What is the strangest item you have ever left on a bus? Brighton and Hove Buses reveals all

Over 14,000 items were left on Brighton & Hove and Metrobus buses in 2025 that were subsequently handed in to the lost property team. But where a lot of these items were exactly what you would expect (wallets, phones, keys, hats, scarves etc), some of them might surprise you…

For example, last year saw seven guitars, five violins, and even a keyboard left on buses, along with a number of surprisingly large items including a pressure cooker, a tent, a drone, a skateboard, a Nintendo Switch, a fishing rod, a box of tools, some power drills, snooker cues, camping chairs and a large boombox.

The most common items, in order of most popular, were:

1) Wallets/purses 1189

2) Glasses 719

3) Hats 688

4) Phones 663

5) Ear Pods 611

6) Rucksacks 528

7) Bottles/Flasks 513

8) Coats/Jackets 482

9) Jumpers 465

10) Keys 462

11) Umbrellas 450

12) Gloves 446

13) Books 369

14) Caps 348

15) Sunglasses 334

16) Headphones 327

17) Jewellery 261

18) Beanies 247

19) Scarves 247

20) Shoes 228

And if you’re interested in what the world is reading, Sally Rooney, Peter James and Lee Child were the most popular authors discovered among the 369 books that were left on buses.

2025 also saw a pilot reunited with his bag and passport which was left on the bus; when he could not check in for his flight, the team managed to find his bag and reunite them before the check-in closed, allowing him to fly. In fact, 62 passports were found on our buses last year and most were reunited.

Among smaller, but equally unusual, items were a frying pan, a cupboard door, a bag full of harmonicas, a kiwi neck cushion, a cat scratching post, a string of lights, a large reptile costume tail, a pile of hymn books, a bag of emeralds, a Quartz watch, a dressing gown and slippers, a bird perch, a garden gnome, a set of iron maiden posters, a set of cat posters, a large rubber sloth, a magnifying glass, a large pom pom, a stack of nursery rhymes, nail clippers, two potted plants, a womble, multiple wedding rings, the head of a statue, a toy banana, a world map, a television remote and a giant stuffed turtle.

And though a total of over £14,000 in cash was handed in throughout 2025, over 70% of it was returned to owners. So well done to all the honest passengers using the bus network!

And if you’re interested in fashion, leopard print was everywhere last year, followed closely by unicorns, animal print and camo. Checkout our top 10 here:

• 1) Leopard print 39
• 2) Unicorns 27
• 3) Animal 25
• 4) Camo 25
• 5) Floral 20
• 6) Spotted 16
• 7) Tartan 15
• 8) Dragons 15
• 9) Dinosaurs 14
• 10) Chequered 10

Though Nike (181), Primark (101) and Adidas (83) topped popular clothing brands, high fashion was also abundant: Last year the company discovered garments from Tommy Hilfiger (17) Ray-Ban (14), Ted Baker (13), Louis Vuitton (11), Armani (9), Ralph Lauren (6) Prada (6) Michael Kors (5), Gucci (5) and Valentino (3).

And finally, landing in pop culture’s first place was Pokémon, featuring on 26 items. Spiderman swung into second place (23), followed by Minecraft (19), Marvel (13) and Paw Patrol (9).

And for all those items that don’t get claimed, the teams at Brighton & Hove Buses and Metrobus donate to charities like Mind, Oxfam and the Sussex Beacon, and in 2025 managed to help raise over £500 through donated items.

If you have left an item on one of our buses, please get in touch with our customer services team who will be happy to help you. Items are kept for 1 month in our stores before they are donated.

You contact Brighton & Hove Buses at [email protected] or call on 01273 886200.

You can contact Metrobus at [email protected] or call on 01293 449191.