If you find umbrellas at work, would you turn them in to lost and found? read details please?

What’s your position at work? Are you someone who is in charge of getting assorted things to where they belong and keeping the area looking a certain way?

Turn it in or leave it there for the person to seek out.

It isn’t mine.

With most stuff I find I don’t bring them to lost & found because I figure that if someone forgot it, he/she will come back to the place it was forgotten to pick it up. It’s happened to me a few times that I forgot to bring something with me, then when I returned to the place I lost it, and the thing was gone. Highly annoying.

I just had that jacket for two days!

@Likeradar No. Nothing of the sort. Before I become crucified for keeping umbrellas, I’d like to add, everything else does get returned to rightful owners. Cellphones, wallets, pocketbooks, etc, stay at the local location because the owners return for them to where they remember having them last within a day or two. We do hold the umbrellas at the local location for a few days. If no one returns for it, technically someone should take it into the other borough to the lost and found dept. However, no one gets paid to do this. So this is something that someone has to do on their own time. This is a job that can take between 10–18 hours (this includes the commute to work) of our day. The schedule varies unexpectedly from day to day, thus developing a healthy sleep pattern is impossible. No one wants to go deliver umbrellas on their day off. They want to spend it with their loved ones.

If it stays there for multiple days then it is up for grabs. If you know whose it is then put a note on it with that persons name. Hopefully someone will see that and they won’t take it. Just think about how you would feel if it was your umbrella and then it was gone.

I’d just leave em.
I don’t blame you at all for not wanting to return them on your time off! :)

I would leave them there. I have big issues with people just taking umbrellas that aren’t theres…are you sure it’s not someone who works there, leaving it in an umbrella bin for later use? I usually keep an umbrella in my car, but that doesn’t help when I’m inside where I work.

I would leave them where they are left, in case the owner returns. If you know who left it, contacting the person and letting them know where it is, is a nice touch.

If you own a nice umbrella, you should find time today to put your name and phone number on it. That way it can find you.

Dude, people can get a new crappy umbrella from an Ethiopian outside most major subway stations for $3 on rainy days. I wouldn’t worry about it too much. If it’s a good $20 umbrella like mine, the owner better watch it like a chickenhawk – if I misplace that, I’ll know it’s gone and it’s my fault, and go buy a crappy $3 umbrella.

@casheroo No. the umbrellas do not belong to any coworker.

@PandoraBoxx All well said by you. It isn’t a place a person can return to easily to get the umbrella. A person may have to commute 2 hours to get to their umbrella if they can remember the vehicle # they left their umbrella on and track down it’s respective location. There are various holding places at the farthest edge of each borough. Thus, no one comes back for umbrellas. These aren’t fancy umbrellas at all. Some of them even have broken spokes. Also, yes, it would be cool if people labelled their belongings. It makes it easier for us to call them and tell them to come pick it up.

I wouldn’t take something that wasn’t mine but it’s likely someone else’s job to do umbrella inventory.

@Deepness, in that case, I would relegate the umbrellas that have been there for more than 30 days to the category of “office loaners.” Otherwise you could become awash in unclaimed property.

Keep a lost and found record at your location. I think it’s dumb to take someone’s lost item to a different location. Give it 3 months, then take the unclaimed items to Goodwill.

@Deepness, are you saying people are leaving umbrellas on some sort of public transportation? That’s different than having visitors leave an umbrella in a fixed location that they visited, such as a hospital, restaurant, etc. If that’s the case, then I think the common expectation is that an umbrella left on public transportation is not going to return home to you.

@tinyfaery No one is paid to do what you ask. Isn’t goodwill another location? You can’t leave these umbrellas on the vehicles because it takes up space (which is valuable if you intend on boarding new passengers). The locations where vehicles are stored have very small quarters for the work crews. Once again, space is a commodity. Work crews need a place to sit during their break and to eat their lunch.

@PandoraBoxx Bingo! lol

Apparently people do go at great lengths to retrieve lost gloves.
http://www.onecoldhand.com/

This is a useful site, but not many know of it:
http://www.thefoundbin.com/

Sell ‘em on Craigslist or at the subway on a rainy day then donate the funds to some local chairty or give em to a homeless person. Your clutter is gone, conscious is clear and you helped someone. Keep a few bucks for your commute fare. Sounds fine to me.

I would establish a lost and found at the local office. Since folks left the things there they are more likely to return there for them, rather than wander off to the official Lost and Found in another borough, which is a long trek for them, too. If you are web savvy and your company has a web site, you could even post a picture and some information about the items online, so folks know if they should even ask about the umbrella, or just buy another from the Ethiopian at the corner.

After one year, all remaining lost umbrellas should be donated to the local Foundlings Home so they can keep dry as they walk through the streets beginning at half past nine, twelve little girls in two straight lines. My apologies to Ludwig Bemelmans

If the only lost and found is far away, I guess you could call lost and found, tell them you have it, and let them keep a note in their box with teh description for a week or two. If no one claims it, it’s yours. Seems like each office should have a lost and found. What if it was a piece of jewelry.

Find out what your company policy is for lost and found items. Then suggest that a lost and found be established in your location, and explain why. I’m sure they have some sort of policy for that.

I wonder why people intrinsically are okay with losing umbrellas? Is it because they’re not part of a set? I would call about losing a favorite glove, keys, wallet, purse, cellphone, laptop, jacket, etc. But I would not expect to get a lost umbrella back. I have several umbrellas that I’ve held onto for a long time, but it’s mostly been because they’re nice golf umbrellas. I have umbrellas stashed all over the place-the umbrella stand in the hall, trunk of the car, under my desk, in the coat rack at work, in my briefcase. I throw them out when they break. Only one is a good umbrella, and it’s at work. The rest were give-aways.

—we need a Fluther umbrella—-

I keep track of my umbrellas – they are actually “sunbrellas” with an spf of 60. I use them much more for sun avoidance than I do keeping dry, especially since we are in a major drought. Sunbrellas are expensive and I can’t just pick them up anywhere, so I keep track of them.

@PandoraBoxx No on the Fluther Umbrella, it wouldn’t protect us from water with that flat top the artist put on the jellies.

Just leave the umbrella where you found it. If it is left lying around a few days, pressumably because the owner didn’t bother looking for it, probably the security guards at your office can take it to the lost and found department. Saves you the trip. If you decide to keep the umbrella, take into consideration in case the owner suddenly tried to look for it (maybe it has sentimental value of some sorth), sees you using it and makes a scene because you “stole” his/her umbrella. Totally not worth it. =P Good thing nobody really uses an umbrella where I live. It’s always too hot here that people don’t really stay out under the sun that long and whenever it rains (which happens like 2 times a year), it barely lasts 10 minutes. Saves me the umbrella issues dilemma. Hehe.

Start a new lost umbrella department as a maverick initiative. Let the local people know, and have a policy where after a certain number of months, they become available in local handy umbrella bins, or if there become more than are even needed for that, donate the excess to a good cause.