What have you found while riding?
 

Over the past year I have found some pretty weird stuff on well travelled routes.
A deer foot, taxidermy not road kill, now a coat hook, don't know how it got there
A heap of hardcore porn DVD cases, empty and relocated to the nearest garbage can on my route.
Money, I found $147 bucks blowing around on the road, felt pleased with my sudden windfall until a little further up the road was a wallet, credit and cards and license spilling over the road, returned to owner.
Money, the odd floating bill, the best being a $20.
Tools, best a three foot Snap On pry bar.
Toyota Camry keys on the local bike path, several trips up and down asking people if they had lost their keys found the owner.
I am always looking for road kill for my other hobbies but don't think it counts as weird ride finds, maybe just weird rider.

all the stopping makes for a terrible average speed, that's my excuse anyway

What have you found?

Peace and tranquility.

A UO-8, a RockShox suspension fork, car keys, an old pair of Ford pliers, a Blackberry.......

I found a 80 Gig IPod brick laying in the road. All sorts of money from small change to bills.

Not riding but I found an 80 year old 14kt gold ring while maintaining a trail I ride. Sold it and donated the money to charity.

This just happened a week ago:

So I'm cycling along a 4-lane street in a nearby town, and just after passing through a traffic light, I need to weave through some auto-accident debris in the bike lane...wait a minute...one piece of debris was not like the others.

Stopped, went back and picked up a leather case about the size of a book. One compartment was open, revealing a cracked iPad mini. I opened the other compartment to find a checkbook and credit cards, and a thick white sealed envelope. I stuck the case in the trunk bag on my rear rack and continued on my ride.

About an hour later I reached the convenience store where I usually stop for a coffee break. I pulled out my phone and googled the name and city from the checkbook. I called the number that came up and got a secretary who said the guy was out for the rest of the day, but would call him and give him my number.

A minute later he called. He asked the condition of the case. I told him the iPad was cracked but functioning. He said he had just bought a new one anyway, so that was not a big deal, but asked about the envelope. He said he "needed that". We made arrangements to meet at a shopping center along my route home.

We met at the shopping center, and I gave him the case. He examined the iPad, then checked the other contents. Then he commented:

"I really appreciate your honesty, even though you had no idea what you had."

With that, he broke the seal on the envelope, pulled out a 3/8" thick stack of crisp new hundred dollar bills, and gave one to me.

I'll admit it was a lot easier to be honest, thinking I was just returning a broken iPad, checkbook, and credit cards.

Poulan chainsaw (works fine)
Nice dress shirt (which was like new and fit me perfectly, strange)
Couple sets of gloves
Cash machine that was cut open before being dumped in the ditch
Almost complete set of drill bits
Large adjustable wrench
Multiple CRT TV sets and microwaves (they are dumped everywhere, if I get back that way with the car I recycle them)
A rabbit's foot (rabbit otherwise completely squashed)
Log splitter (called the cops to let them know someone might just be missing it, or the trailer got loose from the vehicle pulling it)

iPhone 5 (sitting in the traffic lane, waiting to be run over). I got it back to the owner within 12 hours.

Sunglasses, hats, shoes, used condoms, change, paper money, numerous tools, cell phones, baby toys, ratcheting tie-downs, bungees, golf club...

Yesterday I was telling my wife I really need to dig that trench and put in a new power line to the shop out back. Then I went for a ride and saw a man emptying the back of his truck into a trash pile at the side of the road. He left the scene and I pulled up to see what he had tossed, a perfectly good "sharpshooter" a trench digging shovel.

Scissors, Pocket knife. All sorts of spare change.

Found two cheap disposable type bikes on side of the bike trail next to the creek. The next day someone pulled them out of the bushes and laid them next to the trail. There's a lot of homeless people that hang around the trail so I was surprised to still see them there. Besides that nothing that I can remember worth mentioning.

That one specific sharp object all alone that flats my tire.

You guys find cool stuff. Also I find that squeak or rattle or click that results in hours of stand time.

I go way to fast to what's laying on the road. Nah, I just ride in the country and farmers never lose anything.

A middling Seiko wristwatch.
Two military style boomstick bipods.
Numerous squished and demolished cell phones.
Head unit for a Cat Eye bike computer.
A couple of knives, nothing to write home about.
Single empty pannier.
Several cheap blinkies.
Half of a PB Superflash.

My best find.... An Old Rusty Double Pumper Holley 4 Barrel Carb sticking out from the mud... Still worth 50$ at the junk yard...

An Orbea Specialized seat (no post)...

And on a return trip a compact tool kit which was mine and had evidently fallen out of my bag and then been run over and kicked to the other side of the road...

... and a partridge in a pear tree!

Lock blade knife, flash light, various sockets, bike lock, drivers license, a bolt and nut to make a Sheldon tool with, and about $400 in cash.

The $400 in cash was promptly picked up by my son and me. When we got back from our ride, I read that the convienence store down the street had been robbed the night before. I called the police to tell them I found this money and it was probably connected. A policeman came by later in the day, but I wasn't home. He told my painter that he would be back later. He never came back. I called the police a week later, but no one ever came back out. I eventually spent it.

Amen.

Over the years...

All kinds of tools, some small enough to pocket, others not. Two large chain saws, once; I was holding one in my hands and doubtless looking a little perplexed when a pickup truck pulled up next to me.
"Is that yours?" Driver asks.
"Nope," sez I. "You want it?"
"Sure, but don't you?" Driver asks.
"No, I just use hand tools. Want me to put it in the back?"
"Sure, thanks!"
"Hold on, there's another one!"
He drove off with two chain saws in the back of his truck. I got nothing but this story.

I've also found $200, $50, $5, $3, whole wallets, individual cards, etc. Where ID was present, the owners for it all back; the isolated cash was mine.

Sunglasses. Cycling gloves. An SR cotterless crank dust cap. A 700c wheel, mavic open pro rim with Sturmey Archer three speed coaster brake hub (yeah, I know, right?), and a very nice Douglas fir door exactly the size I needed for the bathroom of the house I was restoring at the time (had to get the car and go back for that one). It was all by itself in the woods, by a creek, might have been there a few years... very strange.

I could go on. There's a lot of stuff at the side of the road.

For a couple of years I commuted along a busy highway so I was always finding weird things that fell out of cars and trucks.

A similar thing happened to me. I was riding and, "hey, a twenty dollar bill! And another, and another!" Soon I had a giant wad of cash clamped to my belly as I waddled around like a frantic game show contestant. I had to be careful because this was a six lane highway and a lot of the money was trapped in the median. I also found a wallet and ID. It was over $200 and I found out it belonged to an Asian exchange student and he left his billfold on top of the car. He was grateful to get it back. I found another bill the next morning and he said I could keep that one. I don't know how many I may have missed.

Other things: a nice stainless steel cork-backed 18" ruler, a large new drywall sponge, an extremely explicit love letter written from a young woman to a man (torn in half), silver rings and every item of clothing imaginable.

My health, pain, stamina, confidence, happiness, strength.

An entire families Bundle of Bikes and the rack they were tied onto , Dropped on the road , not far Behind me .. , welds of rack to the travel trailer Back Bumper gave out.

I stopped, and went back, and dragged it all to the shoulder ...

I have an item that greets me on a climb. A Dolls leg. It has been there for over a year now.

A brand new jagwire brake cable still in its wrapping. I stuck it in my seat bag. A week later I was on a ride and my derailleur cable snapped, many miles from anywhere. Fortunately the brake cable fit into my campy DT shifters just fine and got me home.