Paddington Bear, oodie and toy gun among 2,500 items left on Tyne Wear Metro in 2023

Paddington Bear, an oodie and a toy gun were among the items to have been lost on the Metro in 2023.

More than 2,500 items were left behind on Tyne and Wear Metro services over the last 12 months.

Mobile phones, keys and bags were the most frequently lost items but other more eye-catching objects have also gone on journeys that were longer than intended.

Most items are returned safely to their owners but those that are not are sold at Tynemouth Market every two years with the proceeds going to charity.

Head of customer service operations at Nexus, John Souter, said: “Every year thousands of items of lost property are left on Metro.

“In 2023 alone we’ve had over 2,500 items handed into the lost property office at our South Gosforth control centre.

“Metro is part of everyday life in our region, carrying 33 million customer journeys per year, so it’s only to be expected that there’s a large quantity of items, which we store securely.

“The more run-of-the-mill things include hundreds of umbrellas, mobile phones, glasses, wallets, purses, keys, handbags, children’s toys and items of clothing.

“From time to time we see more bizarre items which make you wonder how someone could have lost them on a Metro train. Over the years we’ve had everything from false teeth, surfboards and boxing gloves, to ladders, Christmas trees and sombreros.

“Some of the less valuable items are never collected. Thankfully the more expensive goods like mobile phones and laptops are usually reunited with their owners.

“Every two years unclaimed items of lost property are sold at Tynemouth Market and the proceeds are donated to charity.”

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