Smyrna times., 1954-09-02
LOST ARTICLES
ARE RETURNED
Travellers on The lis Mile
New Jersey Turnpike Can
Get Lost Articles
TRACK DOWN OWNERS

possession at one OF the 1O eat
ing facilities along the 118 mile
New Jersey Turnpike. Whether
the article is your warmest coat
your favorite pipe, or a current
'Best Seller, it's rarely an ire
trievable loss. No doubt, the hos
tess already has your coat in
safekeeping and it will be return
ed to you soon after you report
it missing. 1t might take a little
longer to uncover your pipe. AS
for the book, you probably won't
bother to make known your loss
and it will provide good reading
for some bed-ridden patient in a
nearby hospital. With practically
no clues, the super sleuths of the
highway restaurants track down
owners of wide variety of lost
property.
Charity Gets Unclaimed Articles
All personal property found at
any of The 10 Howard Johnson
eating places along the Turnpike
and there's. a lot of its held
for claim for 80 days, jewellery is
held for 120 days. (Valuables or
wedding rings are kept indefinite
ly hoping they will be claimed.)
If unclaimed within the prescrib-
ed periods, most of the articles
are given to charity. Some are
given to the finder. For instance,
Howard Johnson sends unclaimed
clothing and toys to the Salvation
Army or church rummage sale.
Glasses become the property of
the Lions International who col
lect discarded eyeglasses and
sends them to worthy organiza-
tions. However, most of the items
left at the restaurants on the
super highway are returned to
their rightful owners, Of more
than 5000 articles reported lost
or found in six months, about
1900 were returned. The system
works like this. An item found at
the Woodbridge Restaurant, is
held for one week. If not claimed
within that time, it is sent to Mt.
Holly, accumulation point for all
lost and found articles gathered
at the restaurants on the Turn
pike. aa
Every Effort To Find Owner
All items are marked, dated,
tagged and catalogued. Names
are checked, telephone calls are
made and sometimes as many as
IL letters on one item are writ
ten to find the rightful owner. If
there is no Identification, which
there usually isn't, a little more
detailed checking is involved.
Optical prescription numbers,
laundry marks and company let
terheads are some of the clues
that are used to trace the owner
of lost article. In several cases
handbags and overcoats have been
traced through labels on boxes or
bottles of medicine in pockets.
Forty huge bins, two file cabinets,
and a large steel safe are filled
with an assortment of hats,
shoes, fountain pens, umbrellas,
pipes, toys, razors, gloves, etc.
According to Mrs. Frances Adam
of Mt. Holly, New Jersey, sup
ervisor of the lost and found de-
partment for the Howard Johnson
Company, most of the difficulty
in finding the owners of these
articles lies in the fact that there
are seldom any markings on the
items that are found and they
are rarely claimed Immediately
after being lost. "I recall one.
item, said Mrs. Adams, "a
mans wrist watch that wasn't
reported missing until IL months
later. We did recover it for the
gentleman, however" Mrs. Adams
claims that there is often an in
teresting mystery connected with
an article found like the wallet
that contained nothing but sever
al newspaper clipping from Obit-
uary columns. Next to the names
of the deceased were written the
words Probably. Maybe" and
mo Good. mo matter how hard
we tried, said Mrs. Adams, I'VE
couldn't figure it out until the
owner finally claimed his wallet
and explained that he was a
tombstone salesman. ~ sy
Drives so Miles, Misses Glasses
! Another, case was the time a
woman driver left her eyeglasses
at one of the restaurants. An
hour and half later she called
up, from a restaurant so miles
further north stating that she
lost her eyeglasses and that she