Behind the security desk in Academic Hall isn’t a cardboard box full of belongings, but a metal lost-and-found cabinet held under lock and key. On top of it sat lost water bottles and on top of the security desk were student ID cards. While the security guards denied request for comment, police Sergeant Matthew Mays indicated that the main lost and found is located in Academic Hall. 

Mays talks about the involvement of campus police and lost items. 

“A lot of items are turned over to the police department.” Mays said, “We’re kind of a point of contact and we have everything that isn’t evidence or police matter turned over to the lost and found. Several times a week, everything from IDs to wallets to cellphones, that type of stuff.” 

In his four years, first semester graduate student Dillon Shash has never lost anything on campus. He did, however, find something that belonged to someone else.  

“I totally did find something that somebody had lost, I found their ID card and I did turn it into the security guard people that are at the front desk. I found it in West Penn Hall and ran over to Academic Hall, but I didn’t go there because I knew that was the way to go, I figured that the security person or something would be the people to give it to.” 

According to Mays, students often go to campus police and report lost Items. 

“We don’t type a report on it,” Mays said, “but people come up to us and tell us ‘I lost my ID.’ The first thing we do is refer them to lost and found and if they don’t have it, we try to solve it however else we could for them.” 

The campus Police Department does however handle more valuable Items that are found. Mays explains the relationship between lost items, campus police and city police. 

“The only thing is cash, we store that as evidence, but it has to be over 200 dollars, if it’s less than 100 dollars we don’t take it,” Mays said, “Wallets, IDs, they could be found anywhere if Samaritans see the Point Park ID. You know they call us, and they give it to our lost and found. That happens fairly regularly, a couple times a year. The city police, sometimes they have a lost wallet turned over to them that has a point Park ID, so they turn it over to us.” 

Screenwriting major and senior Gus Troppe knew a friend who lost something valuable on campus. However, he didn’t have an idea of where the lost and found would be located on campus nor an idea that the lost and found existed before the incident. He said that if he notices a missing item laying around on campus that is not valuable, he would leave it alone. 

“A friend of mine lost his laptop,” Troppe said, “he got it back though, he went to lost and found, I guess. I wouldn’t even know where to go for that, library? If it was maybe a computer, I would take it to lost and found but If I saw somebody’s hoodie, I would probably leave it there, they’re probably going to come back for it.” 

Sergeant Mays hopes for students to have more knowledge about the lost and found. 

“I would hope everybody realizes that the academic lost and found is in Academic Hall, but the Student Center has its own lost and found at the gym. You know, the workout area, so you know I would hope that people are familiar that an institution would have a lost and found.”