Students at California State Unviersity, Long Beach gave some lost items a new home at the annual Lost and Found Auction, held Thursday on the Friendship Walk in front of the University Student Union.
Ellie Christov, the director of the CSULB Support Services Department, has been part of the university’s auction for many years. The event is an opportunity to recycle and to help out students who live on a budget, Christov said.
The profits made at the auction are very minimal and go toward supporting the event itself, Christov said.
“It is good for the students, the staff faculty and the surrounding community,” said Gary Corbin, a clerk at the CSULB Lost and Found Department. “They put all the items back into reuse. It does not end up in a landfill or anything like that. I think repurpose is the right word.”
The items that could be found at the auction ranged from things as little as key rings to skateboards, bicycles, electronic gadgets and a microwave.
Christov said that despite the eight Lost and Found stations on campus, most items never end up being claimed by their rightful owner. Christov said that the department holds on to the items for at least three months before they are sold at the auction.
“The lost and found office makes attempts to contact students for lost items if we have a way of knowing who they belong to,” Christov said. “But we rarely have anyone claim an item at the auction.”
One of the programs put in place to help return lost or stolen goods is the university’s bicycle registration system. CSULB University Police introduced bike registration as a way for students to keep track of their bikes while simultaneously making things easier for the Lost and Found department to return stolen bikes to their owners.
Other items like laptops, keys, and wallets are turned into one of the eight Lost and Found stations around campus instead.