Page 32 - aruba-today-20171125

A32 FEATURE
Saturday 25 November 2017
Shoes, bags, even dentures lost at Burning Man await owners

By SCOTT SONNER back.
Associated Press Burning Man has been col-
RENO, Nev. (AP) — Lindsay lecting and returning items
Weiss once lost her cell- since the event moved to
phone and got it back, Nevada in 1992 from San
so she and a friend knew Francisco, where it began
what they had to do when in 1986 with about 20 peo-
they discovered a camera ple burning a wooden ef-
during the Burning Man fes- figy in a celebration of art.
tival in the Nevada desert The event’s technology
— even though it meant team has developed a so-
giving up their coveted phisticated database peo-
shady seat for a musical ple can search onsite at a
performance. Wi-Fi center. Afterward, vol-
The friends snapped a unteers scour the web and
quick selfie and took the emails.
device to lost-and-found, Most institutions donate
so the owner could claim it lost items to charity if they
and the pair could “forever aren’t claimed in about a
be a part of their journey,” month. Burning Man does
Weiss said. that too — just not as quick-
“Losing something out ly, said Schoop, who helps
there on the playa makes oversee recovery. Volun-
its mark on your trip,” she teers concentrate first on
said of the sprawling coun- In this Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2017 photo, lost and found items, including cell phones, are seen at IDs and cellphones.
terculture gathering. “Kin- Burning Man festival headquarters in San Francisco. “We spend about three or
da makes you feel like a Associated Press four months trying to hook
loser.” 529 drivers’ licenses, pass- of ladies clothes,” a piano toilets and trailers at Burn- people up with lost items,”
Cameras and IDs are ports or other forms of iden- tuning kit, a “small stuffed ing Man since 2003. He he said.
among the more common tification. cow with cowboy hat” remembers when his co- His most unusual recovery?
belongings that end up at Unclaimed items are listed and one black Dr. Martens worker dismissed his sug- “A partial pair of dentures,”
lost-and-found after the on Burning Man’s website combat boot. gestion to check the lost- Schoop said. “The man
event this summer billed with photos and numbers. Other articles lost-but-not- and-found for his missing showed up, took them out
as North America’s larg- They include more than 200 yet-found include a wed- phone, saying the odds of of the bag they were in,
est outdoor arts festival. shirts, 100 jackets, 80 hydra- ding ring, a flute, “fire nun- recovering it were slim. popped them in his mouth
Other items left behind in tion backpacks, 50 pairs chucks,” a stuffed bunny “I told him there’s a good and said, ‘See, I can prove
the dusty, 5-square-mile of eyeglasses, six suitcases — “daughter’s since birth,” vibe out here,” Kivett it’s mine: It fits!’”
(13-square-kilometer) en- and several dozen water and a “dark-leafy-print said. “If somebody finds it, Some lost items carry hefty
campment include shoes, bottles. bandanna lost on the pla- they’re going to return it price tags, while others
keys, stuffed animals — “Your item may look differ- ya somewhere around the because they know what have more sentimental
even dentures. ent after rolling in the dust,” giant flamingo.” it’s like to lose something worth. Schoop remembers
Still missing are a marching- the website advises. The high rate of return out here — a sense of obli- a cellphone returned to a
band hat with gold mirror It links to an online forum doesn’t surprise Mike Kivett, gation, duty to fellow man.” woman who lost it shortly
tiles, a furry cheetah vest, a that has brief descriptions manager of a company Ninety minutes later, the after her father died and
headdress with horns and a of found items: a “big bag that has provided portable co-worker had his phone her home burned down.q
chainmail loincloth skirt.
“As of mid-November,
we’ve recovered 2,479
items and returned 1,279,”
said Terry Schoop, who
helps oversee the recovery
operation at Burning Man’s
San Francisco headquar-
ters. “We have about a 60
percent return rate.”
Not bad for a temporary
community of 60,000 artists,
free spirits, old hippies and
young thrill seekers who de-
scend on a dried-up lake
bed in the Black Rock Des-
ert for an adventure com-
bining wilderness camping
with avant-garde perfor-
mance 120 miles (193 kilo-
meters) north of Reno.
The usual suspects top this
year’s list of most frequent-
ly lost in the land of drum
circles and psychedelic art
cars: 582 cellphones, 570 n this Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2017 photo, Terry Schoop, community services department manager for Burning Man festival, looks through
some lost and found items at the organization’s headquarters in San Francisco.
backpacks or bags, and Associated Press