Metro sorting items lost by inauguration riders

A thermos. A Superman backpack with the name Kevelle written on the back. Two sets of binoculars. And 123 cell phones.

These were among the hundreds of things left behind by the hundreds of thousands of passengers riding Metro trains and buses for Inauguration Day and the events leading to it.

Each month, about 3,800 items are turned into the transit agency’s lost and found. It’s too soon to know how many were lost by the record-breaking inaugural crowds because objects are still filtering in from across the system to the Silver Spring depot that sorts and logs them.

But as of Friday, 12 new boxes and various bags already sat on the floor of the storage room, each labeled with the date and location where the items were found.

All the items in the Silver Spring room were found by someone — Metro employee or fellow rider — who turned them in.

“Customers really care,” said Lendy Castillo, Metro’s manager of customer relations, as he opened a black wallet with stacks of cash still tucked inside the sleeve.

The most common items are cell phones, followed by keys and glasses. Once an alligator head preserved through taxidermy turned up.

“Trust me, we have seen it all,” said Phyllis Cooper, who has been sorting items, handling calls and reuniting belongings with owners for 10 years.

Castillo estimated that about half of all cell phones are claimed. Keys and glasses need to be looked for in person as it’s often too difficult to find the exact match from a written description. With wallets, a postcard sent to the address listed inside.

“Will someone come back for a glove or scarf? I don’t know,” Castillo said. “The purses, of course, they come back for.”

Katrece Edwards, 39, of Wheaton, came by Friday to pick up her wallet. She said the cash was missing, but the wallet still contained both her and her son’s Social Security cards. “I really need that,” she said.

Nobody, however, claimed the alligator.

Items unclaimed after 30 days are donated to charity, thrown away or auctioned.

But by the door sits a thick Bible. Castillo said the staff decided to keep that one longer, in case someone comes for it.