Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Lost and Found On the Road

Found a banged up hog on the side of the road. Thinking it belonged to one of the farmers in the area and might have gotten out and hit by a car I checked with them but didn't belong to any of them. Called the brand inspector and he thought he knew who it belonged to and came out. We were able to get it in a trailer he had brought. Seems a person had bought it at the county fair and was taking it to a processor 80 miles away. Once he got there, looked in the trailer and found the back gate had come undone and the hog had fallen out about 20 miles in the trip. Got it returned to him. Now I always double check everything on a trailer before I drive off.

Found a large brown purse on the side of Interstate 70 at Rifle a few years ago. It had an unlocked cell phone which I used to find the owner who was 50 miles ahead of me on the interstate. They were glad to get the $6000 in cash back, they were headed for Vegas and changed drivers right where I found it.

I live by one of the business highways in America. Find lots of coolers. Was sitting in the passenger seat riding down the interstate with one of the old salesmen from work when he locked the brakes up, and did a u-turn through the ditch all in one motion. He nearly killed us to pick up a 5/8” end wrench that he saw in the other lane

Luckiest find ever was one night on our way to CO to elk hunt. Dad, myself, my best friend and dad’s best friend were all riding together having left 10 hours behind the rest of the gang with plans to drive through the night and catch them at camp at daybreak.

Pulled into the then new Loves truck stop on the east edge of Tucumcari about to piss ourselves. Ran in the store and the bathrooms were closed for cleaning at midnight. We peeled out and pulled over on the shoulder before getting back on I40 and all piled out and relieved ourselves. Got back in and I swapped into the driver’s seat so dad could climb in the back and try to sleep a little. We get about 70 miles down the road and he sits bolt upright and says, “ I don’t have my billfold”. We stopped and tore the truck apart figuring it slipped under the seats or something but couldn’t find it. The only place we’d stopped was on the shoulder back in tucumcari so we whipped around and put the hammer down heading back. Lo and behold we get back and somehow stop at the exact spot we had before and there lies his wallet exactly on the white stripe. Had his DL, CC, $1000 cash, and his CO 3rd season buck tag in it.

We were a little late getting to camp but it worked out, at noon he killed a 34” wide 7x9 nontypical buck.

Biggest_ Brand new John Deere square hay bailer
Smallest- pocket knives.

Numerous mechanic hand tools, chains, ladders, shovels, tarps, tires, fishing tackle
Dead foxes, coyotes, Bobcats, minks, racoons (all brought good money during fur seasons years ago.
Wallets, purses, some cash.

Most unusual was bloody shirt with two bullet holes in it. Found in median two miles from the scene where a female homeowner had shot a burglar. Helped convict the burglar who lived but went to a hospital for treatment two hundred miles away. GW

Couple of dogs. I'd have kept the one, but he was ecstatic when (presumable) the owner showd up. I let him take the dog, on observed behaviour- dog mostly- but owner was pretty slobbery too. Pit -mix too. Not sure about the dog.

haven't bought a baseball-type cap in decades. Wash and wear. .

Did find a down vest once, 30 some years ago. Still wearing it. And a 10 x 12 almost new tarp once. Worn out, thrown away now. Good tarp tho.

Anyone seen my Leatherman that I left on the PU camper bumper, and my wife was supposed to retrieve before she left for Seward., but didn't?

and a pint of Old Harper ?..

I lost roll of film once while on USFS trail crew. Couple months later one of the pics turned up in Alaska Magazine - and yes it was not a generic scenery shot - it was an identifiable moose in an identifiable location, in an identifiable pose. not no way reproducible.

We were doing a highway cleanup on the portion of road that runs by our development last spring. Found a nearly new 12 gauge Browning Gold shotgun. I figured it may have been stolen or possibly used in a crime so I went to the local PD and had them run the serial number. Nothing came back on it, but they confiscated it for destruction.

Found a nice Remington 700 in St Charles AR small town 180 people saw a guy putting a sign up at the only store in town he was really glad to get it back. I was driving my buddy said stop back up the guy had just left it on his tailgate.

Same thing happened to an acquaintance who found a SuperRedhawk, obviously
dumped. Everything came back clean, but the Gestopo kept it for destruction.
Barry complained to the state police commander, he assured them his office would watch to see it go for destruction.

Not fair to think they would steal.
Several got busted here for selling PSP stenciled gear on Fleabay.



Dad and a friend my age were riding US 30 one day and saw a real nice, big duffle on the shoulder. They are both scroungers, but Dave didn't want to go back. He was afraid it was dumped on purpose, maybe with a body. Dad turned anyway, and Dave reluctantly walked over and started to pick it up...and heard
"What the F are you doing, that's mine!".

He looked up and there was a Bum taking a crap in the ditch,
Dave almost took one in his jeans!

A fellow that worked for me once found a like new Browning Citori in a case in the middle of a BUSY four lane road. He stopped, put it in his car and came to work. Since I was his employer he came to me to ask what he should do with it. We had a state police post a couple miles up the road and I told him to take it there but DON'T take it inside, let them come and get it. He said they didn't seem very interested but took his information. 30 days later no one had claimed it so they called him and told him to come get it. Luckily the case was beat up but the gun was in great shape. He still has it after 25 years.
NOTHING like this ever happens to me.

When we had our business, I found a bunch of cell phones, wallets, cash and cameras folks had put down and then walked away from Got almost all of them returned to folks but some never came back for them or we had no way to know who had lost them. Still have 2 nice cameras that we held for a couple years waiting for owners to return.

A new complete set of Open/Box end wrenches in a ditch near my home, a couple gas cans and log chains. Gutting an old house found a glass jar full of old coins hidden in the wall (now when I do a Reno I put a small can of coins in the wall for a future "finder".

Saw a pretty fresh Whitetail fawn in the ditch with its leg caught in a real estate sign. Called the NY DEC about it and they sent a NY State Trooper over to shoot it. It wasn't hurt bad so My wife and I stopped him from killing it and took it 50 miles away to a wildlife rehab vet who treated it (leg was skinned up and stressed), eventually raised enough to release.

$70 in cash on a sidewalk, $80 in Silver Certificate Bills in a rolled up sock in an old dresser I bought for $10 and a money clip with $110 in it with no ID.

"Published: May. 30, 2014, 8:08 p.m.

By The Associated Press
Bag Full Of Money Returned

In this photo taken on Thursday, May 29, 2014, Joe Cornell poses for a photo in Fresno, Calif.

(The Associated Press)

FRESNO, Calif. -- A Salvation Army worker in California is being rewarded for his decision to return a bag containing $125,000 that fell from an armored truck.

Joe Cornell tells The Fresno Bee that he found the cash Tuesday after a Brinks truck pulled away from a red light in Fresno and left the sack behind.

"I started crying and shaking," Cornell said. "Everything was going through my mind -- the good devil/bad devil thing. What to do?"

**************************

If you found $125 Grand in cash on the shoulder of the road, and nobody saw you pick it up, would you return it?

Someone in Vermont scored a free $700 in 1979 dollars in cash, in a bag with a pretty good set of tools. My 60 or 70-something 4wd Dodge pickup had a locking tool compartment on one side at the bottom, the lock failed.

Anyone on Camp Bullis in the range fan (Training Area 9?) needs to keep an eye out for a pretty good pair of Romanian optics I set down somewhere maybe 30 years ago.

Stuff found on Military bases doesn’t count as roadside finds but on Bullis things like old compasses, flashlights, ponchos and linked pieces of .30-06 blank machine gun ammo were not unusual. A friend tripped a training Claymore wire left out there and got a surprise.

On Fort Hood another bird survey guy got serious facial burns from a similar device left out, fortunately he was wearing glasses. Strangest thing I found was a live 20mm cannon shell in the woods on Fort Hood, too far back in the woods to have fallen off a vehicle. I figure some guy coming back from training found he had one more shell than their records indicated he should.

Either that or someone wanted to give the guy responsible for inventory fits.

Of course.

Egad man! Ain’t you ever seen the Twilight Zone?

I have found a lot of things alway keep my eyes open a lot of tools....but my brother sent him to the store to buy a case of beer he wasn't happy but went came back very happy with a case of beer a bottle of whiskey and a fist full of lotto tickets.....he found a bank envelope with $1200 in it bought the booze bought several scratch off lotto and won $5000....

100% honest reply.


I'd be darned tempted. Who isn't, often.

If I saw where it came from, I'd return it.

If it was in Brinks bag, the temptation might win.
Likely not.


I've see No Country For Old Men, Hollywood.
I still wouldn't want to be holding certain peoples money, and you never know if
you have been seen. Especially with cameras everywhere.
If there was no traffic on the road, that farther implicates you if your car is on a camera 2 miles away at the right time.


In typing this...
Take it to the Police, count it there with them, recording it.

Don't NEED $125k at the expense of conscience or piece of mind.

Hoping no one claims it.

I lost a 6’ step ladder a couple of months ago due to not strapping it to the truck. Around the same time a neighbor, down the street, placed a Redmax 550 backpack blower and Halo jump starter / air compressor on the street. The blower was leaking fuel and the Halo was missing a charging cable. I ordered a cable and repaired the leak. Now they both work like new!

Best find was a Colt Buntline 22 mag when I was 18. We parked on the side of the road to look for river access to go catfishing. We could see there had been a car wreck there recently as there was still crime scene tape hanging from a few trees and liquor bottles that had been thrown from the car. We were actually looking for some liquor when I stepped on the pistol laying in the weeds. That’s been 28 years ago, if that happened today I’d probably take it in to see if it was stolen or had been used in a crime.

I’ve lost one good fishing rod and reel, a decent Kershaw knife that I left on my bumper, and my favorite Stanley thermos that I left on the bed rail of my truck.