county bus.

“We were really stunned and couldn’t imagine what had happened to the poor owner,” said Joanne Curran, spokeswoman for the Orange County Transit District. “We still have it. . . . No one has come to pick it up. And we weren’t sure how they would come get it.”

With the usual collection of personal items left behind on buses--umbrellas, wallets, keys, glasses, backpacks or articles of clothing--the district’s lost and found department often “looks like somebody’s garage,” Curran said. “It’s all neatly stored junk . . . but it smells like a locker room.”

The assortment of articles found on buses, however, sometimes can be anything but ordinary, she said.

A bus driver once found an abandoned fishing pole with a dead fish attached to the hook. Another time, a rider left a large trunk, haphazardly filled with personal papers and newspapers.

Recently, a man entered the OCTD customer services department to claim a well-used, dog-eared pillow that he said he used as a meditation pillow, Curran said.

OCTD recovers about 80 to 90 abandoned articles a week. Under state law, the district is required to keep recovered items for 90 days. After that time, Curran said, items valued at more than $10--such as surfboards, cameras, stereos and strollers--are donated to the Orange County Police Fund to be auctioned off.

Other items valued under $10 are offered to charity.

Anyone who might have lost items on county buses in the last three months can call the district’s customer services department at (714) 971-6335 to ask about articles. The office hours are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.