Strangest things left behind by the customers

[Frank Cox]

I found a woman's shoe last night when I was doing the clean-up. Shortly after that her husband was knocking on the door asking if I had found a shoe.

How do you walk out of the theatre and leave one shoe behind without noticing?

I've had lots of purses and wallets and bank cards and jewellery of various kinds over the years (including one really heavy and huge gold chain thing). Stuff usually gets claimed eventually unless it's a coat or sweater; most of those sit in my lost and found box for six months or so until I throw it out.

Last week a guy came to pick up his wallet that he left here when I was playing Barbie so that sat here for two months.

What's the strangest thing someone left behind at your theatre?

[Greg McGuire]

I have a lug nut sitting on a table right now that we found in the theater. It's been there for a while and I haven't heard of anyone losing a tire so... everything's good?

[Jim Cassedy]

A set of crutches. Unless some sort of miracle happened during the movie, you'd think that if
someone needed crutches to walk into the theater, they'd need them to walk out too. The box
office person remembers the woman who came in with them, because one of the box-staff helped
hold the door open as the person went into the auditorium. We held on to them for two or three
months, and then donated them to some charity that collects things like unwanted wheel chairs,
crutches, eye glasses, etc and gives them to the needy.

[Leo Enticknap]

Given the new Exorcist movie now playing, I can't resist mentioning this one: a copy of Aleister Crowley's The Book of the Law found on the floor of the auditorium after a screening of a re-release of the original Exorcist at a small theater I worked at in south-west England in the 1990s. This charming tome has sometimes been described as equivalent to The Bible for devil worshipers (IMHO, it's deranged bullshit, pure and simple). I'm guessing that its owner would have been somewhat disappointed at the ending of the movie! Maybe (s)he'd have preferred Rosemary's Baby?

[Mike Blakesley]

A set of "throwing knives." We had a customer who was a bit of a weirdo and, we found out, a knife collector. He left a set of 3 knives that had no handles, but were just flat steel with an extended tang on the end. We didn't know if they were a good thing or a bad thing so we turned them over to the cops, and they interviewed the guy. I don't know what ever happened to the knives.

We also had a couple who dropped off their two kids, then went to the bar and never came back. I wound up giving the kids a ride home.

[Peter Foyster]

A woman's bra, left on one of the seats in my outdoor cinema. Someone, purporting to be a relative, phoned to say that it would be picked up. It remained unclaimed at the box office for some time before eventually being disposed of.

I have had a few fold-up camping chairs which, like most of the items of clothing left on seats, were never claimed. How people could not notice they were missing such a large item is a mystery to me.

Of course, there is always the odd mobile phone or wallet found under the seats at the end of the night. Most are claimed just before or soon after we close.

[Lyle Romer]

A set of crutches. Unless some sort of miracle happened during the movie, you'd think that if
someone needed crutches to walk into the theater, they'd need them to walk out too. The box
office person remembers the woman who came in with them, because one of the box-staff helped
hold the door open as the person went into the auditorium. We held on to them for two or three
months, and then donated them to some charity that collects things like unwanted wheel chairs,
crutches, eye glasses, etc and gives them to the needy.

Was it a showing of "The Passion of the Christ?" :-)

[Jim Cassedy]

Was it a showing of "The Passion of the Christ?" :-)

I actually don't remember what movie was playing - but as a fanciful thought- -
I'd expect to perhaps see a lot of crutches, wheel chairs & eye patches left
behind after a screening of "Song Of Bernadette" (1943) lol

(For those who may be unfamiliar with the movie or the religious reference, It is the story
of a young girl in the early 1800's in Lourdes, France to whom the Virgin Mary appears.
Many of the townspeople, including the local clergy think she's crazy, until a few small
miracles happen, including The Holy Virgin making a spring suddenly start flowing from
a rock. The water is discovered to have miraculous healing powers, causing people
who came pray and than bathe or drink fro from the spring to be magically healed from
their afflictions- - causing many of them lo leave their now unneeded crutches and
wheelchairs, etc behind. To this day people still flock to Lourdes, hoping to be cured
of whatever ails them.
Whether you are a believer or not, "Song Of Bernadette" is great moviemaking from
Hollywood's heyday- - with a stellar cast that includes Jennifer Jones, Vincent Price,
Charles Bickford, Lee J Cobb, and a cornucopia of of character actors from the 1940's,
& a music score by Alfred Newman. It wound up winning 4 Academy Awards that year. )

[Marcel Birgelen]

In those times I worked for a theater, I never really found anything extra-ordinary. I remember having a bra or two in the "lost and found" box, neatly wrapped in a plastic bag... I remember a colleague of mine back then claiming he found a "used condom" the other day, although we certainly weren't "that kind of establishment". I still remember having ordered all the seats to be disinfected around the purported area of discovery...

I've heard many strange stories about people apparently forgetting their false teeth and whatnot... I never remember us having a shoe in the lost and found though...

[Randy Stankey]

Other than the standard "Lost and Found" items, I don't remember anything really unusual being left behind in theaters.

Only two things stand out in my memory. First was a lost wallet with over $1,000 inside. The other was a big bag of weed.

I found the wallet in the theater and put it in the manager's office for safe keeping. I had already taken down the owner's name from the driver's license inside the wallet and I made a quick inventory of the contents. The amount I remember was $1070 but memory fades. About half an hour later, the guy came rushing back, looking for his wallet. When I asked him for his name, he got all huffy at me. I tried to tell him that I knew that there was a lot of money in the wallet and that I was not about to give it to some random person who just happened to walk in without some kind of assurance that he was the real owner. He went round and round with me for about five minutes until I said, "Just tell me your first name!" He told me his name, I went into the office, retrieved his wallet. I put a rubber band around the wallet as a half-assed security measure and I wrote a note with the date found and the owner's name. The practically snatched the wallet out of my hand, threw the rubber band on the ground and walked out in a snit without even saying thanks. There was another employee, there, standing next to me. I turned to him and said, "Next time, if that guy ever comes back, looking for a wallet, I outta' lie!" (Obviously a joke.)

Another night, I was cleaning a theater when an usher found a bag of weed under the seat. He wanted to keep it. Now, with me, being the only adult in the room, I couldn't just let him keep it but, on the other hand, I didn't really care. I said, "I need to see you throw that bag into the garbage can!" The kid got mad at me because he thought I was making him throw it out. I said, again... "Listen CAREFULLY!... I need to SEE you throw that bag into the garbage!" It took him a minute but he finally did. I said, "Now, take that GARBAGE outside and throw it into the dumpster!" He paused again and repeated what I just said.

I don't know whether that usher actually understood what I was trying to tell him.

[Barry Floyd]

At the drive-in, we get all kinds of stuff left behind. Clothing, underwear, lots of bras, random stray socks, shoes, car parts, lawn chairs, blankets, golf clubs, phones, wallets, keys, eye glasses, toys, and credit / debit cards. Last Sunday night, I found a "Pneu-Dart" tranquilizer dart lying on the ground. I'm really surprised by the amount of people who don't come back for their phones. We found a bag of weed one time too. Back in 2020 when we were doing the LIVE concerts, we found a bag of weed under the screen where the stage had been setup the night before. I guess the Christian artists partake in the herbal supplements too.

[Leo Enticknap]

"Listen CAREFULLY!... I need to SEE you throw that bag into the garbage!" It took him a minute but he finally did. I said, "Now, take that GARBAGE outside and throw it into the dumpster!" He paused again and repeated what I just said.

I don't know whether that usher actually understood what I was trying to tell him.

If he was already under the influence of the stuff he was trying to obtain a free supply of, the odds are not good.

Whether you are a believer or not, "Song Of Bernadette" is great moviemaking from Hollywood's heyday

It almost put my mother off going to the movies for life. She went to a Catholic boarding school, run by nuns, while her father was serving in the army in Egypt in the 1950s. The nuns' idea of a rainy Sunday afternoon treat was to frogmarch all the kids into the gym and have them sit, cross legged, and make them watch this movie (presumably on 16mm). It was inflicted on her, she estimates, 10-20 times a year.

[Randy Stankey]

Nobody was under the influence at work. That's one thing I don't tolerate.
I don't care what people do at home but, when they are at work, they are being paid to be sober. If somebody comes to work, stoned, they will be sent home to sleep it off.

Now, this is where things become difficult. What to do next?

If it was a good employee who just made a mistake, I'd sit them down and have a long talk... Me talking...Them listening.
Maybe somebody else talked them into it. I've seen that happen.
Anyhow, I'd tell them that, if they ever come to work while under the influence again...EVER...they'll be fired on the spot and the reason will be reported to unemployment.

I know. A lot of people are going to ask questions like "How can you prove it?" What about legal issues?
That's what the "long talk" is for. I don't have to give that employee a break. I could fire them, right now.
That's what I would tell them. "I'm giving you a big break but, in return, you are on notice." "This is your one and only chance at forgiveness."
What about safety? What if somebody got hurt while they were high?
What about customers? What would customers think when they see my employees running around, loaded?
You just can't run a business if you're gassed up, all the time!

If it wasn't a good employee, all that goes out the window.
Unexcused absences. Documented observations. Write-ups. Any of that stuff.
If the person wasn't an otherwise "Sterling" employee, it's Game Over! Toodles! Don't come back. We'll mail your last paycheck.

That's how my father ran his business. As much as I take issues with his alcoholism and his other behavior, this is one thing I still believe in. Don't come to work drunk or stoned!

And, HE ran a bar!

[Mike Blakesley]

Clothing, underwear, lots of bras,

I don't get this. A coat or even an over-shirt I could understand, and I understand the throes of passion and all that, but are they just tossing this stuff out the car windows? I'm surprised people would go home, or wherever they're going, without their underwear!

Back when we ran two shows on weekends, I used to let the concession kids leave during the early show if they wanted to. One night, one of the girls left with her boyfriend. When she came back for the second show, she had her shirt on inside out. I said, "You must have gone parking with 'Justin' during the show, huh?" She said "Why do you say that?" I pointed out her inside-out shirt. I thought she was gonna die of embarrassment right in front of me. It was hilarious. She and I are still good friends to this day.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

At the drive-in, we get all kinds of stuff left behind. Clothing, underwear, lots of bras, random stray socks, shoes, car parts, lawn chairs, blankets, golf clubs, phones, wallets, keys, eye glasses, toys, and credit / debit cards. Last Sunday night, I found a "Pneu-Dart" tranquilizer dart lying on the ground. I'm really surprised by the amount of people who don't come back for their phones. We found a bag of weed one time too. Back in 2020 when we were doing the LIVE concerts, we found a bag of weed under the screen where the stage had been setup the night before. I guess the Christian artists partake in the herbal supplements too.

Barry, Obviously the people that never return to your place looking for phones and credit cards were the ones hit by the tranquilizer darts...