by Britney Weber
Senior Staff Writer
A Bible. Fourteen notebooks. Eight textbooks. Two CDs. Three watches. A handful of rings, necklaces, pendants and earrings. A rack full of coats. Prescription glasses. Mismatched shoes. An array of mugs spanning all shades of the rainbow.
Sounds like a description of We Care Thrift Center, but it’s not. All these things, plus dozens more can be found in various hiding spots in the Operations Office under the guise “Lost and Found.”
“There’s some shoes in there. You might not want to open that bag of them though- I can understand why someone would leave those shoes out in the hall. They stink,” said Diana Buttram, administrative assistant for the Office of Operations.
“I get lots of cell phones, keys and jump drives. I usually try to send out emails when I find those. Especially if they have your name on it,” said Buttram.
Buttram has a basket on her desk specifically for keys, ID cards, jewelry, computer chargers, and other small miscellaneous items.
“What I probably find the most is stray earrings. Hundreds of them. I might start a new fashion,” said Buttram.
“Oh, and umbrellas. I have a whole drawer full of those from years past– the owners probably don’t even go here anymore,” said Buttram as she pulled open a drawer containing at least two dozen multi-colored umbrellas.
Looking around her office, everything looks like a typical office– a desk with a computer, a couple of stocked bookshelves, a file cabinet, a jar of candy on the desk. But underneath are hidden stray items waiting to be claimed by their owner.
“Here, this is pretty random,” she said unexpectedly as she pulled out a shiny toy pistol from underneath her desk, laughing.
Other unusual items include a pair of jeans, backpacks, sports equipment and knives.
“I usually keep things for about a month, then take them home and clean them up and take them to We Care if no one has claimed them,” said Buttram.
Moral of the story– label your belongings, put them away and remember where you leave things, or they might just end up in Mrs. Buttram’s closet of misfit things.