Lost Items Found

DD lost her iPod when she was in college, at least 7 years ago. She has always been bad about losing things, so I figured it was gone and forgot about it (it was an older one she got in high school). Fast forward to last year when I was doing some purging. I was opening every single thing to make sure parts were there before donating. Opened the storage bag for a pair of collapsible headphone and there was that iPod! She must have put it in there on an overseas plane trip and then forgotten it.



That is crazy! You definitely need to keep that penny for good luck!

What a fabulous story. So glad you found those rings. I would love to see a pic of them if you're comfortable sharing one.

A diamond bracelet.. my step-mom gave to me.  Like a tennis bracelet.. I lost it somehow while I was wearing it.  I don't even remember when, when I finally realized it, it could have been in a million places, I finally gave up... I think about six months later my MIL found it at her house in a chair underneath a cushion.... I can't even remember sitting in that chair, but it was found.

These are amazing stories!!

When dh was younger he was at the lake with friends and lost the keys to the vehicle he had driven somewhere in the grass/lake/shore area. He searched for them, buy never found them. He had to get a ride back to get the spare to get the car home.

Over a year later they are back at the lake (this is a popular lake in our area) and in the same general area and he finds the damn keys.

A year later and thousands of people and he stumbles across his lost keys.

I feel your pain.  My mom mentioned the necklace she had given me that was Gram's and a watch/locket. She "gave" it to me when the kids were little.  I knew she was going to and was excited to receive it.  But could not find it anywhere.  Panic.  Only two places I would have put it, jewelry box or special little drawer in dresser.  More searching and panic.  The more I thought about it the more confused I got.  Where could I have put it?  Now I didn't even remember getting it.  Too much going on with being Mom of little kids.

How would I tell her? I didn't for a   l o n g  time.  Looked for it over and over again.  Then I finally confessed.  "Mom, I can't find it and I admit I don't remember getting it let alone where I put it."

You guessed it.  My mom then checked her jewelry, came back with it and said, "Well, I meant to give it to you."  OMG!  So much suffering for nothing!

And my mother has a mind like a steel trap and remembers everything.  That's why I didn't question her right away.  I just assumed it was me.    Not this time!

Not quite the same, but this reminds me of when my brother and I were tiny (maybe 4 and 6, he's younger) and we went for a walk by the sea with Mum, Dad and Grandad. Grandad had given us each 50p to spend on sweets, and my brother dropped his somewhere in a field between the car and the beach. He would NOT give up looking. We all walked back and forth and searched and searched. Finally Grandad stooped down and said "here it is!" and handed 50p to my brother. The day was saved and we got ice cream. It wasn't for many, many years that I realised that the original coin had never been found. Grandad had decided that enough of the day had been wasted and had "found" a new coin for my little brother.

These are awesome stories!

I have two stories of lost and found items. Neither is as fascinating as these other stories though. The first is a set of keys lost years ago. And of course, a good number of keys on the ring were the only known key to whatever. It was an expensive ordeal. Fortunately, I had given my mom a house key, so we were able to get another made off of that. I replaced all the bedroom door knobs with new locking ones. I didn't know that you could just have them rekeyed for a lot less money until I went to replace the security screen door lock. I finally called a locksmith to rekey that door. I had to replace keys to garage cabinets, my file cabinet, etc. and replace things like the wheel locks and steering wheel lock thing on the car. I hadn't realized how many keys I carried until I had to recall them to replace them. It was annoying, expensive, and really time consuming.

I had a second set of keys made while replacing everything and gave them to my mom to hold for me, although I never lost a key again. I also learned never to go to places like the Home Depot to have keys made. I went 3 times for 2 particular keys. They would make a replacement key that looked identical to the original, but when I tried to use them, they would not operate the locks. I finally went to one of those key kiosks in a shopping center parking lot where all the guy does is make keys. The keys were over double the price of Home Depot, but he guaranteed them to work. He said he would give me $100 per nonworking key. They all worked. I also learned that he was an actual locksmith that could have come to the house to get pretty much everything done all at one time. Next time.

Two years go by. My son and I are decorating the house for Christmas. Inside one of the boxes of ornaments sat my keys! They were right there on the top layer in one of the little cube spots of the plastic thing that kept the ornaments from touching and breaking. How they got put away with the Christmas stuff I will never know. It was in January that I lost the keys, but it didn't occur to me to get all the Christmas boxes down to go through them. We did not decorate for the next Christmas because my son was having surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and we would not be home enough to enjoy it. That year, we made origami ornaments and put them on the ficus tree plant in the living room. Everybody needs 3 sets of keys, right?

The other thing I lost was my little diamond earrings that my ex had given me for my birthday. They were just plain studs, so they could have ended up anywhere. I searched every purse I owned and every pocket of all clothing items. I swear I went from ceiling to floor, opening everything that they could have landed in. Six years go by. My son and I were moving my furniture enough for me to vacuum underneath it. We were getting new carpeting and I didn't want them to see what accumulates under the bed where I couldn't reach with the wand. When my son moved the nightstand, I guess he saw a glint of light on something. My earrings! They had fallen off the night stand right where I last remembered seeing them last. I had a bad habit of taking them off after I had already gotten into bed at night and just setting them on the nightstand. We checked there, probably 10 times at least. They had fallen into the tiny space made in the carpeting where the foot of the nightstand made an indentation.

How they fell directly into that tiny spot is another mystery. And how I did not vacuum them up over the years I will never know. I usually didn't move the big furniture when I cleaned, I used the hand nozzle and got down on my hands and knees and vacuumed under each piece with the extension wand. I know I ran the wand around the outside edge of those nightstand feet multiple times over the years.

I was so excited to get those earrings back! I always wore two earrings in each ear, the little diamonds and the set of pearl studs that my father had bought for me at Sea World when I was little. Remember the oyster divers? The women would take your ticket and dive down in the water and pick up an oyster for you. You took the oyster to a counter where they cracked it open to get to your pearl. I wonder if they still do that? Dad had me choose what I wanted the pearl set into and I picked the earrings. I already had a necklace from there. I still have that too. Anyway, when you choose earrings, they just get a box of pears and match up one to the size and look of your pearl. I treasured those pearl earrings and wearing the diamond/pearl combination went with everything I ever wore. I should see if I can still get two earrings in again. I have a feeling the second hole has closed up though.

They no longer have divers, but you can pick an oyster from a tank and get a pearl which they will mount for you. I've never done it at sea world but my friend has and she says it's oddly addictive, she kept trying for matching pearls or something and did it 5 or 6 times, lol.

Happy to oblige, if you are willing to ignore my wrinkly hands. LOL The diamond band is my wedding ring, which I now wear with my mother's engagement ring. I have not yet worn her wedding band. Not sure why, but it feels sacrosanct. 

When I was a freshman at LSU my girdle went missing during the OLE Miss pantie raids. We were threatened with expulsion if we threw anything to the thousands of boys screaming *WE WANT PANTIES* in front of my dorm and my window was on the 2nd floor overlooking them. Many girls on our floor had run into my room so I feared someone had thrown it out the window. Of course my mom had sewn those little tags with my name in ALL my clothing. Months later I happened to turn over the cushion in the easy chair and there was my very flat girdle.  

I do this too, constantly put the pieces together for things that go together of DD's toys and stuff. Auditing is a good word for it. For her third birthday, I bought a set of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse characters to put on her cake thinking she could play with them after her birthday. After her party I washed them up for her to play with and the Mickey from the set went completely MIA in the days after her party. I tore the house up multiple times looking for it, even in chairs and couch cushions, along baseboards, everywhere. He never did turn up and we've had all of that furniture moved around and totally away from the walls several times since.

The other thing that went missing that day was a 3" bouncy ball that went with a plastic baseball bat. It was only played with in the house, the dogs were confined in another room, and it was way too big to get sucked up in the vacuum. Never did find that either, so I guess Mickey stole it!

Thank you. I'm so hoping that it does reappear. It is of sentimental rather than monetary value, as the kids bought the beads for me.  And of course, when I look into it, many of them have been discontinued.