Have you ever lost anything? I don’t know about you, but to me it is the most unsettling feeling. Do you promise money to Rabi Meir Baal Haneis or say Amar Rebbi Binyamin? Let’s hear from the finders

Up In the Catskills

Did your family ever stay in — or visit someone in — a Catskill Mountains bungalow colony in upstate New York, more fondly known to New Yorkers as “the country”? When I was a little girl back in the 1960s, my family would vacation there in the summers. It was such a popular vacation destination — we were among 500,000 vacationers, and there were at least 500 bungalow colonies. Although there are far fewer bungalow colonies in the Catskills today, can you imagine how many lost items can turn up in a bungalow colony when thousands of vacationers stay there during the summer?

I spoke to the owner of one such bungalow colony that rents bungalows to 60 families each summer. Although a letter is sent out before the summer season begging people to label their belongings, about 100 lost items are found by the end of the season. The bungalow is happy to return the items, says the owner, but it must be able to identify whose belongings they are. If there is no name marked on the lost item, it gets given away.

What do people usually leave behind?

Things that they no longer need, or things that have been rained on and muddied that people just don’t want anymore. Years ago, when people no longer needed something, they would try to give it away. Now they just leave it here. Once, at the end of the summer, we sent a load of abandoned towels found in the pool area to Eretz Yisrael after bleaching them, because when their owners were called, they said they didn’t want them.

We also find lots of bathing suits, bed linen, beach towels, and umbrellas. Some have names in them, others don’t.

What else is the bungalow colony busy with?

Returning packages sent to the vacationers that arrived after they left. We send at least one package a week and even more at the end of the summer. Although this is not actually considered hashavas aveidah, people are sometimes anxious to get these packages before Yom Tov.

What have been some exceptions?

If we find something expensive, even if it is unlabeled, we try to track down the owner. One time, a woman left behind a pair of diamond earrings. She knew it was in the bungalow, and we really wanted to help her find it; we combed the whole bungalow, but it didn’t turn up. This woman was due to return the following summer, but in June — before the summer rental season began — someone else stayed in her bungalow. The renter’s daughter happened to lift up her mattress and, to her surprise, found the lost diamond earrings on the bed frame.

Not knowing if the diamond earrings were real, the people who found the earrings turned them into our office. We thanked them and returned the earrings to their owner.

It was really amazing. People are so appreciative of having their lost items returned.

What is your most amazing hashavas aveidah story?

When my children decided to return all the lost belongings found at the Excellent Bus Company station.

The Excellent Bus Company operates for the frum community only in the summer. It has buses that pick people up in Brooklyn, Monsey, Monroe, and Lakewood. Somehow, the company coordinates all their buses so they arrive to the bus station in the Catskills within minutes of each other, and then they leave for their different destinations about ten minutes later. It is amazing to watch how well coordinated it is.

My niece came to the bungalow colony for Shabbos toward the end of one summer. We drove her back to the Excellent Bus Company at the end of her stay. While we were there, one of my kids went into the main building for something and came out saying, “You can’t imagine how many labeled lost items are just sitting there.”

So one day, I dropped my kids off at the bus station’s Lost and Found, and they collected everything from siddurim and seforim, to suitcases and garment bags. It took a few weeks, but I think we were able to return everything back to their rightful owners. It was such a geshmak  feeling!