Photos: iPod and BlackBerry lost property mountain

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  • 40149725-1-mobiles1.jpg

    What careless commuters leave on Tubes, buses and in the back of cabs

    Transport for London's (TfL) lost property office covers two entire floors beneath Baker Street Tube station and stores any items left on the underground, on London's buses, in black cabs and on the Docklands Light Railway.

    Ted Batchelor, customer service supervisor at TfL's lost property office, told silicon.com: "We can keep up to 40,000 items at one time."

    Above are just some of the shelves housing travellers' lost gadgets.

    Photo credit: Transport for London

    Caption by: Andy McCue

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    Not surprisingly mobile phones are amongst the most common items that commuters leave behind on tubes and buses. Around 15,000 mobile phones and PDAs such as the BlackBerry are handed in each year.

    But only around a third of the phones and PDAs handed in are collected by their owners. TfL's Batchelor said: "Phones are so cheap nowadays and people have insurance anyway."

    Photo credit: Transport for London

    Caption by: Andy McCue

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    The number of iPods and MP3 players left on London's public transport is on the rise. Currently the Baker Street lost property office receives about 10 to 15 iPods per week but TfL's Batchelor said this figure is "just starting to take off".

    Photo credit: Transport for London

    Caption by: Andy McCue

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    About 100 laptops per year are left on Tubes and buses and in the back of cabs. Around half are reclaimed by their owners.

    The lost property office keeps items for three months and then has to get rid of them to make space for new things being handed in.

    Batchelor said: "Most of it gets recycled because of the Data Protection Act. Most of the stuff gets sent off to companies who break it up for parts."

    Photo credit: Transport for London

    Caption by: Andy McCue

  • 40149725-5-mobiles2.jpg

    It's not just new gadgets that end up in the lost property office. As seen in this picture, staff at the TfL lost property office show off old-style 'brick' mobiles and even landline telephones that have been handed in.

    All manner of unusual non-electrical items also get left on public transport. Recent examples include a bag of glass eyeballs, a vasectomy kit and even a live rabbit which a passenger left on a bus.

    Photo credit: Transport for London

    Caption by: Andy McCue

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What careless commuters leave on Tubes, buses and in the back of cabs

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What careless commuters leave on Tubes, buses and in the back of cabs

Transport for London's (TfL) lost property office covers two entire floors beneath Baker Street Tube station and stores any items left on the underground, on London's buses, in black cabs and on the Docklands Light Railway.

Ted Batchelor, customer service supervisor at TfL's lost property office, told silicon.com: "We can keep up to 40,000 items at one time."

Above are just some of the shelves housing travellers' lost gadgets.

Photo credit: Transport for London

Caption by: Andy McCue

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