There’s a graveyard of lost phones, keys and IDs floating around Uptown, awaiting their owner’s return to the bars.
There’s a series of small graveyards being tended to Uptown.
Nearly every weekend, a handful of reckless partygoers will leave a wallet, credit card or cell phone to perish on their bar crawls.
Though many of these items will resurface the next day on Facebook or Unseen, found by kind citizens who want to return them to their owners, most of them come to rest in a box at the Athens Police Department or in a business Uptown. Some of these objects are months old, and their owners never attempt to reclaim them.
But still, those lost and founds await a little love.
“You’d be surprised how many people don’t even come and get their own wallets,” APD Captain Ralph Harvey said. “Someone will return it, with their ID and everything, and we’ll call them and they still don’t come in.”
Jade Underwood, a manager at Big Mamma’s Burritos, 10 S. Court St., maintains a small drawer below the cash register where unclaimed wallets, phones and credits cards are kept.
Some of the phones have been there for as long as two years.
“There’s two phones that are old ones,” Underwood said. “People will usually call and ask for their credit cards, though.”
After the Halloween Block Party last weekend, APD saw an influx of lost objects — though most are still unclaimed several days later.
Harvey said he typically recommends residents trace their steps and return back to the bars and restaurants they frequented the night before.
On an average weekend, the department will see one or two lost items turned in. After the block party, Harvey said APD found several wallets and keys.
“We saw a lot of women’s clutch wallets, a lot of guys’ wallets and lanyards, too,” Harvey said. “I’ve seen less and less phones over the years; I think people are constantly touching their phones now.”
Employees at Jimmy John’s, 16 S. Court St., are currently keeping several lost objects in a small drawer underneath their cash register — including car keys, cell phones and several student and state IDs.
A set of Honda car keys there are now several months old, said Robert Cline, a manager.
“About 3:30 a.m., people start coming in plastered and leave their iPhones or wallets,” Cline said. “We had about two to three iPhones after (the Halloween Block Party), but people came back for them.”
Although the businesses contact anyone who leaves his or her driver’s license or student ID behind after a night out, many never bother to return.
“We’ll call them,” Cline said. “They just never come back.”
The Pub, 39 N. Court St., was even left with a large box of misplaced Halloween costume pieces after last Saturday’s festivities.
Bartender Erin Maldonado said the box was maintained for a week, until some of the staff members took abandoned costumes for themselves. Maldonado claimed a plastic axe that had been left behind.
She added that the bar doesn’t call those who leave behind IDs, but keeps them in a cup behind the counter and never throws them away.
“We have credit cards, glasses and a lot of random hoodies,” Maldonado said. “A lot of people are using Unseen and Yik Yak, which is good. At least people are trying to return them.”
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