Metro

Riders turning more goods into MTA lost-and-found

BLING BACK: After losing it on the subway, Hager Elsayed was reunited with the ring fiancé Juan Rivera had given her.

BLING BACK: After losing it on the subway, Hager Elsayed was reunited with the ring fiancé Juan Rivera had given her.

DO YOU BELIEVE THIS STUFF?! Vacuum cleaner and power scooter are among thousands of items in the MTA’s lost-and-found division.

DO YOU BELIEVE THIS STUFF?! Vacuum cleaner and power scooter are among thousands of items in the MTA’s lost-and-found division. (MTA/Marc A. Hermann)

DO YOU BELIEVE THIS STUFF?! Vacuum cleaner and power scooter are among thousands of items in the MTA’s lost-and-found division. (
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Turns out New Yorkers are pretty honest.

The MTA has seen a jump in the number of straphangers turning in items to lost-and-found, as well as the number of people being reunited with their stuff, according to data from the last four years.

It’s a trend that shows no sign of stopping.

Just yesterday — the day The Post reported that a Brooklyn rider had returned a three-carat engagement ring — someone turned in a tuba at the 71st/Continental Avenue station in Forest Hills, Queens.

“It’s one of the larger items I’ve seen,” said William Bonner, supervisor of NYC Transit’s Lost Property Unit.

Some 24,445 items left on subways and buses were handed over to the MTA in 2012, a number that has been climbing steadily for the last four years.

In 2009, 22,835 items were turned in.

The number of people who had their goods returned to them also has risen over the past four years.

In 2012, 8,093 items were picked up from lost-and-found, a 5.5 percent increase from 2009.

Officials credit the rise in items being returned to owners to the MTA’s online lost-and-found claim system instituted in 2009.

Anyone who loses anything — from an umbrella to an antique watch — can file a claim at http://www.MTA.info.

Prior to that, riders who misplaced an item on the subway would have to call the MTA or go to the lost-and-found division at Penn Station and hope for the best.

The most popular items turned in are electronics, such as iPhones and Kindles, although workers there have seen everything from trumpets to vacuum cleaners.

Lately there’s been a rash of pet carriers turning up on buses. Thankfully, no animals were left behind.

The unit has a precise system for logging turned-in items.

Most are stored with similar items, which are then organized by the day they were handed in.

Cellphones, wallets and iPads are checked for identifying info.

If workers find any ID info, they will attempt to contact the owner.

Bonner yesterday called the Beacon School on West 61st Street after someone turned in a Coach wristlet that contained a student ID from there.

He once tracked down a woman who had left two brand new iPads on a train — still in the bag from the Apple Store — because her e-mail address was on the receipt.

The woman, who had bought the tablets for family members in Russia, was shocked to hear from him.

She told him, “I thought I’d never see them again,” Bonner said, adding, “That’s the mind-set of most New Yorkers.”

“But there’s a lot of honest people.”