7 What do people leave on the bus?
TriMet is a government agency. It has all the buses in Portland and also Beaverton, Gresham, and Clackamas. TriMet gives more than 300,000 rides to people each week.
Sometimes people leave things on the bus. TriMet collects them. Sometimes it collects 1,500 lost things in a month.
Bus riders can report lost things by calling or texting 503-238-7433. TriMet tries to return the lost things. Sometimes it can’t find the owner. Then it gives lost things to charity after 14 days.
What do people leave on the bus? What do you think? Do they leave food? Do they leave money? Do they leave pets? Between August 12, 2018 through September 12, 2018, TriMet found:
- 84 eyeglasses
- 93 pieces of clothing
- 106 miscellaneous (a mix of many different things)
- 111 bags and purses
- 117 keys
- 125 identification cards
- 130 bus passes
- 143 bicycles
- 230 phones
- 243 wallets
-This story was first published in ESOL News Oregon September 17, 2018.
Check
Discuss
- Have you left something on the bus? What was it? What did you do? Did you try to get it back? How?
- Have you ever found something that someone else lost? What did you do? Did you keep it? Did you try to return it?
- What can you do to protect your things and make sure you don’t lose anything? Think of some helpful ideas.
- Are you an organized person? Do you keep all of your things neat and clean? Or do you often lose things?
Write
- What happens if you lose your ID (identification) card? Write about what you need to do to get a new card and protect your identity.
- Sometimes we lose things because we are distracted. Write about a time you lost something because you were distracted.
- TriMet gives the lost items to charity if no one claims them after two weeks. Why do they do that? Why don’t they just throw the lost items in the trash? What is the purpose of charity?
- Think of a time you lost something and were able to get it back again. Write about the thing you lost, how you lost it, and how you got it back. How did you feel? Use descriptive adjectives to describe your feelings.
Sources
Theen, Andrew. “Top 10 TriMet Lost and Found Items: Dentures, Cremated Remains and Hundreds of Bikes.” OregonLive.com, OregonLive.com, 17 Sept. 2018, www.oregonlive.com/expo/news/erry-2018/09/2328ccfaf68157/top-10-trimet-lost-and-found-i.html
Image of TriMet Bus By Steve Morgan [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], from Wikimedia Commons
