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Brigid Bergin: It's the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. I'm Brigid Bergin, filling in for Brian today. Now we're going to change gears and end today's show with your lost and found calls. The MTA inspector general's office just published the results of an undercover investigation into the system's lost property unit. Last year, the office handed out over 24 lost items across subway stations and buses to MTA employees to test whether the objects could be retrieved.

The results? Only 1 out of the 24 items made it back to the Inspector General's office, a keychain with an address on it. 20 of the items were never even logged in the lost and found database, suggesting misconduct within the ranks of the MTA's personnel. All this is to say if you've ever retrieved something you lost on the bus or train, you are very lucky.

Listeners, we want to hear your local lost and found stories. Have you ever left something on the subway, bus or other public transport vehicles and actually gotten it back? Did you go through the MTA's Lost and Found service? How long did it take to get your item back? Give us a call, 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692.

Often, it's other New Yorkers who step up and take matters into their own hands when an item is lost. They're the ones who call a recently dialed number when you forget your phone on the bus or send your wallet back to the address on your ID card, drop it off at a police precinct. Who needs a lost and found when you've got neighbors as good as these? Jokes aside, if you ever have gone out of your way to return a valuable item to its rightful owner, first of all, thank you very much, but we want to hear from you.

Listeners, do you have a miraculous story of retrieving a personal item you never thought you'd see again, thanks to a good Samaritan? I found someone's ATM card on the Boardwalk on Rockaway once; dropped it right off at the police precinct. We want to know what you lost and who got it back to you. How did you thank them? Did you find someone's phone, wallet, or keys and then go out of your way to make sure it got back to them? We'd love to hear your story. The number is 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-443-33-9692.

Maybe there's some MTA workers listening who want to give their side of the story laid out by the Inspector General's office. What does the MTA's Lost and Found system look like on your end? Is there a hidden culture of finders and keepers among your ranks, or is something else happening behind the scenes? We'd love to hear it. 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692.

Listeners, we want your lost and found stories. When did you get something valuable back? We want to hear from you. You can call or text. Did you have to post something on Facebook or on Instagram? Is there an item that you lost that's still floating out there in the ether? Maybe you can get it back by telling us what it is. The number's 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692. We're going to take your calls right after this.

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Brigid Bergin: It's the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. I'm Brigid Bergen filling in for Brian. We're talking lost and found stories. We have lots of callers. We want to hear your story. Of course, the number, 212-433-9692. Call or text. Let's go to Dave in Irvington, New York. Dave, you're on WNYC.

Dave: My son lost his wallet on Metro-North. We knew it was going to be an ordeal going downtown because he was up here with us at the time. Then I got a message from the conductor on the train who found it, who recognized my name right away because he's a conductor of an orchestra I had played in.

Brigid Bergin: Oh, wow.

Dave: He's the conductor on the train and a conductor on the orchestra. It was a very far easier resolution to that matter. Thank you for letting me tell that story. Thank you.

Brigid Bergin: Dave, thank you so much for that. Let's go to Erica in Manhattan. Erica, let's hear your lost and found story.

Erica: I was on an M1 bus in Manhattan and I lost my wallet, which was like a little coin purse. It got tucked on the side of the seat. I realized it later. I went online to the MTA to figure out their lost and found situation. Online wasn't helpful, but I made a phone call and the guy was like, "Look, if you can get up to the depot, I don't know, somewhere on 147th street before midnight, that's your best bet," so I did. I ran up there, middle of the night. The guy had my cute little red wallet under some bags in a Ziploc bag and gave it right back to me. I was really impressed with how they handled it.

Brigid Bergin: That is an amazing story, Erica. Let's go to Mike in New Rochelle. Mike, let's hear your lost and found story.

Mike: Hi. I was a senior manager at , similar to the last caller, at bus depots. I ran bus depots in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Queens. As the last caller said, we had many instances- not many, but several, where people would come in and pick up wallets, phones. I remember somebody once got about $100, $200, maybe $500 back that a bus driver or a cleaner had found and turned in. That piece probably didn't get into the IG's report.

Secondly, we do have a whole process where things that are found and not claimed are sent securely and logged in and sent to the headquarters where people can get things three, four weeks later. It does happen. I think we do have a process, a formal process for dealing with it. There's a lot of honest drivers out there, people who turn stuff in. You got to also remember that a lot of this stuff might have been picked up by customers not- and really, the transit authority didn't have any way to control what the IG planted. You know what I'm saying?

Brigid Bergin: Absolutely. Mike, thank you for that call. I want to read a couple texts that we've gotten in from listeners as well. One listener wrote, "Worst day of my life. I was attacked and robbed in the street. I had just left my husband and had all of my late mother's jewelry in my purse. The thief took my phone, cash, and threw the bag in the trash. Some Good Samaritan turned in the bag to the police, and I got it back that night. I love New Yorkers."

Another listener wrote, "My husband left his phone on the subway. It had the only recording of our wedding vows that he didn't upload to the cloud. I went through the MTA rigmarole, called the police precincts and everything to try and get it back. We never found it. I wish to this day we could have found it. This was about five years ago." Some good news, some bad news. Let's sneak in another. Patricia in White Plains. Patricia, you're on WNYC.

Patricia: Yes. Hi. Thanks for taking my call. I was going back from Grand Central to White Plains on the way home. My daughter was with me, and my phone was dying, so I plugged it into one of the outlets there, but when I got off the train in White Plains, I left it plugged in. We got into the car, and I realized it almost right away. I knew where the destination of the train was heading to, Brewster. I knew what time it was going to arrive at Ucher, but I wasn't sure I was going to make it there before the train got there.

While I was racing in the car, my daughter googled the Metro North number, and she was able to speak to somebody who actually called the conductor live, told the conductor exactly which car the phone had been plugged into. When I got to the train station In Brewster, some 25 minutes later, he met me on the platform and handed me my phone.

Brigid Bergin: Wow, that's amazing. I'm going to sneak one more in. James, in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey. James, you have about 20 seconds.

James: Oh, yes, I was just going to say, I am completely notorious for losing things. I would take my kids places, and then it would turn out to be a nice day. I would lose their jackets. I would just leave them there and go home. I once left my jacket in a deli in Penn Station. I went away for a week. I came back and the delis had my jacket and they were saving it for me.

Another time I was in Paris, I left my cell phone in a taxi. Somehow we called the driver. He was like 45 minutes away in some random suburb, but he took the information. He said, "Don't worry, I'll get it back to you tonight." Around midnight, he dropped it off at my hotel. That was just incredible.

Brigid Bergin: Wow, James, I feel like you need to go out and buy a lotto ticket because you are a very lucky guy. I want to thank all of our listeners for sharing your great lost and found stories, both calls and texts. I once had the MTA recover my radio recorder that fell on the tracks out at a subway station in Bay Ridge. Shout out to the MTA employees who recover all the important things. We'll leave it there for now. Thank you again for your calls. This has been the Brian Lehrer Show. Stay tuned for All Of It.

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