Iguanas, a toilet seat, and a sax: The oddest things left on Prague public transport in 2022

The Prague Public Transit Company (DPP) has released a list of the most-frequently lost possessions in 2022, including some particularly strange items featuring animals and instruments.

Praguers most often misplaced bags, wallets, electronics, and personal documents such as ID cards, or passports. Some of the nationalities of the lost passports were Uzbek, Japanese, and Malaysian, DPP said.

More unusual items left behind were a saxophone, a toilet seat, cross-country skis, a hand-held safe, and a microscope. The roundup of strange objects also featured a drill, fishing rod, baking pans, and a keyboard.

Fewer passengers using public transport during the lockdown-filled years of 2020 and 2021 meant that, correspondingly, fewer losses were reported. Last year, however, had more lost items than in 2019 and 50 percent more than in 2016.

A new system to declare a missing item on public transport has also helped people: “The increasing number of reported losses…is [partly] down to the introduction of the DPP infoline for lost and found.”

Perhaps the most bizarre finding of 2022 was a pair of iguanas.

If you lose your possession on public transport in Prague, what are the chances you’ll get it back? Sadly, not very high. Less than one-third (28 percent) of items lost in 2022 made their way back to their owners. However, if an item is found by a DPP employee, you have a 50-50 chance of getting the item back. 

The capital’s transport company advises members of the public who have found a personal possession to hand it directly to the bus or train driver, a nearby DPP member of staff, or to send it to the company’s headquarters in Prague 9.

Items reported lost soon after they are misplaced have the best chances of being found, often ending up at tram or bus depots at the end of the driver's shift.