Finding good stuff at the wash.

[Scrub Free]

This may have been discussed in the past but I have started thinking about all the good finds. I still use the full craftsman wrench set I found the first week or so of buying my wash 8 years ago. Other things that come to mind are:
A few granite blocks that I used around my pool
A constant supply of washer fluid
I currently own the best snow brushes on the market.
100 pairs of safety glasses
Some nice coolers
I am sure there are many more.
What have you scored?

 

[MEP001]

I found a shop vac in the dumpster a few days before we opened, just needed a new bag and it's as good as a car wash vac. I also found about 15 new pair of safety glasses. Nothing else really worth mentioning.

 

[Jeff_L]

I have found a butt load of car mats, but still don't Ave a full matching set. Lol

What's better than finding lost money though, really? ��

 

[loewem]

A decent putter (stuffed in a trash can....I feel their pain). A box of tampons (my wife wasn't interested in "saving a few dollars"). Couple of fishing rods and a tackle box with a few decent things in it (including a box of rolling papers and a bag of dope). Best of all, today I was washing down my auto bay and I found a "Hillary Clinton for Prison 2016" magnet.

Honorable Mention:
-50 AA batteries
-Nice flash light
-5 or 6 pairs of nitrile coated gloves
-smart phone (donated to the troops)

 

[HCW]

Car seats, car, pens, eyeglasses, safety glasses, porn magazines

 

[Mel(NC)]

100' roll of 1" water pipe, working weed eater, fertilizer spreader, a box of framing nails that actually fit my air nailer, miscellaneous small tools. I got an 1899 silver quarter last month.

Someone left a box of Dewalt power tools but they called the next day and I had to give them back.

 

[mjwalsh]

Scrub Free & Mel's posts brings to mind another issue:

To what extent are we responsible legally before we either start using the left item extensively, sell, throw or give away something of obvious value? We apply our 30 day laundromat standard as a minimum but storage can be problematic sometimes. I am sure it varies a bit from state to state or locality to locality ... if it ever came down to a cause of legal action.

One part of the equation is that we don't always know whether the valuable item was accidently forgotten or deliberately discarded.

Sometimes an electrical item needs to be tested to see if it should be thrown or not which does sometimes takes a bit of ours or our employees' valuable time.

mike walsh www.kingkoin.com

 

[Scrub Free]

We try to keep expensive stuff for 30 days, yup storing it is a pain. Once and a while we pair them with an owner but most of the time it's been abandoned. It has not happened to me but If we tossed something that had low or personal value I would try to mend the relationship with a free wash or something. Fortunately I haven't had that issue. I have had to dig through the vacs for stuff and people become extremely loyal when you return their goods.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

Don't ever tell someone you tossed their stuff. It will only upset them. If I toss something and they come in looking for it shortly thereafter, I tell them to look in that trash can. I saw something in there that looks like what you are talking about. Makes them happy and you are a good guy, not a bad one.

 

[Randy]

Over the years we’ve gotten some pretty cool stuff at the car wash.
Brand new flare gun
Flashlights
Camping gear
Fishing tackle
MRE’s
Army pack full of gear
Small Hand Tools
2 – US Passports
4- wide mud tires with 95% of the tread left on them, sold those for $800
4 - nice fairly new chrome Chev truck rims, sold those for $400
48 – small battery chargers for a 3m air fed hood used in mining. Sold those on EBay for a nice profit.
God only knows how many cell phones we’ve found.
We hold anything of value for 60 days and then sell it or give it away. The last 2 or 3 times we’ve been contacted to retrieve items sucked up by the vacuum they grab the item and leave, don’t say thank you or anything they just leave. We used to hurry down to the car wash retrieve the item, wipe it down and give it back to them, now we unlock the door and left them dig in the $hit to find their item.
A while back when we went to the car wash early on a Monday morning early, we found one of the bays full of grease, I was pi$$ed that I had to clean up the grease, there was a cross member for a Chevy pickup truck laying in the bay. I was so pi$$ed I tossed the cross member in the dumpster right before the garbage truck came. Not 5 minutes after the garbage truck left the guy comes in looking for his cross member, didn’t care about getting grease on everything. All I said was it’s not here, someone much have got it in the night. He left absolutely livid. Took me another 30 minutes to clean up all the grease.

 

[PaulLovesJamie]

There seems to be a long term trend, I get less sellable/usable/interesting stuff than I used to, now. I do receive a lot of the same "gifts" as mentioned above, a few more that come to mind at the moment:

Two 55 gallon bags full of bed sheets, laundered and folded.
An entire thanksgiving dinner including plates, wine bottles, partially eaten turkey, etc - all wrapped up in a tablecloth.
Car batteries, which I dont mind because I can get paid for them.
Clothing with the price tags still on it.
A surprising amount of sweatshirts, pants, and underwear. (Avoid touching these!)
An expensive pair of new Nikes with dog crap on the sole.
lots of golf umbrellas.
Coal ashes, still hot. (Yes, really.)
Dead cats.
Coffee travel mugs - please explain to me why people buy the refillable (at a discount) travel mugs then toss them.
Bundles of those free newspapers.
Lots of beer cans, wine, and liquor bottles. I thought that was illegal!?
100% of an ex-boyfriend's belongings. (That has happened twice, lol.)

 

[Eric H]

I guess it is a toss up between the $100 dollar bill I found on the very top of a trash can or the North Face Rain coat that my wife stole from me. Well, since I didn't get to keep the rain coat, I'll go with the $100.

I also like aluminum rims and transmission bell housings because they are worth $ in scrap metal. the Makita circular saw that I now use to cut concrete, asphalt and the soapstone countertops I installed in my kitchen. And lastly, the Dog crate someone left that looks like it could hold a baby bears but I use it for my newest dog Stella.

 

[soapy]

I found a entire paycheck in cash once in a bank envelope on top of a garbage can. No one ever called to claim it. A full high end snowmobile suit with bag,helmets, boots etc. Well over $1000 value. Trailer hitches by the dozens. I get the most satisfaction out of stuff left after the bay has been trashed and they call to see if I have found their stuff in bays. I never seem to find this stuff.

 

[APW]

I saw some democrats throw their trash on the ground and leave, walked over to pick it up, found a $25 scratch off they left. Didn't mind picking up their trash after that.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

I saw some democrats throw their trash on the ground and leave,

I thought you were going to say you found Hillary...

 

[Waxman]

I came into the car wash one morning to find a Chevy S10 backed out of one self serve bay and toward the rear of my lot. It belonged to a guy I knew who said it wouldn't start after his wash ( no he hadn't washed his engine ).

The truck sat there a day or 2 and I bought it very very cheap.

The truck sat there for another day and then a young local guy asked about the truck. I told him the truck was dead. He paid me more than I had paid for the truck, then left. He returned later with the part it needed ( module of some sort?) and drove it away.

 

[lag]

Not sure if this counts as a find. a lady was feeding a dollar coin into one our auto bays , it kept rejecting I thought x10issue.
Being in a hurry to fix other auto bay I took her coin and inserted a dollar bill. Later that evening I was unloading my pockets and found the coin not to be a dollar coin but a half Troy ounce gold coin. I kept it around for awhile, she never came back. Gold was about $500 ounce then.

Tools seem to be another item we come across a bunch.

 

[soapy]

I have been keeping a eye out for some lost emails from you know who but nothing yet.

 

[MudMoney]

A 12 pack of beer with the $80 in change under it,guess my wash was a drop off site for underage sales . 2 working air rifles and a ruger 10/22 with a broken stock.I will never run out of shovels & brooms.

 

[Keith Baker]

Someone abandoned a puppy at the wash. I took her home and she became my best friend for the next 11 years. Nothing has ever topped that for me.