4 days Ago By Evening Standard
Sometimes, Transport for London staff go beyond the call of duty to help passengers – and it probably gives them a lot of pleasure. Sex toys have been revealed to be among the items that have been returned to their owners by the TfL lost property office. A total of 20 a year were recovered from the capital’s public transport network – including the Tube, London buses and black taxis - in 2023 and 2024.
Two of the sex toys were returned to their owners each year, TfL has revealed in response to a freedom of information request . Of the 20 sex toys found last year, eight were discovered on their own and 12 in a bag or with other possessions. Seven were discovered at bus garages, eight on the Tube, four on the Elizabeth line – at Abbey Wood, Gidea Park, Paddington and Shenfield stations - and one in the back of a taxi.
About 6,500 items a week are misplaced or lost by passengers in London, and many end up at the TfL lost property office in West Ham. TfL said: “TfL’s Lost Property Office receives hundreds of thousands of lost items every year, which are individually catalogued and stored safely, with the details used to match against customer enquiries. “Where the item has some form of identification, we try to contact the owner to let them know that their property has been found.
“When an item is reunited with its owner, a small fee is charged to cover the administrative costs of running the Lost Property Office. “If, after three months, items such as books and clothing are not collected, they are given to charity or sent to auction to further help cover the costs of running the office.” The number of sex toys being found on public transport was slightly higher pre-pandemic, peaking with 28 in 2016 – of which 10 were returned to their owners .
Pre-pandemic, Cockfosters – at the northern end of the Piccadilly line – was the station where most sex toys were discovered, a total of five between 2014-17. TfL moved its lost property office from South Kensington to West Ham in 2023 to accommodate the rising number of objects being stored and to improve processing times. The Standard visited last year – and was shown the extraordinary collection of unusual items awaiting collection, including a box of false teeth.
Food and illegal items are the only things that are thrown away. Staff will often find drugs in wallets and purses. These are handed to police to be destroyed – with no repercussions for the owner.
Other items included a box of ashes that had been left on the Circle line. These were returned to a German family after seven-year search..
