Well, at the Miami International Airport, all those lost and found items go up for auction.

On Saturday, July 28, Miami International auctioned off all its lost and found items: suitcases, cell phones, iPods, golf clubs, watches, cameras, video games, guitars, camcorders, iMacs, headphones, laptops–even a washing machine. That’s right, a washing machine! What someone was doing with a washing machine at an international airport is a complete mystery. Let’s just hope it has absolutely nothing to do with hatching an eccentric terrorist plot. Just try fitting that into the overhead compartment on a plane!

The auction featured more than 800 items from the lost and found department. Anything that was left at a checkpoint or on flights and hasn’t been claimed within 60 days is fair game. And so is anything else that gets turned in to the lost and found. The only item that’s exempt is lost luggage from baggage claim. But that still leaves tons of luggage to bid on.

Luggage at the lost and found auction is not opened, and auctiongoers are not allowed to look inside the luggage for a preview before bidding commences. Winning bidders may end up with a suitcase full of dirty undies or $10,000–it’s a total game of chance. And yes, one lucky lost and found bidder did indeed find $10,000 in a suitcase! That happened about five years ago.

Miami International has been holding the lost and found auction for about 10 years now. Doors open at 8:30 a.m., and bidding begins at 9:30 a.m. It’s held at an airport building at 5600 Northwest 36^{th Street. The price to attend the lost and found auction is $3. That, along with proceeds from winning bids, is yet another way for an international airport to fatten its bottom line. But don’t count on that profit giving the airport the bright idea to lower parking fees!}

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But not for long. Chip and his wife Karen searched for their lost dog and filed a report with the local sheriff’s department. Just 10 days later, a neighbor relayed that another neighbor allegedly caught the lost dog. And the neighbor who caught Ginger even paid to have her spayed and to have a microchip implanted, then gave her to a shelter! Ginger was adopted by a couple from Chicago, who want to keep her.

But Chip and his wife Karen miss their lost dog. And so does Cody, another husky they own. Chip and Karen have had Ginger and Cody since they were only seven weeks old. Cody has been howling for Ginger.

Ginger is bred, and she’s a member of the American Kennel Club. The lost dog had just weaned a litter of pups before she escaped. She’s very active and craves attention.

Detective Mark Di Nardo charged suspect Emily Spencer with felony theft of the lost dog. Chip and Karen learned through court proceedings that she had Ginger spayed and implanted with a microchip.

Detective Di Nardo traced the lost dog through the microchip to a couple in Palos Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. They also found out that Ginger was adopted two other times before the Palos Park couple, and that her teeth were filed down. This does not make Chip and Karen very happy; Chip has been physically ill over the whole situation.

Detective Di Nardo contacted the Palos Park police department to try to reclaim the lost dog, but to no avail. The Palos Park police have contacted the couple who adopted Ginger, but they don’t want to give her up. They claim that they have legal standing because they legitimately bought her. And the police can’t take the dog, which is classified as property, without a court order. Palos police consulted that state attorney’s office, which declined prosecution in criminal court and advised handling the case in civil court.

So Chip and Karen will have to get a court order to get their lost dog back. Which they plan on doing after Emily Spencer’s next court date in August. Tony Maples, the attorney who represents Emily, says she has cooperated fully by informing Detective Di Nardo about everything that took place with Ginger. He says that she was merely trying to act in Ginger’s best interest. That’ll make you think twice about what to do when you find a lost dog!

As for Ginger, she must be a pretty special lost dog to have so many people wanting to care for her!

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The lost dog tag belonged to Edward H. Cunningham of Westville in Franklin County, New York state. Cunningham was an Irish-American born into a farming family. He was a truck driver and general laborer who enlisted in the service at age 30 in 1941. He served in England during WWII.

The lost dog tag was found at the bottom of a pond at Christchurch park during a refurbishment project. Then researchers and historians on both sides of the Atlantic tried to find the owner of the lost dog tag.

They made an appeal to find the lost dog tag’s owner in the Malone Telegram newspaper in Franklin County, New York. Edward’s nephew, Jack Cunningham of Massachusetts, responded to the appeal and provided some information about his deceased uncle.

He told searchers that his uncle was one of the first local men to get drafted in the war. He served in the Army Air Corps and was stationed near London while he was in England. But no one can figure out whether Edward ever indeed came to Ipswich himself, or whether his lost dog tag just somehow ended up there. Jack reported that his uncle never visited Ipswich after the war.

Jack also had some other stories to share with the lost dog tag researchers. He relayed that his uncle had a lot of good friends, liked a good time, and was married “to the nicest woman who ever lived.” And he was devastated when she suddenly dropped dead one New Year’s Eve when they were preparing to go out and celebrate.

Edward passed away due to a heart attack on January 22 in 1974, just two weeks before his 63^rd birthday. He was being cared for at the Soldiers Home in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Edward’s name is listed on the war memorial in Westville. But still no one knows how Edward’s lost dog tag got to the bottom of the pond. But at least they got to the bottom of who Edward was!

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If you tack up posters of a lost dog that you found, such individuals will call you, claiming that the dog is theirs, and simply describe the photo and/or any verbal descriptions you included on the flyer.

One woman wrote to syndicated columnist Heloise about such a lost dog scenario. She found a lost dog; it had a collar, but no tags. She took the dog to her vet for a microchip scan, but the dog didn’t have a microchip. No lost dogs were reported at the local humane society.

She then called the local no-kill shelter, as the lost dog was older; she reasoned that he might be less likely to be adopted due to his age. The wise workers at the no-kill shelter strongly advised her not to distribute posters of the lost dog to avoid attracting people who would sell it to an animal testing center.

The no-kill shelter workers also advised her to only give very general information about the lost dog, not specific details, so the rightful owner would have the info necessary. For example, you could say that a lost dog is a husky, but don’t say that it has one blue eye and one brown eye on your poster. The woman left general information with several veterinary clinics in the area, another helpful idea. And she kept the lost dog in the front yard so the rightful owners would recognize him if they were driving through the area looking for him.

Sure enough, she got a call five days later about the lost dog. The caller was frantic; it was her father’s dog, and she was caring for it while her parents were on vacation. She described the dog very specifically over the phone. And when the owner came to retrieve the dog, the woman who was smart enough not to post flyers received a thank you card and a big bouquet of flowers!

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Workers in Guest Services, which operates the lost and found, are downright perplexed about some items that show up. Take the walker, for example: How did the owner manage without it? And why would someone bring a brain scan film to the county fair? And surely the person who lost the dentures doesn’t enjoy gumming food!

But of course many items are typical of those found in any lost and found department: car keys, eyeglasses, wallets and purses. As a matter of fact, there are so many lost car keys and eyeglasses that workers in the lost and found department have assigned separate bins just for them. They have 66 sets of keys alone! Car keys, house keys, even a remote key for a BMW.

Some of the wallets and purses that show up in the lost and found have a large amount of money inside. Those items, as well as more valuable items such as wedding rings and iPods, are locked in a cabinet.

Lost and Found workers try their hardest to reunite owners with their lost items. They meticulously record each and every item in one of 10 log books, including the date the object was found plus a detailed description. But so much of what winds up in the lost and found is never claimed. After a specified period of time, unclaimed items are donated to charities.

Gail Tompkins, who’s been working in the Guest Services lost and found department for seven years, told the Union-Tribune that perhaps people “I think sometimes people don’t know where they lost it, or they just don’t think they’ll ever get it back.”

The San Diego County Fair Lost and Found department also has several boxes overflowing with lost sweatshirts, backpacks and shoes without mates. Gail told the Union-Tribune, “There’s a lot of babies running around in circles because they’ve only got one shoe!”

Gail has become a pro sleuth during her stint in the lost and found. Once a fanny pack was turned in, and it contained about 40 pieces of paper inside, inscribed with various names and phone numbers. Gail looked at each piece of paper until she found a name she could definitely trust: “Mom.” Needless to say, the fanny pack was successfully reunited with its owner.

But as for the dentures and brain scan film, well that’s still a mystery!

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Bandit is a 16-year-old black lab who belongs to local Deputy Sheriff Bob McFetridge. Every morning, Bandit takes a stroll over to the neighbors’ house, Anne and Lee Perrigo, to take advantage of the dog treats they give him, as he’s been doing every morning for the past four years. But this time he didn’t return. Bob and his teenage daughters began to worry that Bandit was now a lost dog.

Their worries were confounded by the fact that their other dog and Bandit’s longtime companion, Shadow, a 13-year-old husky, had passed away two weeks prior. They were afraid Bandit might have wandered off and become a lost dog because he was missing Shadow.

So Bob called Boothbay Region Animal Control Officer Betsy Pratt to report his lost dog. Betsy organized a search party to locate Bandit. Her husband chipped in, as did the Perrigos, the last people to see Bandit as he walked off munching dog treats.

And Bob thought of someone else to add to the lost dog search party: Lincoln the floppy-eared bloodhound. Bob knew about Lincoln through colleague Kathy Williams, Lincoln’s owner who’s a police officer in nearby Wiscasset. Kathy has spent the past year getting Lincoln trained to become an official rescue dog.

Lincoln’s trainer Jean Conte has been preparing Lincoln for an AKC tracking degree. When it came time to search for the lost dog Bandit, Lincoln had only been working on warm trails, which are trails where the scent to follow has been laid very recently. He hadn’t spent much time working on cold trails, which are trails where the scent to follow has dissipated over time.

When the lost dog search party launched its mission, Bob rubbed a sock over Bandit’s sleeping area to give Lincoln a whiff. Lincoln then immediately took off for the Perrigo’s house–and he didn’t even know about the free treats they dole out!

From there, Lincoln led the party on a long excursion through mud and brush to search for the lost dog. Night fell, but Lincoln was determined to find Bandit. He led the party into a low swampy area filled with mud and briars, where they heard Bandit’s weak cries. Lincoln’s very first official mission was a success!

Members of the search party helped carry the lost dog back home. Bandit was exhausted, but safe and sound. And it wasn’t long before he was begging for food, one of his favorite pastimes. Along with stealing food off of people’s plates. Hence the name Bandit!

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The lost dog in Maryland is a Yorkshire terrier named Reilly who disappeared from a hotel in White Marsh near Baltimore on Monday, July 23. Reilly’s owners are bound and determined to find their beloved doggie.

They’ve gone to great lengths to find their lost dog, including hiring a detective, hiring a helicopter and hiring private investigators–to the tune of about $4,000 so far. And the Davises are willing to spend even more.

As a matter of fact, they’re also offering a reward of $2,000 to the person who turns in their lost dog. And they’re willing to match that with another $2,000 for someone who may know the whereabouts of Reilly, say if he’s being held by someone who’s unwilling to turn him in.

The Davises and area detectives have even been working with local businesses to find the lost dog. Employees at a local Best Buy are even stuffing flyers into customers’ bags to help locate Reilly.

The lost dog in Viriginia is Lexy, a Lab-chow mix. Apparently Lexy just hates having to board at the vet’s office–he escaped from a Fishersville veterinarian’s office on July 11 during a routine walk. She was boarding there while her family was on vacation. She’s shy, and she slipped out of her collar and bolted.

Several people have reported seeing the lost dog near the intersection of Entry School Road and Old White Bridge Road. Linda Diehl, Lexy’s owner, has plastered the Entry School road area with at least 100 flyers. Lexy has also been spotted running down U.S. highway 250.

Lost dog experts informed Linda that it’s fairly common for dogs to stay within one or two miles of where they became lost. So Linda has set up a Have-a-Heart trap with food in the area.

She’s also asking residents in the community to keep an eye open for the lost dog while they’re driving, as she might try to cross the road. Linda’s very happy that Lexy is still alive, but now the tricky part is trying to catch the shy dog.

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Shirley publicized her lost dog in the local media. And fortunately, she equipped Rusty with a microchip in the event that he would ever become lost. That was a smart move, because that’s about the only way you could positively identify a lost dog 2,000 miles from home!

Rusty was found in a lost dog pound in Darwin, which is Australia’s northernmost city. He was identified by his microchip.

How the little lost dog got so incredibly far from home remains a mystery. But there’s a small clue in his paws: They’re in very good condition, so he probably didn’t walk!

Another unbelievable lost dog story involves dognappers. A lost great dane was found running about in a Clay County neighborhood in Florida. The lost dog, Hallie, was then placed in a holding pen outside the Clay County Animal Control office on July 18.

Less than two hours after the lost dog was placed in the pen, a man and a woman drove up and stole her from the pen in broad daylight–and it was all caught on video!

Not only that, but the stolen lost dog is a huge great dane! Not exactly an easy breed to conceal!

The dognappers were driving a black or navy blue Ford sports utility vehicle with gray fenders and trim, plus a chrome front grill. Workers at the Clay County Animal Control office and authorities at the local sheriff’s department do not suspect that the lost dog’s owners were involved in the dognapping in any way.

Workers at the Clay County Animal Control office are still trying to identify Hallie’s owners. Anyone with info regarding the lost dog can contact detective Annie Henderson at the Clay County sheriff’s office at 904.264.6512.

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U.S. Forest Service researcher John Capuano became lost in the Huachuca mountains on Tuesday, July 10 near Sierra Vista, Arizona. He and his colleague Vernon Robinson were conducting research near the Carr Canyon area. They split up at the Carr Canyon trailhead to undertake their studies, and they arranged to meet back at the trailhead at 6 p.m. That’s an often overlooked but crucial strategy when it comes to avoiding a lost and found situation in the wilderness. The two Forest Service researchers travel throughout the country conducting studies on various federal lands; they’re not normally stationed in Sierra Vista.

John didn’t make the planned 6 p.m. rendezvous, so Vernon knew he had a lost and found scenario on his hands–and he acted accordingly. He gave John a reasonable amount of time to show up, but then he took action. Vernon notified the Cochise County Search and Rescue Team about John being lost at 8:47 p.m. The search and rescue team was activated at 9:22 p.m.

An Arizona Department of Public Safety Ranger helicopter was also dispatched to assist with the lost and found situation. Helicopter pilots spotted a man at a campfire, and they reported the global positioning coordinates to the search and rescue team. But by the time the search and rescue team reached the GPS coordinates, John was nowhere to be found.

The search and rescue team continued searching for John throughout the night, to no avail. Then the subject of the lost and found situation simply walked out of the woods around 7 a.m. on Wednesday, near the search and rescue command post at the Carr Canyon trailhead. Fortunately, John was not injured. He simply spent the night in the forest to prevent becoming even more lost while it was dark, and emerged when it was light enough in the morning to easily find his way. Another very smart strategy when it comes to roaming the wilderness!

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About half a dozen pedestrians worked together for nearly half an hour on Friday, July 13 to lead a lost dog wandering along Ogden Avenue to safety. The first good samaritan was a truck driver; he pulled over, then stood in the middle of the street to warn other motorists about the old German shepherd wandering around the busy street.

Two more women joined in the lost dog mission, both workers at a local hospital, and both dog lovers. Another woman pulled over to help keep the German shepherd from going into the street.

While all of them were busy trying to capture the lost dog, someone else showed up and had the ingenious idea to run into Pet Supplies Plus and grab a leash and some dog treats. Meanwhile, someone else called the police department to report the lost dog.

Then a second truck driver showed up on the lost dog scene. In the meantime, officer Taso Malamis was on his way to the scene; he also had the bright idea to stop and pick up some dog treats. The second truck driver successfully grabbed the lost German shepherd by the collar. When officer Malamis arrived, the truck driver led the dog to him, saying, “I love dogs!”

But when officer Malamis tried to give the lost dog some treats, she started snarling. But he knows it’s fairly common for dogs to become aggressive when they see someone in uniform. The second truck driver helped officer Malamis put the leash on the dog, then she became more comfortable and even playful.

Officer Malamis then delivered the lost dog to Downer’s Grove Animal Hospital. Normally he takes found dogs to the police station, where they have a microchip reader. But officer Malamis thought he should play it safe and not place his hand near the back of the dog’s neck and risk getting bitten.

Although the lost dog wasn’t equipped with a microchip or any tags, she was successfully reunited with her owner. She was picked up the next day.

And this dog is double lucky: Just the week before, another lost dog was hit by a car on the very same street and sustained a broken leg. Police successfully located the owner, placed the injured dog on a sheet of wood, and helped load it into the owner’s car so they could go to the vet.

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