We all know that that sinking feeling knowing you forgotten something and frantically trying to remember where you might have forgotten it. And of course, the process we all go through ranking just how important the item is.

On a typical day, as many as half a million people could be taking transit in Metro Vancouver, so not surprisingly our Lost Property office at Stadium–Chinatown Station processes tens of thousands of lost items each year.

But sometimes, lost items are reunited with their owners without ever making it to our Lost Property office. We know how important items such as wallets and keys are to our customers, so staff make every effort to track down these items on the transit system right away.

This was the case for customer Verna Morse who left her purse on the SkyTrain while on her way to Landmark Cinemas at New Westminster Station to watch a movie.

“Believe it or not, 56 minutes from my first call to TransLink, I am reunited with my bag at [New Westminster Station],” she wrote in a tweet. “A huge thank you to all SkyTrain staff who facilitated such a speedy reunion, and especially to the couple who turned my bag over to the SkyTrain Attendant.”

@TransLink @vancouveriswhat

Feeling grateful for our awesome transit staff!!!❤️ pic.twitter.com/qxwm4oo37r

— River Song (@Thunderverna) August 18, 2020

What to do if you’ve lost something

If you’re like Verna and you left something like a wallet behind on transit, flag down a uniformed transit employee such as a bus operator or SkyTrain Attendant, or a Transit Police officer who will be able to assist you. On the SkyTrain, you may also pickup the red emergency phone on the platform to connect with the SkyTrain Control Centre. TransLink Customer Service can be reached by calling 604.953.3333.

One thing you can do every time your board transit is to make a note of the bus or SkyTrain’s unique vehicle number, which you can find both inside and outside. On the bus, it’s a single letter and four-to-five digit number like B18001 or V2101, while on the SkyTrain, it’s a three-digit number like 001 or 484. This will help us track down your item.

Bus operators check for lost items onboard their buses at the end of each trip. When the bus returns to the depot, all the lost items from the day are sent to our Lost Property office. The same happens for SkyTrain, SeaBus, West Coast Express and HandyDART.

When the item arrives at the Lost Property office, they’ll check to see if there’s a match with any reported lost items.

If you left something behind on a recent trip, please fill out the lost and found form to report what was lost, and we’ll see if someone has turned it in.

Please remember to tell us any of the item’s distinct features (e.g., a description of a phone’s case, or a scratch on your wallet), your direction of travel and any identifying information present with the item (e.g., a driver’s license in a lost wallet).