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Jim Koepke
07-13-2016, 1:23 AM
This is kind of strange.

Candy and I go into town maybe once or twice a week. Last Thursday on our way into town I saw something in the road. I was slowing as I saw it but still went past it. It had the look of a socket from a tool kit. I have found many of those in the road over years. Candy looked at me kind of strange as I stopped and started rolling backwards. Then she saw it and said, “Oh.” She knows my ways.

Jumped out picked up the socket, saw it was a 1/2” drive 9//16” and handed it to Candy as I pulled away. She saw that it said Blackhawk on it and dropped it into the console. I recall having a Blackhawk socket or two, but didn’t think much of it.

Today we went out to do some shopping in preparation for our grandkids coming to visit. When we got home I pocketed the socket. After unloading the groceries and putting them away and watching a touch of TV, it was out to the shop. Puttering around with a few things and just before coming into the house I remembered the socket. I took it out of my pocket and looked at the rust and a few nicks from being out on the road.

As I turned it around I saw my mark engraved on it. My mark is the letters J, T & K superimposed over each other.

340599

I do not recall the last time this particular socket was used. What is strange is I have rails for storing my sockets. There is a clip for each socket so I can tell when one is missing. There were no empty clips on my rail for 1/2” drive sockets. From the looks of it the socket could have been out in the wild for a while, light rusting and a few road dings.

I found another clip and put it on the rail between the 14mm and 16mm sockets.

It is uncommon for me to lose or misplace a tool. Not sure when was the last time I used a 1/2” drive for anything.

That it somehow fell off my truck or car and then reappeared when I was driving buy is even more mind boggling. It had been at least a week before last Thursday when we had gone into town before the holiday weekend.

jtk

Brent Cutshall
07-13-2016, 6:22 AM
Wow, that's neat. I love road-tool finds but that takes the cake.

John K Jordan
07-13-2016, 7:38 AM
Well if that is ONE of your strangest finds, I'd like to hear about some of the others!

Phil Mueller
07-13-2016, 8:16 AM
Love when that happens. A few years back, a buddy and I were grouse hunting in some thick woods...dog tried to eat a porcupine. In the haste to get to the vet, we lost his leash.

The following year hunting in the same spot, a bright spot of orange shined through the leaves. Sure enough, the leash. In pretty good shape I might add.

Ole Anderson
07-13-2016, 8:35 AM
I have many missing tools that I am sure were left under the hood.

george wilson
07-13-2016, 9:16 AM
The best road find I have made was a nice flashlight left by a sawn up tree after a hurricane several years ago. What is that nice black brand that is turned from solid aluminum? I still use it every night to let my dog out at 9:30 for a final"last chance for the night". Now the name has gone out of my head,and I have 2 of those flashlights. Oh,"Maglite?"

Wayne Lomman
07-13-2016, 9:27 AM
My best adjustable wrench s a 15" Swedish one that I picked up off the road in '84. It was worth $100 at the time. Kind of balances the time I saw the jockey wheel fall out of the horse float only to see it stolen before I could get out of the truck to pick it up. Cheers

Mel Fulks
07-13-2016, 10:57 AM
Jim, you are either a spookily lucky guy.....or a really lousy science fiction writer !!!

Jim Koepke
07-13-2016, 11:54 AM
Jim, you are either a spookily lucky guy.....or a really lousy science fiction writer !!!

I consider myself a very lucky guy every morning when I wake up. I do not think I am much of a fiction writer.


Well if that is ONE of your strangest finds, I'd like to hear about some of the others!

One night a friend and I were out in my truck. I saw something on the other side of the road said "Wow" and made a U-turn at the first opportunity. There was a hand truck like the UPS drivers have laying in the road. I still consider that one of my best laying in the road finds. Second best would be the time I found $60 dollars laying on the ground when a friend and I were getting out of my car to go have a few beers. Of course I bought the first round.

A couple of times I found wallets with about $250 & $400 in them. Both of them had ID so they were returned. The look on the faces was reward enough. The first woman was going out for a night on the town with friend and lost her wallet in the middle of the road in a small town about 30 miles from where she lived. We had gone out there to have dinner. When I called her home her mother was home so I took the wallet to her. As I was there her daughter called. So I waited a few minutes for her to come home and tell her mom the story of woe. She was a bit upset, her mom said, "that gentleman over there has something for you." When she saw her wallet she was over joyed. We went out for drinks a week or two later but didn't have much in common.

The other wallet I found was when I worked for a public transit agency. I was trouble shooting a train when I saw the wallet on the seat. I picked it up and checked it for ID. I called my dispatch on the radio and relayed the information to him. A little while later he called back and said to go to a particular station. When I was walking toward the station agents booth I saw a young woman who looked particularly upset. I tried to calm her down by saying, "say, don't you live on –––––– Street? Isn't your name –––––?" She wasn't very responsive. So I showed her the wallet and asked, "are you looking for this?" Her mood went from being almost in tears to being the happiest woman in the world. She hugged me and thanked me. I felt good.

That reminds me of another time when I found an envelope with a check in it. It was a $1,000 as I recall. I called it in and was told by one of the people who worked in Central Control that for something like this it would be better for me to "play the good Samaritan than turning it over to lost and found. (believe me, I know the horror story of lost and found, at least at this particular transit agency.) I ended up calling the person whose information was on the check. He had given it to his daughter as a wedding gift. He gave me her address so I put it in the mail.

Other than that I have found a lot of wrenches and other things. I used to ride a bicycle everywhere. I would often find change and bills in the street where people parked cars and likely the change and bills fell out when they were getting their keys.

I did find a nice saw in the road when I lived up in the Berkeley hills. When I turned it over there was a driver's license number on it. I called the local police department. The law wouldn't allow them to give me the identity of the person, but the officer called the person and called me back with a way to return it. It turns out he left it on the back of his truck when he was doing something for his daughter who lived around the corner from me.

I also found a box full of small carburetor and linkage parts one time. I knocked on the door at the house it was near. Not theirs, there was no ID or anything. I gathered up all the pieces and kept it in my house. One day I was out for a walk and stopped to talk to a neighbor. He mentioned something about losing a box of parts. I gave him a description of what I found. He was a happy camper to get it back.

There could be a whole other thread about some of the things my brother and I found in the days when we went dumpster diving. He made a living at it for a while. Then he worked on buying it from companies before they tossed it in the dumpsters. Most of them couldn't sell it for tax reasons so they would just let him haul it off.

I tend to keep my eyes on 'wide angle' until there is something that needs a narrow focus. It helps when I am out rust hunting.

jtk

Mel Fulks
07-13-2016, 12:46 PM
I thought it was probably luck! Thanks for more stories and may it continue.

Wade Lippman
07-13-2016, 4:32 PM
I read an article about coincidences. They gave an example a woman from NYC looking through a used book store in Paris and seeing a copy of her favorite childhood book. She opens it up and finds her name written on the inside cover; it was her book 50 years earlier.
The article went on to do some calculations and determined the odds of that happening were 10,000:1, but explained that almost everything that happens is that improbable; they just aren't as spectacular so we don't notice them.

Bruce Wrenn
07-13-2016, 9:47 PM
Best find for me was a new Quickie Saw blade. Son sold it for $400 to a contractor he worked with. Son found me a Fein Multitool in the dumpster at a site where he was installing a vent system.

Rich Riddle
07-13-2016, 10:39 PM
Jim,

Don't fret. In old age many of us frequently misplace things and find them in very startling places. Glad you found it. You'll soon make room for it on one of your organizers.

Joe Tilson
07-14-2016, 8:11 AM
I found 26 cents on the golf course Monday. The quarter was bent up some, but the penny(2000 model) was eaten up pretty bad by the acid in the soil. Store parking lots are a real treasure trove.

We live next to an intersection with a sharp angle in it. Very interesting finds at the end of our driveway, including bales of hay. One man lost five of the round bales one day. I had to do a sudden reversal to keep from getting hit by one. Fortunate to be in the car when they fell off, and was able to move out of the way.

John K Jordan
07-14-2016, 9:55 AM
I found a gold ring buried in the sand at the bottom of Ginnie Springs in Florida in maybe 20 ft of water. From the inscription I tracked down the owner; it turns out he had lost it a year earlier while swimming in the springs on his honeymoon. The wife met us the next day for the return on the other side of the state, just a few miles where we just happened to drive for a vehicle part. Said they had just replaced it but this one had sentimental value - she was going to put it through his nose. I wonder what she meant by that...

JKJ

Bert Kemp
07-14-2016, 10:23 AM
I found one of those 16' folding ladders many years ago, that was a great find. Still using it today. Can't for the life of figure out how the guy who lost it didn't know he lost it, must of made quite a racket when it fell off:eek:

Malcolm Schweizer
07-14-2016, 12:13 PM
Love when that happens. A few years back, a buddy and I were grouse hunting in some thick woods...dog tried to eat a porcupine. In the haste to get to the vet, we lost his leash.

The following year hunting in the same spot, a bright spot of orange shined through the leaves. Sure enough, the leash. In pretty good shape I might add.

When I was younger I was shooting pics of an old water-powered mill in Arkansas. I got stung by a bee (or probably a yellow jacket), and made a hasty retreat. Later that night, I realized my very expensive Leica 24mm lens was missing. It had to have fallen out of my pocket when I made the hasty retreat. I made the 3 hour drive back to where I was that day, and began looking for the lens. I found nothing. I went to Radio Shack to buy a metal detector, but they didn't have one. I decided to make one last try and went back to the tall grassy area where I was certain I had lost the lens. Suddenly I got stung again, but this time I said, "AHA! I'm close!" I looked down, and there was the lens in plain view, laying on the ground. I've never been so happy to be stung by a bee.

Mel Fulks
07-14-2016, 12:32 PM
Interesting story,Malcolm. And that's coming from a tradesman who understands that a stinging rebuke can bring an opportunity to see through a different lens.

Malcolm McLeod
07-14-2016, 3:21 PM
I found one of those 16' folding ladders many years ago, that was a great find. Still using it today. Can't for the life of figure out how the guy who lost it didn't know he lost it, must of made quite a racket when it fell off:eek:

I had my brother-in-law's new, heavy-duty, wheelbarrow that I'd borrowed come loose from a 22' trailer I was towing. It made quite a racket when it fell off. I flipped on the emergency flashers, slowed down, found a place to U-turn, and went back the 200 yards or so to retrieve it. I got to within ~100' feet of the wheelbarrow, only to see someone stop and load it in their truck. They ignored the horn and with the trailer I couldn't chase them.

I guess they think it was a great find and I guess they are still using it today...?

I bought the BIL a new one.

Robert Payne
07-14-2016, 4:11 PM
Not a road find, but certainly a fortunate one for me -- Nearly 50 years ago I was working for the US Geological Survey on a study of heavy metal deposits along the No. Cal and So Oregon coast line. We were taking sample (10-15# each) and climbing up steep cliff faces between the pocket beaches and toting the day's samples in a backpack. After collecting about 5-6 samples and with both my endurance and smarts down a notch or two, I decided to venture around a headland to the next pocket beach. Tied my boots around my neck and headed around, only to get knocked over by an incoming wave as I neared my goal -- darn -- up-ended me with a wee bit of ballast above center. I scrambled up and out okay and didn't lose either my samples or now wet boots. But I lost my critically important bifocals in the surf and it was high tide. I trudged back up the cliff to my car and drove (illegally I might add as my DL required corrective lenses) back to Gold Beach, OR where we were staying. 5 hours later when the tide was out and with about an hour of daylight left, I went back and started to search for my specs. I looked out away from the rocks toward the incoming wave line in small pools and rocks that were all over the exposed beach. I worked back to where I was sure I had taken my unexpected tumble and searched every little tidal pool, hoping to find the proverbial needle in the haystack. Suddenly I saw a short straight inch long piece of tortoise shell ear tip from one side of the glasses sticking out of the sand in a tidal pool. I grabbed it, thinking I had found a remnant. Much to my surprise, it was my entire set of glasses with both lenses intact and unscratched! I put them back on (as if to confirm they were really mine) and headed back to Gold Beach. How incredibly lucky!

Tom M King
07-14-2016, 4:22 PM
I lose stuff that isn't even lost, and never find anything, even stuff I look for.

Jim Koepke
07-14-2016, 6:00 PM
she was going to put it through his nose. I wonder what she meant by that...

Exactly what every wife means when they say that! :eek:

jtk

Jim Koepke
07-14-2016, 6:06 PM
When talking to my wife after posting this we recalled the time we were driving up US 101 out of Eureka at night when I saw pieces of paper blowing across the highway. I knew they weren't just any pieces of paper. I hesitated but turned at the next intersection and when back on the frontage road. I was able to pick up $181 dollars. Another fellow told me his wife found a few $100s and $50s.

My biggest mistake was handing it to my wife to count. She didn't hand it back.

I still did get to spend some of it in junk stores and antique shops.

jtk

Chris Parks
07-15-2016, 2:18 AM
Back in the late 1970's we found a wallet in a brand new Honda Accord that a production line worker had obviously lost. I always wondered what his reaction was when he got it back.

ken masoumi
07-15-2016, 10:39 AM
Interesting finds but I bet none compares to what I found years ago , one summer's day in early seventies I was driving on a road near where I used to live (Montreal,Canada),this road had houses on one side and a flat farm on the other, as I was driving I saw something moving in the bushes in the middle of the field.
I slowed down to get a better look and I saw a little boy sitting in the middle of the field (just off the busy road), looking around but not crying or anything . I pulled to the side, walked to the boy who was probably just under two years old and had just learned to walk, picked him up and asked him in English where his home was, he happened to be french and didn't understand what I was saying,so I asked him again in broken french, this time he just pointed toward all the houses on the on the side .
Holding him tightly in my arms( to make him feel secure) I crossed the busy road, asked him repeatedly to point to his house ( and there were hundreds of houses )but at that time of the day no one was around so I could ask if they knew the little boy,it was basically up to me to find his house before he got too nervous and panicky,as we were walking on a small street he said one word which made a world of difference in my mood, he said "la" (there),so I walked to the house he was pointing at, the door was wide open, yelled "hello, hello" this man in his thirties walked up the stairs and sees me with his son in my arms,I asked ,is this your boy? oh yeah, he says, I said: did you not notice he was missing? No ,he said with an embarrassed look on his face.after I made sure the boy was his,I told him where I had found him,he wasn't that surprised,probably it wasn't the first time the little boy had walked out of the house on his own.

I didn't know what to say, should I yell at him should I threaten to report him to the police or what? the man grabbed the little boy's hand and says okay(whatever his name was),let's go, then turned around and said: okay, thanks and went ahead to close the door so I said, hey, he could have been killed/kidnapped,god knows what. he just said yeah you're right, thanks with such indifference on his face that I have not forgotten in more than 40 years.

I wonder sometimes what happened to that boy.

Mel Fulks
07-15-2016, 1:11 PM
Ken, You certainly did what a kind and responsible man would do. But there are some kids who are just eerily intrepid at an early age, doesn't sound like he was scared. Years ago there was a big story about a missing boy 2 or 3 years old. They didn't find him, he just walked home...right down the hall. He had been entertaining himself in another apartment that had been unlocked by maintanance while the woman who lived there was out of town. The kid had fed himself from the fridge, played with and spilled her make up, really made a big mess of the place. So, don't worry! I bet he's fine.

ken masoumi
07-15-2016, 4:17 PM
Mel, you are absolutely right about the kid's character, throughout this ordeal he seemed so calm and collected at that young age,didn't seem phased by anything that was happening at all, never cried once, in fact I was the only one that was anxious.

Jeff Johnson
07-25-2016, 11:19 AM
My family does reenacting. As a woodworker, I make my boys wooden toys for when we are at an event. One year at Military Through the Ages in Greenbelt, MD, one of their ash swords went missing. We figured it had "walked off" or was lost in the woods. The next year we find it buried in the leaves, and it had turned the most beautiful color. I've since considered using burying other ash pieces in the woods as a finishing technique. :)

Bert Kemp
07-25-2016, 2:35 PM
Nature does wonderful things to wood:)


My family does reenacting. As a woodworker, I make my boys wooden toys for when we are at an event. One year at Military Through the Ages in Greenbelt, MD, one of their ash swords went missing. We figured it had "walked off" or was lost in the woods. The next year we find it buried in the leaves, and it had turned the most beautiful color. I've since considered using burying other ash pieces in the woods as a finishing technique. :)

Ed Labadie
07-25-2016, 2:49 PM
A friend found a rusted up shotgun, leaning against a tree while hunting rabbits in the UP.

Next time his dad was there to hunt, he showed it to him.....

"You should've left it there, like I did, it jammed one to many times"

Ed