| Random Finds While Litter-Picking 00:34 - May 27 with 5192 views | TwoHalves |
Irritated some years ago by the constant stream of cr*p thrown over the low perimeter wall of my squash club (in the days when I could still just about play the game), I decided to buy a two-pronged litter-picking device and attempt to clean the place up.
Over the course of one weekend I collected nearly 100 bags of the stuff, some of which was unspeakably gross. In that category I include a discarded builder’s hat, harmless enough at first glance, but when I advanced the prongs of the litter-picker towards the brim, about half a million frenzied bluebottles emerged.
On closer inspection I realised that a workman, from the building site over the road in all probability, had taken a massive dump into his protective headwear and then thrown it over the fence.
On another occasion I found a voodoo doll with half a dozen pins inserted into various orifices. Fortunately I’m not superstitious (a fat lot of good it would do supporting QPR) so wasn’t overly alarmed.
This prompted me to think, has anyone ever found anything interesting/disturbing/valuable/disgusting (well, anything really) while litter-picking? On the plus side I’ve also found about £25 in notes and a few quid in coins over the years.
If litter-picking is a bit too ‘niche’ I think the category could probably be expanded to include random finds on public transport, back of cabs etc, even mudlarking or metal-detecting if anyone indulges.
Come on, we’ve got a close season to get through! |  | | |  |
| Random Finds While Litter-Picking on 21:22 - May 27 with 980 views | VancouverHoop |
Nothing while litter-picking, but a couple of street-side finds when I was a kid.
A gold watch. Which was returned to it's owner via an ad in the local newspaper shop, and I received 10/- reward! A small fortune for a ten-year-old in the late 1950s. A year or so later a found someones unopened pay packet. I returned that too, but received nothing but a cursory "thanks" and a closed door.
Not my discovery but the best find I personally know about. In my twenties i worked as a decorator. One day one of my young co-workers was prepping a job, when he found a rolled up newspaper with £150 in old five pound notes — the really big ones — inside. Being an honest lad, or maybe a nervous one, he went to the local plod shop and reported it. The desk sergeant looked at him and said "You are a lucky boy aren't you." And went back to eating his lunch. [Post edited 27 May 21:23]
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| Random Finds While Litter-Picking on 21:45 - May 27 with 930 views | MrSheen |
| Random Finds While Litter-Picking on 21:22 - May 27 by VancouverHoop |
Nothing while litter-picking, but a couple of street-side finds when I was a kid.
A gold watch. Which was returned to it's owner via an ad in the local newspaper shop, and I received 10/- reward! A small fortune for a ten-year-old in the late 1950s. A year or so later a found someones unopened pay packet. I returned that too, but received nothing but a cursory "thanks" and a closed door.
Not my discovery but the best find I personally know about. In my twenties i worked as a decorator. One day one of my young co-workers was prepping a job, when he found a rolled up newspaper with £150 in old five pound notes — the really big ones — inside. Being an honest lad, or maybe a nervous one, he went to the local plod shop and reported it. The desk sergeant looked at him and said "You are a lucky boy aren't you." And went back to eating his lunch. [Post edited 27 May 21:23]
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Not litter related either, but a friend of my wife used to live in a mews house round the back of Notting Hill nick, where a lot of police cars and vans used to be parked. Her brother was visiting her and when she let him in she noticed something which had been left in a plant pot outside her front door, a two inch cube wrapped in foil. They took it inside, unwrapped it, and he was able to identify it for her as cocaine. After a bit of thought, she decided to take it in to the police. They took down her story, but it was as about a month before she was able to sleep comfortably without worrying that whoever dropped it off, either a suspect being dragged in for questioning or even an officer concealing something he’d picked up in a raid, would come round in the night to ask her if she’d seen it. Mind you, she never heard back from the police either! |  | | |
| Random Finds While Litter-Picking on 22:35 - May 27 with 855 views | TwoHalves |
| Random Finds While Litter-Picking on 21:22 - May 27 by VancouverHoop |
Nothing while litter-picking, but a couple of street-side finds when I was a kid.
A gold watch. Which was returned to it's owner via an ad in the local newspaper shop, and I received 10/- reward! A small fortune for a ten-year-old in the late 1950s. A year or so later a found someones unopened pay packet. I returned that too, but received nothing but a cursory "thanks" and a closed door.
Not my discovery but the best find I personally know about. In my twenties i worked as a decorator. One day one of my young co-workers was prepping a job, when he found a rolled up newspaper with £150 in old five pound notes — the really big ones — inside. Being an honest lad, or maybe a nervous one, he went to the local plod shop and reported it. The desk sergeant looked at him and said "You are a lucky boy aren't you." And went back to eating his lunch. [Post edited 27 May 21:23]
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That’s uncanny. I received a 10/- reward as a ten-year-old too (late 1960’s in my case). I was out with a mate on our bikes when we stumbled upon a distraught lady and her fiancé crawling through undergrowth at the side of the road near our junior school.
The lady’s engagement ring had somehow fallen off her finger as they were driving past in their convertible car. We joined the search, together with the crowd that had now gathered, and half an hour later I found it.
She was overcome with emotion and thrust the Ten Bob note in my hand. I stuck it in my Dr Barnardo’s collection box when I got home.
(Perhaps I should explain that ‘Ten Bob’ was ten shillings in old money - or half a pound. That’s the equivalent of 50p today!) | | | |
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