Thousands of belongings left on train carriages are lying unclaimed (Picture: Anita Maric/SWNS)
Have you mislaid a fluorescent orange life-ring somewhere on the journey from London to Edinburgh?
You’d think something designed as high vis would be conspicuous enough to spot, but someone got on a train with one and left without it.
This is just one of the bizarre items in an Aladdin’s Cave of forgotten treasures left behind on the railways.
Hopefully its owner didn’t see anyone drowning on their onward journey – and if they want it back, all they have to do is phone Maurice Green, the king presiding over hundreds of items at a depot of lost things.
Dad-of-two Maurice, 73, could have retired to spend time traveling the country on the trains he loves with his grandchildren.
But instead, he mans the phones at the lost property department for London North Eastern Railway (LNER), meticulously noting what people are searching for and trying to find the perfect match.
Any given day could see him handed things as large as a set of disco decks, or as small as a fridge magnet.
Someone is missing their Dyson vacuum (Picture: Anita Maric/SWNS)
Some of saddest items left behind are dolls and teddies (Picture: Anita Maric/SWNS)
You might think your pen or paperback carelessly left on a table were not big enough to bother with, but you’d be surprised.
We were invited to look around the depot where property found between Newcastle and Peterborough on the east coast mainline goes, and among the dozens of umbrellas, children’s toys, books and bags were some things you truly wouldn’t expect.
Who took a hefty Dyson onto a train, for example, without even emptying the dust out first?
Maurice pushed it towards me with a bemused look, saying it had been there over three months so was destined for a charity auction, where it might sell for £20.
Anything unclaimed is sold, with Maurice’s haul alone raising £20,000 for the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) last year.
Among the most frequent items left behind are bags, suitcases and phones.
But his desk also sits next to a whole shelf of walking sticks, a potted plant (which he waters and keeps in a sunny spot), and a dreamcatcher as big as a bike wheel, printed with pictures of a native American, a wolf and a wildcat.
Some of the things left behind may not be missed, but others are crucial, such as a prosthetic leg or a bag of insulin.
Maurice’s top tips to get lost property back
Try different lost property offices along the line, as your item won’t necessarily end up at the one you expect. It will be handed in where it is found, so if a train terminated in London it could well be stored at King’s Cross, even if you got off in Leeds.
Check again a week after losing your item, as it may take a while to get delivered or logged on the system.
Don’t be afraid to go in person to King’s Cross, where you may get a better result for property there than if you just email or phone.
Make sure you don’t wait too long, as after three months lost items are auctioned off for charity.
Former engineer Maurice has worked for LNER for 12 years (Picture: Anita Maric/SWNS)
We saw not one but two miniature elephants (Picture: Anita Maric/SWNS)
Maurice says colourful cases have a better chance of being found (Picture: Anita Maric/SWNS)
One of Maurice’s most memorable moments was when a man, flustered after bereavement, left a suitcase behind containing his mother’s ashes.
‘He was moving house from the north and it was a horrible one,’ Maurice said. ‘He wasn’t bothered about the other stuff in the case but he said, “I’m really after mum’s ashes”.’
The item itself never ended up in Maurice’s office but he still got involved to help, suspecting he knew where it might be.
He gave the man a personal number to speak to someone at King’s Cross at the end of the line; something he only does in the most emergency situations.
It worked, and the man retrieved the ashes.
Maurice has worked for LNER for 12 years after a previous career as an engineer making road rollers, baked bean cans and dog food cans.
‘We used to make a million in a day,’ he said of the warehouse he managed, but he prefers the job now.
He proudly shows me cards he’s received from grateful passengers who thought they’d never get their things back.
He likes to phone people and tell them good news directly (Picture: Anita Maric/SWNS)
I wonder if anyone will claim this dreamcatcher (Picture: Anita Maric/SWNS)
Or this ‘shot roulette’ drinking game, left behind after a rough night? (Picture: Anita Maric / SWNS)
Every lost item is catalogued (Picture: Anita Maric/SWNS)
But even when nobody claimed the signed picture of Steven Gerrard, the cuddly owl or the full bag of golf clubs, Maurice was still satisfied he’d done a good job to help people.
With rail workers trained to try and prevent suicide on the network, staff voted for CALM as the organisation they most wanted to raise money for.
It’s a charity sadly relevant to the job, and Maurice knows about this firsthand.
He tells how one day while working his previous role on the barriers, he saw a man of 18 or 19 standing on the platform with a piece of paper in his hand, and asked his colleague to have a word.
‘I said, “Do me a favour, and just take him in the office and tell him the trains are running late.”
‘So he takes him in the office, makes him a cup of tea. And he’d got a letter – he was jumping in front of the next train.
‘His mum and dad fetched him, and three months later he came through again on his way to New Zealand.
‘He said, “If it wasn’t for you two I would have gone.”
‘We saved him that day.’
Maurice likes to phone people and tell them good news directly (Picture: Anita Maric/SWNS)
The top shelf is filled with umbrellas and walking sticks (Picture: Anita Maric/SWNS)
If this is yours, get in touch (Picture: Anita Maric/SWNS)
Maurice, married to wife Elaine for 46 years, says what drives him is knowing he can make a positive impact.
During the afternoon we spend chatting, the phone rings constantly and he has to interrupt things to search on the system.
Although I’m only there a couple of hours, I witness him reunite three items with their owners including a wallet and a bag – an unusual hit rate even for him.
He likes to phone people and tell them directly, like LNER’s own Agent Million.
Some are overwhelmed to be reunited with items very meaningful to them, like a woman who said she’d cried for three nights after losing her Louis Vuitton purse.
‘I rang her and said I’ve got news. She said, “Do I need a handkerchief or champagne?”
‘I said, “Get the champagne out. I’ve found it.”
‘It was one of the highlights of my year.’
Our chat reassures me that if I do ever forget something on a train, it may not be lost forever.
Asked if he’s tempted to hang up his rail jacket and retire, Maurice said: ‘Finding people’s things and helping the charity are two good things.
‘That’s the way I like it and I’ll carry on doing it while my body tells me I can do it.’
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