Dark secrets of the Lost Property hatch

`The oddest thing that was ever found here was a three foot Santa Claus," says Siobhan Moore at Dublin airport. "It was abandoned in arrivals one Christmas and never reclaimed. We always think some poor man must have brought it back for his kids and left it at the airport and thought `sure, forget it'. Now it's in the office of the airport police and has become their mascot."

The majority of things are lost at the airport in summer "rush hours" - which run until 10 in the morning and during transatlantic flights in the afternoon. The most common items found are bags of duty free, mobile phones, keys, purses, wallets and umbrellas.

Moore says they have also been handed in some more unusual items. "Furry handcuffs are one thing I know about, but there is a lot of stuff that people are not going to go back for."

She says that at the end of the year the "good stuff" (e.g. leftover bottles of duty-free) get sent to the Lord Mayor's Christmas Party for the homeless but "there's also lots of junk which just gets thrown out".

In train stations and bus stations, umbrellas, phones, bags, money and keys are frequently found, although stationmasters also have stories of bigger items such as ironing boards and suitcases that are never reclaimed.

"One time, there were three giant suitcases left on the platform," a Pearse Street station attendant says, "They were here for weeks until the owners came back for them. It turned out they were Danish tourists who didn't realise they had lost their luggage until they were on the ferry over to England."

In Connolly Station the most common lost items are, as to be expected, umbrellas, although forsaken mobile phones are becoming more and more frequent.

"Woolly hats during the winter are handed in all the time," says John Flaherty at the Lost Property hatch, "We also have a Greek bible now, which somebody in here reads all the time, although he can't understand a word."

"We get hoodies, fleeces and children's clothes in here all the time," says Alan Morrin at Heuston Station. "At the moment we also have a silver teapot and a pair of cowboy boots - neither of which have been claimed yet."

Garda stations have a similar turn-over. Lost and found items stay at the local police station until they get moved to a general store at Kevin Street station, which is where all confiscated property and larger items such as bikes are kept.

"Jewellery turns up in the strangest of places," says Ronan Farrelly at the Garda Press Office. "And often people's wedding rings have been handed in, as well as bikes, wallets, keys and hold-alls."

"There are frequent Garda auctions to sell off lost property and if there is equipment taken into Garda custody, from a street trader or a criminal, for instance, the court can decide who gets the property." Farrelly explains: "The public also can go into court that day, and if they give a good reason why the property should be theirs, they can have it."

The trauma entailed in losing an umbrella or a phone, however, is minimal compared to that of losing your pet. Summer time is also one of the busiest periods for animals to go missing.

"We've found over the last few years that less people are bringing their dogs to kennels when they go on holiday," says Bridget McGee at the Dublin dog pound. "Instead they leave their dogs with family or neighbours, but if they get out and start wandering the streets someone will pick them up and bring them in."

When we spoke to her, she said three strays had already come in that day, one of which had been reclaimed. That morning three dogs had been put down.

"Dogs can only stay here for five days until they are put to sleep. The sad thing is that if people are on three week holidays they may not even know they are gone."