LOST ITEMS OF DEEP PERSONAL SIGNIFICANCE

Upper West Siders lose things all the time, but usually the items are phones or other replaceable devices. In the past week, people have put ads on craigslist looking for extremely sentimental items that they lost in the neighborhood.

Grandfather’s Tefillin: Tefillin are small black boxes that are used in a Jewish prayer ritual. In this case, the items had been passed down through the generations: “The tefillin is irreplaceable and I am so sad that I lost something so sentimentally precious.” It sounds like the tefillin, and some other items used in Jewish prayers, were lost months ago: “I was taking a trip in New Jersey on a Charter bus with a Jewish Youth group (USY) and I accidentally left my shopping bag which contained tefillin, tallis, my mom’s handcrafted tallis clips, and a pair of khakis, shirt and a pair of shoes. I desperately tried calling the bus company for months afterwards and they couldnt find it in Lost and Found. The bus dropped us off near 120th and Amsterdam Ave and then departed, if that’s any indication of the area it may have been located near.” If you have info about them, contact the person here.

Guitar: “Lost Gibson Les Paul on the 103rd st station platform. Significant reward offered, no questions asked. Please email me with any information, this instrument is incredibly important to me and I’ll do anything to get it back.”

Engagement Ring: “I lost my engagement ring between January 13th and January 15th somewhere between 71st – 72nd street between Columbus and Broadway! It is a single round diamond with a custom made band in platinum. If you found this please contact me for reward.

Passport: This is actually an item that has been found. The name on the passport is John Hamilton Hewitt III, which sounds like someone who was on the Mayflower. “I found your passport today on W 96th St near Broadway at about 11:10 am. If you are Mr. Hewitt or know him, please respond to this ad.”

“Help” photo by landruc via flickr.