What Happens at The Lost and Found 

Nadine Lee: Anyone who's ever lost anything, and especially anything that meant something to them, knows about that feeling of panic when you realize you've lost it, and you don't know how you're going to get it back.

You're listening to Mobility in Motion, a podcast produced by Dallas Area Rapid Transit. I'm your host, Nadine Lee, President and CEO of DART. Today we are spending time at a part of DART that doesn't get that much attention, unless you need it, the Lost and Found.

When somebody is in charge of a lost and found, and you go there and you're able to get your possession back, you're eternally grateful to people like that. We take the time and the resources to make sure that we hold on to objects that have been left behind on our system and find some way to get them back to their owners. I think that is something that means a lot to us as an organization.

What really comes across to me is just how much our staff cares for the customers.  They take their jobs really, really seriously. And as the CEO of the organization, I'm very much about caring for our customers, caring for our employees, and just the overall love that we want people to feel from DART.

TaShonda Dye: We've had ashes. Somebody has left their loved ones on the bus. We've had prosthetics, where someone has got up and left arm, leg.

Neille Ilel: So, did the person come back for the ashes?

TaShonda Dye: They said they was coming for him, but they never did, so we actually ended up sending them back to the funeral home.

My name is TaShonda Dye. I am the guest relations agent for DART, which basically is Lost and Found. I have been doing this job for the past six years. I've been with DART for ten, but I've been doing this for the past six.

Neille Ilel: And how do you like it?

TaShonda Dye: I love it.

Neille Ilel: What are some of your favorite parts about it?

TaShonda Dye: The interaction with the people. Just talking with 'em, being able to, be able to return their items back to 'em. It makes 'em feel good that somebody with DART actually cares.

Neille Ilel: How about the prosthetics, nobody came back for those?

Rodney Anderson: We have a running joke around here, that DART is a healing facility because they come out, they leave wheelchairs, they leave canes and other items they need and they never come back and get them, so hey, maybe they were healed.

My name is Rodney Anderson. I'm a customer relations specialist. I've been working for DART for the past 27 years.

Neille Ilel: More than 200,000 passengers ride DART every day. And it's up to Rodney and TaShonda to manage all the things they leave behind.

TaShonda Dye: We get bibles, IDs, credit cards, purses, lunch bags, air pods, clothes, shoes, all the cell phones.

Neille Ilel: That’s a lot of cell phones

TaShonda Dye: Mm hmm.

Neille Ilel: Most of the things people leave behind are cell phones.

TaShonda Dye: If we're just talking cell phones alone, in a month's time, anywhere between 50 and 75.

Neille Ilel: Wow.

The lost and found is a small room behind the customer service counter at DART headquarters. It's maybe 200 square feet long. And it’s filled with different colored bins of different sizes in different configurations. On most of the length of the room are five rows of bigger yellow plastic bins, and each one has a number on it, 1 through 31 for the day of the month. Anything that comes in on the first of the month is in bin one, on the second, bin two. And so on. And that’s how they keep track of what’s been there for 30 days.

And in here a lot of glasses. Yeah, mostly all glasses. Is this only the glasses section over here? Only glasses? 

TaShonda Dye: Yeah, only glasses.

Neille Ilel: Wow - There's a whole ‘nother set of 31 bins — slightly smaller— and only filled with glasses.

TaShonda Dye: And then, the other bins are just, you know, everyday items that, we hold on to, like band aids and …

Neille Ilel: Things that you might actually need.

TaShonda Dye: That somebody might come back and say they need. You know, somebody could walk in in the front and have a cut or...

Neille Ilel: Across from that there’s a locked cabinet and it has a whole bunch of smaller bins in it. One just has wallets. Another section just has keys. And a third section, which has just the most things in it, cell phones.

TaShonda Dye: Those are the things that people lose the most: cell phones.

Neille Ilel: Oh my goodness. It seems yeah, you could make a lot of money like reselling all these cell phones.

TaShonda Dye: But they donate them to charity.

Rodney Anderson: We actually have a 911 Cell Bank and we donate to them.

Neille Ilel: So when Rodney said the phones were donated, I was imagining they went to Goodwill, maybe they were resold, maybe they were given to people who couldn't afford a phone. But it turns out they can have a really fascinating second life.

Nadine Lee: So the phones go to a nonprofit in Florida called 911 Cell Phone Bank. They get wiped clean, and then they're donated to police departments across the United States.

And some of them have ended up in Vegas. 

Elynne Greene: My name is Elynne Greene, and I retired from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department in July of 2023 after 30 years. And I am now working with the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the National Mass Violence Center.

Neille Ilel: Elynne’s worked with crime victims most of her career. And she has seen how being able to hand people a clean new phone. It’s a game changer.

Elynne Greene: Many years ago, we realized the incredible value of these phones. We had a situation where a repeat victim of domestic violence, she did everything she could, she had a protection order, she filed police reports, she followed through. But unfortunately, they were misdemeanor crimes, and the suspect would always be out of custody and stalking her. And he also knew that she was financially limited, so she only had a landline, that was it.

So he cut the wires, and what he didn't know is that she had a donated phone, and she was able to call 911, and it was the first time that he was still actually at the scene, and he was arrested, and the charges were not just misdemeanor charges this time.

Neille Ilel: And not only can donated phones be used to communicate with police, a lot of times someone's previous phone is actually an evidence collection device.

Elynne Greene: Keeping your phone number and allowing the perpetrator who's constantly calling you to leave messages becomes evidence. Having that 911 Cell Phone to give that phone number out and then be able to keep the other phone that's just going to collect evidence.  

Neille Ilel: And once the original phone has evidence on it — especially for human trafficking victims — police are going to need that phone. For a while.

Elynne Greene: Investigations don't get wrapped up in 60 minutes, like we see on TV, it can be months. And try telling a 16-year-old, give me your phone, and that's it. So, these phones can replace that connection.

Neille Ilel: So, for those of us who don't get our phones back, maybe this is a bit of a comforting thought?

Nadine Lee: Yeah, I agree. Nobody likes to lose anything this valuable, but at least here it ends up helping somebody who really needs it. 

Neille Ilel: What's the last thing you lost if you remember?

Rodney Anderson: Actually, I lost my phone on the train. I did.

Neille Ilel: Oh my God.

Rodney Anderson: I lost my phone on the train. I got up and I was at the Ledbetter station, and I was walking and like ... “My phone!”

And they have that app. You can track it where it is. And I tracked it, and it showed to be at a facility. Carl, a guy answered the phone.

He happened to be working. He worked overnight, so he was asleep. I was able to retrieve it, and I gave him a reward.

Neille Ilel: Was this a DART employee that found it?

Rodney Anderson: No. It was a patron.

Neille Ilel: Oh, okay

Rodney Anderson: It was a rider, just, that happened to pick it up. I guess I was walking from the Ledbetter station, and I dropped it.

He picked it up and he he was honest enough turning in I have it or whatever and that, so you get that feeling. Yeah. When you lose something and you recover it.

Neille Ilel: Yeah. I can imagine. So just a couple of weeks ago, I left my entire purse at a pizza restaurant, and I only realized it when I got home. But when I called, the lady found it, it was even on the patio, like outside on the street. But I was so happy when I went back. And I wonder if you just see people are just like so happy to see you.

TaShonda Dye: They are. That gentleman this morning, he was happy to get his cell phone back and even though his wife was in the background, she was like, no, it's not black. It's red.

Neille Ilel: Who's like the happiest person to get something back that you remember?

TaShonda Dye: Honestly, they all are. Because with the way most people's situations are, their life is in that item. Especially a bag. They got wallets, they got their IDs and all of that stuff. It's contained in one thing and when they lose it, they don't know what they're gonna do.

I did have this one lady that I kept in contact with for a couple of months because her nephew was special needs, and he had lost his item.

Neille Ilel: What did he lose?

TaShonda Dye: He had lost his wallet. And so, I don't know if you know about special needs, they're very particular about their things. He was venturing out on his own trying to ride the buses and the train and he ended up losing his wallet. But we were able to get it back to him.

Neille Ilel: A few minutes later, a young man named Elijah stops by.

TaShonda Dye: Mr. Elijah. How are you?

What's your address on here? Do you remember? So, I asked him to verify his address on his ID. Because I have his ID. And when they come to pick up things, they need to show me identification to identify who they are, so I don't give the wrong thing to the wrong person. So, he was able to give me that.

Mr Elijah, I need you to fill this out for me.

Neille Ilel: Elijah had called in a few days ago, looking for his lost wallet.

Elijah, where'd you leave your wallet?

Elijah: I left it on a train, I was at North Carrollton Station, and it ends there, and then you gotta kinda switch over to the other train. I'd fallen asleep, and I woke up, and I was like, “Oh, I gotta go.” So, I just ran, jumped on the other bus, and then it took off, and I was like, “Oh, well, there goes my wallet.”

Neille Ilel: How long ago was that?

Elijah: Uh, it was about four, a couple days ago, about four days ago. I mean, I talked to the DART police today about the situation and how I couldn't pay. She gave me a pass for all day. So that was kind of nice.

TaShonda Dye: The officer gave him a pass that allowed him to ride for the rest of the day. And seeing a lot of our customers, they get tired from working long shifts or whatever, and they do go to sleep. But the drawback of going to sleep is that they sleep too hard, and somebody can take their stuff.

Elijah: You miss your stop, and you get a ticket

TaShonda Dye: Alright, if I don't see you again, happy birthday. Alright, be safe. you. You too.

Neille Ilel: Before I spent time at the lost and found, I expected that the most interesting parts of it would be all the weird things that turned up. But what really stood out the most to me is how seriously TaShonda and Rodney take care of all the things that are left behind at DART. 

Every few days, Rodney drives a big truck to each of the garages with these huge black duffel bags. And all the things that are found, go into the duffle bags and the bags actually lock and so no one can go through anything and there's a log, and then TaShonda checks the log when she gets the bag and unlocks it, that everything's still in there.

It's just pretty remarkable that things that people leave behind get taken care of so well.

What advice would you give people if they think they lost something on a bus or train?

TaShonda Dye: Call us and call us quickly. That way we can try to get it back before somebody else finds it and picks it up. Because the longer they wait to call us, the less likelihood we'll be able to get it back to them.

Neille Ilel: So, let's say you're on a bus and you get off. The bus is pulling away and you're like, “Oh no, I left this.” Should I call right away?

TaShonda Dye: Right away. If you can. And I get it if it’s your cell phone, you can't call me. But at least try to get to a phone and call us, so we can try to contact that bus, let the operator know.

Neille Ilel: So, you'll contact that bus, like, as it's driving? That's amazing.

Rodney Anderson: There's been times where TaShonda and I go the extra mile. Say the customer is coming on the train and they're there and we'll meet the train and retrieve their item. If we know it's coming, yeah, we have, we're gonna meet the train, bring it here and then let the customer know.

Neille Ilel: And if the item has an address on it, DART will contact you.

Rodney Anderson: If they have an I.D. or even a mailing address, we send them out a letter —

Neille Ilel: Oh, really?

Rodney Anderson: — let them know that we have their item and they have 30 days to come retrieve them.

TaShonda Dye: I had a gentleman that was on a cruise. He used to work on a cruise and his luggage got left behind for whatever reason. And he called me and he kept in contact with me. And, I held his thing a little bit longer than 30 days because he talked with me. And he let me know, hey, I'll be back this day and I'll come get it. We do, we take the extra step. We go the extra mile. 

Nadine Lee: The thing that stands out the most about the DART Lost and Found is the amount of care that Tashonda and Rodney put into every single object that passes through their hands.

Transit exists to make people's lives better, to connect them, to community, to one another, to the things that matter most. I'm incredibly proud to serve an organization that serves others. While TaShonda and Rodney aren't driving our buses or light rail vehicles, they are helping to power our connections.

Here's to them and to every other dedicated transit worker that goes above and beyond to make each rider’s journey that much smoother.

You're listening to Mobility in Motion. I'm your host, Nadine Lee. 

We’d love to hear from you. If you’d like to share your feedback with us, please email us at [email protected].    

This episode was produced by The Glue and Neille Ilel, edited by Jim Gates with music by BC Campbell. If you liked this episode, make sure to subscribe and tell a friend. Episodes come out every other week and are available on your favorite podcast platform.