The STM Revealed The Most Common Items Lost & Found On The Montreal Metro
The STM collected nearly 50,000 lost items in 2022.
The interior of Montreal's new Metro trains.
The Société de transport de Montréal (STM) recently posted a video to its TikTok page of random items that are collected in the Montreal Metro lost and found — ranging from shoes to rat food.
The TikTok, titled "Normal things we find in the lost and found," featured a handful of eyebrow-raising items that really make you wonder what some transit users are up to. The list of lost and found items from the Montreal Metro includes baby shoes, a door handle, a bouncy ball, cracked iPhones, mini plush dolls, kids' baseball caps and, of course, you cannot forget the rat food — adult rat food to be specific. Actually, someone did forget the rat food.
@stm.info si qqun ose dire qu’il voit des rongueurs sur le réseau une autre fois I SWEAR #tiktokquebec #montreal #pourtoi
This got us wondering what else the STM discovers aboard its bus and metro system. So, we reached out to the public transport agency for a few extra details on items most commonly gathered in the Metro lost and found and turns out the STM collects tens of thousands of objects every year.
In fact, the STM collected a total of 48,441 lost items in 2022. The STM told MTL Blog that they tend to see broken phones quite a lot, as well as school lunch boxes and small and large baggage. Children's toys are also very common, as are single shoes (finding pairs is a rarity, the STM said), jewellery and glasses (1,800 pairs in 2022).
As for more obscure items, the STM said that they've collected printers, full bags of groceries (at these prices?!) and wait for it…teeth.
The most lost item is the Opus card, the STM told MTL Blog, with roughly 13,000 Opus cards lost in 2022. The STM said that lost property is kept for a period of three weeks. After that, items that are in reasonable condition are then given to charities. Last year, the STM donated a total of 13,665 items to charity.
If you do lose something on the Montreal Metro, the STM recommends waiting about 48 hours before inquiring about a lost item, since there is often a delay from when the lost objects are found until they are physically brought to the STM lost and found centre, which is located at the Berri-UQAM station (mezzanine level, near the turnstiles).
So, if you lose a tooth, wait about two days before asking about said missing tooth at Berri-UQAM. As for any lost full bags of groceries, those are long gone, cooked and digested.
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.