A Busload Full of Odd Stuff

If you leave a tuba on a public transit bus in Ventura County, you might look for it in the same place others look for their dentures, baby carriages, cell phones or walkers.

It’s called the “coat closet,” an unassuming little room at the South Coast Area Transit’s bus center in downtown Oxnard. But there’s much more than a few coats here.

It’s the closet of last resort for 3 million yearly riders--some of whom have left everything from bicycles to money-stuffed envelopes on SCAT buses over the years. The bus system serves most west county cities.

Eventually, the collection of unclaimed items are put up for auction. In three years, however, not one bid has been made on the odd assortment. After 90 days, items are thrown out.

Handling the discarded and the discardable is not an easy task for employees at SCAT’s Oxnard headquarters.

“It’s a nightmare,” said Peter Drake, SCAT’s general manager. “We have to store it for at least 90 days, make sure it’s secure, write it down and then dispose of it. It’s not one of those things you imagine dealing with when you get into the business.”

Meanwhile, stuff keeps trickling in daily, filling up the coat closet until it is cataloged and moved to a storage unit across the bus yard.

These days SCAT is collecting the staples of winter--jackets, sweaters, umbrellas--as well as reading glasses, wallets and keys. On the side of the closet a stray iron hangs in a plastic bag, a brand new auto emergency kit glimmers from its box, radio speakers sit in the corner along with a pair of black pumps.

The summer months sprout surfboards and sunglasses. During the Christmas season more candy and gift wrapping wends its way to the closet.

One recent afternoon an Oxnard woman came looking for her 6-year-old son’s backpack. Erika Sanchez described it: green with some homework and a plastic candy cane half full of chocolates inside.

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When it was pulled from the bowels of the coat closet, her face broke into a smile. “This is very good, very good,” she said, shaking her head and clutching it to her chest.

Drake described a situation a few years ago when a passenger with strange-looking

sores on his skin recovered an item, raising health and safety concerns among SCAT employees. Ever since, employees handle lost objects with tissues.

When the bus seats were more pliable, some passengers would stuff their dentures between the seats.

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“In New Jersey, they would find guns between the seats,” Drake said. “At least we don’t have that problem. We also have not found any drug paraphernalia, like in some cities.”

He said now that SCAT carries bicycles, a few of those have turned up. All but one have been claimed by their owners.

“What I don’t understand is how people can leave their walkers,” said Linda Marie Soshea, who’s in charge of tagging every item that shows up. “At least we haven’t had any wheelchairs left behind.”

But there are videos, heavy pieces of amplification equipment and the inevitable wallets, and of course a few pairs of glasses.

Drake said glasses that aren’t claimed go to an ophthalmologist in the area who matches the prescriptions with needy people in Mexico.

Any item--from an envelope with a letter inside to a plastic bag of crackers, shampoo and tea--is picked up from buses or bus stops and taken to the SCAT center. The date is marked on a little yellow identification tab, and reasonable measures are taken to contact the owner, if there is a name. All coins go to the petty-cash account.

Items are then put in the closet, haphazardly organized by white plastic baskets corresponding to the days of the month. Drake said fewer than 10% of the items are picked up.

“Most of the time when someone calls looking for something, it wasn’t turned in,” said Craig Winter, who sits at the front desk and helps people locate their lost items. “There was a guy who lost a cell phone and called in a panic. He was really happy when we had it. People usually aren’t optimistic.”

Winter said he was amazed how many items go unclaimed. “Some of the stuff is valuable. You would think people would want their keys and wallets back.”

After several weeks in the closet, the haul is cataloged and moved to a storage shed where it awaits public auction.

SCAT has been giving notice of a public auction via newspaper ads every three months since 1996, Drake said. No one has ever bid on the goods, but anyone who did would have to take the whole load, as well as taking care of moving it out of the SCAT office.

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The ads cost SCAT about $140 each time, but inevitably the goods end up at a thrift store.

After the last auction, in August, the haul went to the Assn. for Retarded Citizens of Ventura County, which sold it in their secondhand store.

“I guess people never bid on the stuff because they don’t want to get a bunch of junk,” Drake said. “It’s a crap shoot what you end up with.”