Lost and found: When items are abandoned on trains and buses, this Metro Transit team steps in

Walk by Nicholas Heimer's desk at Metro Transit headquarters in Minneapolis and you may see him surfing Facebook.

But he's not wasting time.

Heimer is part of the transit agency's customer relations team, and scanning social media is one strategy the small staff uses to reunite belongings left behind on buses and trains with their owners.

"When they come to the window, they express how thankful they are," Heimer said. "They are joyful we went the extra mile. That is what we are here for."

From January to June, more than 730 items have made their way to the lost and found at the Heywood Garage, 560 6th Av. N. Most are of the mundane variety — smartphones, sporting goods, clothing, backpacks, eyeglasses, wallets and passports.

But there have been oddities, too, including a garden tiller, plastic swimming pools, a Jack Daniels whiskey sign and a decorative window. Once, a passenger got off a train at the airport and left a cat in a pet carrier on board, Heimer said.

"A staff member took care of the cat while [its owner] was on vacation," Heimer said.

Bus drivers and train operators collect items they find and bring them to their assigned garages. Couriers then deliver the items to Metro Transit's lost and found, where they're kept for 30 days. If Metro Transit has a name and address for an item's owner, the agency sends a postcard telling them to pick it up within 14 days.

"A lot of people don't know we have a lost and found," said customer relations specialist Jeremy Hop, a former pawn shop manager who said he sees value in the wayward goods.

Katie Johnson, 56, of Minneapolis thought her beloved white and yellow Jamis Coda bike — named Eloise, in honor of her mother — was a goner after it was stolen from her garage in July. She was on vacation in Europe shortly after the theft when her prized two-wheeler turned up on a Green Line light-rail train. The train operator brought it to the Metro Transit lost and found.

That's where Heimer's sleuthing skills came in. An avid cyclist, Heimer has made it part of his routine at work to check the Twin Cities Stolen Bikes Facebook page. When Johnson's bike came in, Heimer recognized it from a Facebook post.

"This bike stood out," Heimer said. "It was a unique color and it was easy for my brain to recollect seeing it on there. It had the camping sticker on the lower cross bar."

Using an alias, he sent Johnson a message, setting the unlikely reunification in motion. Johnson picked up the bike on Wednesday.

"What a saint," she said of Heimer. "What a gem. He was raised right. Warms my heart."

Unclaimed items deemed to be in good shape are given a second life if they don't make it back to their owners, Hop said. Eyeglasses, for example, are put in a bin that has Blue Line train operator Carl Rice's name on it. Rice takes the eyeware to the Brooklyn Park Lions Club, which sorts, cleans and sends them to organizations that give them to people in need worldwide.

Coats, hats and gloves go to the Salvation Army. Bicycles are brought to shops that refurbish them for resale. Phones, tablets, laptops and smartwatches are sent to the 911 Cell Phone Bank in Florida, where they are scrubbed of personal data and given to victims of human trafficking or domestic violence nationwide so they can call 911.

But nothing is more rewarding than handing a lost item to its owner, Hop said.

"It is the highlight of the day seeing their face light up," he said.