FOUND by Jessica F. at University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
My roommate Tracey found this remorseful letter on the ground near her school. The saddest part is that it had been sealed with tape and obviously never opened, meaning either that it never reached its recipient, or that she threw it on the ground without reading it.
FOUND by Amy in Portland, Oregon
Working in a library, we often find personal items left in books. Today, when one of my coworkers opened a picture book up to repair it, this came fluttering out. We were able to determine that the words that are scratched out were “To cheer you up.” We wondered what made her edit that particular phrase out and of course what happened with the perfume.
FOUND by Joe Briggs in a dormitory on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Oshkosh, Wisconsin
When I was in college, I used to clean dorm rooms in the summer to make ends meet. Other student workers and I would wake up much earlier than we were accustomed to and dread that first week of the summer. We would enter rooms, black garbage bags in hand, and encounter freezers with exploded Colt 45′s and used condoms glued to mattresses. But, sometimes what we found would stop us in our tracks. I found this note attached to a bouquet of flowers that was in the garbage. I wanted to take the bouquet and the note, but I don’t think our boss would’ve liked that. I met my wife while working this job and our inside joke, whenever we have a fight, is for me to end the tiff by saying, “I’m sorry I called you high maintenance.”
FOUND by Eric Howald and Andrew Jackson in Keizer, Oregon
A co-worker and I found this note in back of our workplace. It’s not typically frequented by many other than those of us that work in the building, so we’re at a loss as to where it might have come from. Sending it to FOUND in hopes that it somehow makes it’s way to the intended recipient.
FOUND by Angelpunk inside a Calvin and Hobbes book I bought at a thrift store
I wonder if Paul ever sent this letter to Sarah. Did he change his mind and stuff the letter inside a book? Maybe Sarah got it and put it in the book. I’d like to think there was a happy-ever-after to this story but more likely these two drifted apart after this incident. Who knows.
FOUND by Gideon Ansell in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
My daughter, a student at Bryn Mawr College, gave me a book purchased in a used bookstore. The book itself was a birthday gift, but the real gift came tucked inside, in the form of a long, hidden, multi-colored apologia, or “appolagy” as it is termed in the missive.
FOUND by Derrick Nelson in the Reading Room of the New York Public Library, Manhattan, New York City, New York
Found this casually discarded by itself on top of a bookshelf in the main reading room of the New York Public Library (the Stephen A. Schwarzman building to be specific). I am torn between thinking it’s sad that a mom couldn’t say this in person to her kids, it sounds like she abandoned them, and what kind of mom uses the formal expression, “thank you in advance for your understanding”? At the same time I think how cool it must be to have a mom that leaves you secret messages hidden throughout NYC.
