LOST, STOLEN, OR STRAYED.
This is the legend of the lost centipede that once held undisputed sway
of the Lost Property Office at Scotland Yard before it came to an
untimely end. It arrived with a cab-driver, housed in a little tin box,
comfortably lined and pierced with air-holes. Casually an official
opened the box, caught one glimpse of its contents, and jumped for
safety while the centipede pleased at the opportunity of stretching its
multitude of legs, cantered incontinently for the shelter of a pile of
lost articles.
But even a centipede cannot defy Scotland Yard with impunity. The forces
of the law rallied, and, headed by an intrepid inspector with a fire
shovel, eventually tracked down the insect--or should it be animal?--and
placed him under arrest.
Trial and execution followed summarily, and the honest cab-driver went
empty away.
The Lost Property Office is not, as is popularly supposed, a general
depository for all articles found in London. It receives only things
found in public carriages--tramway cars, omnibuses, and cabs. Other
articles are dealt with by the police in the divisions where they happen
to be found. But, even as it is, it keeps a large staff busy month in,
month out.
In the basement of Scotland Yard there are many rooms filled with
articles varying from a navvy's pickaxe to costly jewels. Take an
example of one year's working of the department. There were 90,214
articles deposited. Here is a rough classification of things dealt with
in one year:
Bags 9,340
Men's clothing 6,749
Women's clothing 7,942
Jewellery 2,395
Opera Glasses 723
Purses 4,340
Rugs 273
Sticks 2,134
Umbrellas 35,319
Watches 451
Miscellaneous articles 20,548
Of each of these things a minute record is taken before it is stored in
one of the large rooms, with barred windows, in the basement. Umbrellas,
sticks, and bags, for instance, are classified, each under half a dozen
or more heads, and the card index with different coloured cards for
various months, enables an article to be discovered instantly. Articles
to the value of L39,859 were restored to their owners.
Suppose you left an umbrella in a cab on June 16th, enquiry at Scotland
Yard would enable it to be picked out at once, if it had reached them.
You describe it as having a curved handle, mounted with imitation
silver. At once an official turns to the blue cards in the index. Under
"umbrellas" he turns to the subdivision W.M.C., which, being
interpreted, means "white metal crook handle," and your umbrella is
handed back to you. But you do not get it for nothing. There is a reward
to pay to the cabman. In the case of an umbrella, or such small article,
your own suggestion will be probably adopted, but on most things the
scale fixed for gold, jewellery, and bank notes applies. This is, up to
L10, 3s. in the L, and over that sum an amount to be fixed by the
Commissioner.
The rewards paid out annually form no inconsiderable sum. Recently
figures have not been published, but an idea can be obtained from those
given a year or so ago. Then 32,238 drivers and conductors shared
between them nearly L5,000. One lucky cabman got L100; six received
between L20 and L100.
These rewards are mostly for articles claimed, which numbered 31,338 of
the declared value of L31,560, out of 73,721. The rest, with a few
exceptions, were returned to the finders after an interval of three
months. This return to cabmen and conductors is an act of grace--not a
right. In some cases where a thing is of value, and remains unclaimed,
it is sold, and a percentage of the proceeds given to the finder.
While I was in the office a black cat strolled leisurely out from behind
one of the crowded sacks, and rubbed itself against the knee of one of
the officials. "Left in a tram car," he explained. "We had a tortoise,
some gold fish, and a canary a few days ago, but they have been claimed.
It was suggested that we might save space by having the cat look after
the fish and the canary, but we did not think it advisable."
Almost any kind of a shop might be stocked with the loot of the Lost
Property Office. There are false teeth, books, golf clubs, pickaxes,
snuff-boxes, and ladies' stoles, stuffed fish, and wax flowers, petrol,
and motor tyres, boots, and watch-chains, every conceivable kind of
portable property that an absent-minded person might forget.
Each month's articles are kept separate, so that at the end of three
months unclaimed things can be dealt with. A great safe swallows up all
articles of jewellery or money of the value of L1 or more. I have seen a
cabman hand over the counter an exquisite pearl worth several hundred
pounds. It was examined, and then carefully sealed and placed in the
safe. Constant handling of these things has made the officials quick and
accurate judges of their value.
The authorities are not content to merely look after articles until they
are claimed. Every effort is made to trace the losers, and a large
clerical staff is constantly at work sending out letters where the
property is marked or identifiable in any way, or where a cabman has
remembered the address to which he has carried the supposed losers. More
than 40,000 letters are sent out annually in such cases, and there are,
in addition, something like 50,000 written enquiries to answer in a
year.
This alone will show something of the monstrous business with which the
officials have to deal. There is, of course, a constant stream of
enquirers at the two offices, one at each side of the great red-brick
building. One of these offices receives lost articles, the other
restores them. Intermediately there are the vast store-rooms through
which the accumulations progress every month, till in the third month
all unclaimed things are ready to hand in the "outgoing" office.
Nothing but a well-organised system could avoid confusion, and confusion
there is none. It is all part of a great business conducted on business
principles. Every article, every farthing of money is recorded, with
the circumstances under which it found its way to the Lost Property
Office and its description, so that of the scores of thousands of things
which pass through the hands of the officials, a ready history of each
one can be quickly referred to.
There are queer visitors sometimes--persons who make preposterous claims
for something they may have heard has been lost. These are firmly but
effectively dealt with. On the other hand, sometimes articles of value
are never claimed solely for the reason that their owners have no wish
to make known their movements or whereabouts on a particular day.
Now and again the authorities find it necessary to remind people of the
existence of the Lost Property Office. The following advertisement is
typical of those inserted in daily newspapers periodically:
"METROPOLITAN POLICE.--Found in public carriages and deposited with
police during June and July, numerous articles, including a bank
note, a purse containing cash, a bracelet set stones, and a purse
containing a bank note. Application for property lost in public
carriages should be made personally, or by letter, to the Lost
Property Office, New Scotland Yard, S.W. Office hours, 10 a.m. to
4 p.m."
Once every three months articles that have been unclaimed are sold by
auction. The average proceeds of these sales are about L60, which is
handed over to the Board of Inland Revenue. The Metropolitan Police
receive no benefit from the vast machinery they keep in motion to guard
the public from its own carelessness.
I cannot do better than conclude this chapter with the advice proffered
to all those who use public vehicles: "The very great majority of
articles deposited have been left _inside_ cabs. Hirers, therefore,
might with advantage make it a rule not to pay and discharge the cab
before they are satisfied that nothing is left in the cab."
PRINTED BY HAMPTONS LTD., 12, 13, AND 19, CURSITOR STREET, LONDON, E.C.