Lost
Content
Lost something in the National Building Museum s beach? It s not the only phone in t
he sea.
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By Maura Judkis September 5
On the other side of the globe, in a whirl of commingling currents, the Great Pa
cific Garbage Patch is the repository for the ocean s debris. Here in Washington,
in a smaller ocean, explorers are on the verge of discovering a similar phenomen
on: the National Building Museum s Great iPhone Vortex.
Chances are, somebody in this picture lost an iPhone. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
It has happened nearly 100 times this summer: A visitor goes to the museum s exhib
ition The Beach, an all-white seascape of plastic balls by Snarkitecture, and bell
y-flops into the water. Meanwhile, the person s phone belly-flops out of his or her
pocket and sinks beneath the nearly 1 million balls. And disappears.
It s like the Bermuda Triangle, said Kristen Sheldon, ordinarily the museum s voluntee
r and intern coordinator, but since shortly after the July 4 opening of the beac
h, the self-proclaimed queen of the lost and found.
What s causing that? Is there a current? I don t understand, Sheldon said.
robably a physics paper for somebody the physics of a giant ball pit.
I think it s p
Where have all the iPhones gone? Some resurface an hour, a day, a week later. So
me, tracked by phone-finding apps, inexplicably migrate from one end of the ocea
n to the other. Some, despite hours of desperate digging, have never been seen a
gain. Sheldon thinks that when the exhibit is torn down after Monday, Sept. 7, s
he ll find the phones and reading glasses and flip-flops and Fitbits and toys that
have slipped through the cracks. And when she does, she ll go through her binder
of lost-and-found claims far exceeding 700 entries at this point
to reunite each
item with its owner. With any luck.
One couple was very, very lucky. Recently engaged, they took a dip at The Beach. W
hen they came back to shore, they realized that the woman s brand-new engagement r
ing, feeling so awkward and unfamiliar on her finger, had slipped off.
She was just heartbroken. We felt terrible, it was the first major piece of jewel
ry that was lost, Sheldon said. They really tried to look. Visitors were helping t
hem, staff was helping them.
How many stuffed toys and sunglasses have sunk to the bottom of Davy Jones s ball
pit? Time will tell. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
But digging through a ball pit can be a Sisyphean task: The deeper a dent you ma
ke, the more it sets surrounding balls into motion, rolling them back into the h
ole. The constant movement of kids and adults means that items can shift far fro
m where they were last seen and sometimes surface unexpectedly. That s what happen
ed with the engagement ring a few weeks later, when a group of visitors digging
for a lost phone found the ring instead.
I was giving high-fives to visitors. It was a big deal, Sheldon said. Of course, no
w there are probably eight wedding rings, bands and engagement rings in there.
The Building Museum knew that there would be lost items resulting from their blo
ckbuster summer exhibit. But they didn t quite anticipate this: a record-breaking
160,000 visitors and what Sheldon estimates to be nearly 1,000 items either repo
rted lost or turned in and unclaimed.
Within the first couple of days, it was very clear what was going on, Sheldon said
. There were going to be many items lost at sea, and we had to do our best to ret
urn them to their owners. We started out with a nice little one-inch binder, and
then it was two inches, and then it was 3 1/2 , and now it s two binders and a no
tebook just to contain all the paperwork.
Phones are one of the most commonly lost items, but single shoes are a close sec
ond. (Some guests apparently manage to hobble home half-barefoot, while others b
uy flip-flops in the museum gift shop.) Sunglasses often don t survive the swim: V
olunteers find smashed-up bits of them washed ashore. Unlabeled Fitbits and fitn
ess trackers can be sent back to their manufacturers for identification. There a
re six selfie sticks of varying colors, a one-gallon plastic bag filled entirely
with lens caps, and a few items that make Sheldon nervous, such as two pagers t
hat she presumes belong to doctors and an inhaler. She has found and reunited wa
llets with their owners one even brought her flowers in gratitude
but sometimes,
there s nothing to be done.
I lost $43 in cash and told all the kids it was theirs if they found it,
tichugrrl after a recent visit.
tweeted @
You hear stories where kids magically pull money out of their pocket in the gift
shop, and when the parents ask, Where did it come from? ? they say in The Beach, Sheld
on said. The staff hasn t yet started an over/under bet on the dollar amount that
will be recovered from the bottom, but the loose change and bills will be counte
d as museum donations.
Fitbits and flash drives are frequently lost. (National Building Museum)
This engagement ring was happily retrieved by its owner. Wedding bands and rings
are also commonly lost items. (National Building Museum)
The final destination of other leftover items is still TBD. After a long enough
interval, unclaimed clothes and sunglasses will be donated to a shelter or to Go
odwill. Sheldon is hoping that the iPhones can be given to well-vetted charities
that wipe them clean and donate them to victims of domestic abuse. The unpaired
shoes are probably a lost cause. The lens caps may be, too. I almost want to cal
l a camera shop and ask, Can you use 40 Canon lens caps of different sizes? ?
Sheldon has learned a few things about Washington and its visitors through handl
ing their lost items and helping them through crises small and large. People are
bad at describing their belongings. ( Even wedding bands. They re like, I think it h
as inscriptions on it. What do you mean you think it has inscriptions? ) Men and wo
men are equally likely to lose things. Washingtonians are really into their Sper
ry boat shoes. People are, for the most part, honest.
And: Never assume that even a seemingly insignificant item is worthless. Take th
e faded bandana that Sheldon assumed wouldn t be worth the Metro fare to retrieve.
But when she contacted the owner, the woman thanked her for taking her inquiry
seriously, and told Sheldon that she had been wearing that bandana for 20 years.
It reminded Sheldon that there s no such thing
as an item with no value.
Which, to be honest, speaking as a museum person, we know that,
bout objects.
she said.
We re all a
Maura Judkis covers culture, food, and the arts for the Weekend section and Goin
g Out Guide.
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Free daily updates delivered just for you.
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he sea.
Resize Text Print Article Comments 16
By Maura Judkis September 5
On the other side of the globe, in a whirl of commingling currents, the Great Pa
cific Garbage Patch is the repository for the ocean s debris. Here in Washington,
in a smaller ocean, explorers are on the verge of discovering a similar phenomen
on: the National Building Museum s Great iPhone Vortex.
Chances are, somebody in this picture lost an iPhone. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
It has happened nearly 100 times this summer: A visitor goes to the museum s exhib
ition The Beach, an all-white seascape of plastic balls by Snarkitecture, and bell
y-flops into the water. Meanwhile, the person s phone belly-flops out of his or her
pocket and sinks beneath the nearly 1 million balls. And disappears.
It s like the Bermuda Triangle, said Kristen Sheldon, ordinarily the museum s voluntee
r and intern coordinator, but since shortly after the July 4 opening of the beac
h, the self-proclaimed queen of the lost and found.
What s causing that? Is there a current? I don t understand, Sheldon said.
robably a physics paper for somebody the physics of a giant ball pit.
I think it s p
Where have all the iPhones gone? Some resurface an hour, a day, a week later. So
me, tracked by phone-finding apps, inexplicably migrate from one end of the ocea
n to the other. Some, despite hours of desperate digging, have never been seen a
gain. Sheldon thinks that when the exhibit is torn down after Monday, Sept. 7, s
he ll find the phones and reading glasses and flip-flops and Fitbits and toys that
have slipped through the cracks. And when she does, she ll go through her binder
of lost-and-found claims far exceeding 700 entries at this point
to reunite each
item with its owner. With any luck.
One couple was very, very lucky. Recently engaged, they took a dip at The Beach. W
hen they came back to shore, they realized that the woman s brand-new engagement r
ing, feeling so awkward and unfamiliar on her finger, had slipped off.
She was just heartbroken. We felt terrible, it was the first major piece of jewel
ry that was lost, Sheldon said. They really tried to look. Visitors were helping t
hem, staff was helping them.
How many stuffed toys and sunglasses have sunk to the bottom of Davy Jones s ball
pit? Time will tell. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
But digging through a ball pit can be a Sisyphean task: The deeper a dent you ma
ke, the more it sets surrounding balls into motion, rolling them back into the h
ole. The constant movement of kids and adults means that items can shift far fro
m where they were last seen and sometimes surface unexpectedly. That s what happen
ed with the engagement ring a few weeks later, when a group of visitors digging
for a lost phone found the ring instead.
I was giving high-fives to visitors. It was a big deal, Sheldon said. Of course, no
w there are probably eight wedding rings, bands and engagement rings in there.
The Building Museum knew that there would be lost items resulting from their blo
ckbuster summer exhibit. But they didn t quite anticipate this: a record-breaking
160,000 visitors and what Sheldon estimates to be nearly 1,000 items either repo
rted lost or turned in and unclaimed.
Within the first couple of days, it was very clear what was going on, Sheldon said
. There were going to be many items lost at sea, and we had to do our best to ret
urn them to their owners. We started out with a nice little one-inch binder, and
then it was two inches, and then it was 3 1/2 , and now it s two binders and a no
tebook just to contain all the paperwork.
Phones are one of the most commonly lost items, but single shoes are a close sec
ond. (Some guests apparently manage to hobble home half-barefoot, while others b
uy flip-flops in the museum gift shop.) Sunglasses often don t survive the swim: V
olunteers find smashed-up bits of them washed ashore. Unlabeled Fitbits and fitn
ess trackers can be sent back to their manufacturers for identification. There a
re six selfie sticks of varying colors, a one-gallon plastic bag filled entirely
with lens caps, and a few items that make Sheldon nervous, such as two pagers t
hat she presumes belong to doctors and an inhaler. She has found and reunited wa
llets with their owners one even brought her flowers in gratitude
but sometimes,
there s nothing to be done.
I lost $43 in cash and told all the kids it was theirs if they found it,
tichugrrl after a recent visit.
tweeted @
You hear stories where kids magically pull money out of their pocket in the gift
shop, and when the parents ask, Where did it come from? ? they say in The Beach, Sheld
on said. The staff hasn t yet started an over/under bet on the dollar amount that
will be recovered from the bottom, but the loose change and bills will be counte
d as museum donations.
Fitbits and flash drives are frequently lost. (National Building Museum)
This engagement ring was happily retrieved by its owner. Wedding bands and rings
are also commonly lost items. (National Building Museum)
The final destination of other leftover items is still TBD. After a long enough
interval, unclaimed clothes and sunglasses will be donated to a shelter or to Go
odwill. Sheldon is hoping that the iPhones can be given to well-vetted charities
that wipe them clean and donate them to victims of domestic abuse. The unpaired
shoes are probably a lost cause. The lens caps may be, too. I almost want to cal
l a camera shop and ask, Can you use 40 Canon lens caps of different sizes? ?
Sheldon has learned a few things about Washington and its visitors through handl
ing their lost items and helping them through crises small and large. People are
bad at describing their belongings. ( Even wedding bands. They re like, I think it h
as inscriptions on it. What do you mean you think it has inscriptions? ) Men and wo
men are equally likely to lose things. Washingtonians are really into their Sper
ry boat shoes. People are, for the most part, honest.
And: Never assume that even a seemingly insignificant item is worthless. Take th
e faded bandana that Sheldon assumed wouldn t be worth the Metro fare to retrieve.
But when she contacted the owner, the woman thanked her for taking her inquiry
seriously, and told Sheldon that she had been wearing that bandana for 20 years.
It reminded Sheldon that there s no such thing
as an item with no value.
Which, to be honest, speaking as a museum person, we know that,
bout objects.
she said.
We re all a
Maura Judkis covers culture, food, and the arts for the Weekend section and Goin
g Out Guide.
Get the Today's Headlines Newsletter
Free daily updates delivered just for you.
E-mail address
Add
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
16 Comments
The Post Recommends
Scientists may have just stumbled upon a mathematical secret to how nature works
The surprising mathematical relationship between predators and prey.
Mad Men star Hamm and Westfeldt split after 18 years
Months after denying their relationship was over, Jon Hamm and Jennifer Westfeld
t are splitting up.
