Dildos, face cream and butt plugs - some things really do stay in Vegas

First of all, none of the items mentioned in the title of this post belonged to me. In fact, I have no idea who they belonged to, which was the problem, really. No one did. In the final hours of my 30th birthday weekend in Las Vegas three years ago, I found myself sitting in a dusty trailer that was doing duty as a taxi admin office.

A taxi office is not high on my list of must-sees in Vegas. A friend had left her purse in the cab on the way back to the airport and she made a pleading call to me to head over to the taxi office where the driver was going to meet me with her sparkly purple purse. But that was hours ago. My husband had come with me, but as check-out time approached, he headed back to the hotel to gather up our strewn belongings and stuff them into our suitcase.

So it was just me and the office manager. I think her name was Tracy. She asked if I wanted to come in from the visitors area and sit in her office with her while I waited for the driver to turn up. "Well, sure," I said, thankful for a bit of conversation. As I entered her office, I saw the industrial shelving lining the wall opposite her. Bin after bin holding cell phones, umbrellas and sweaters.

"What's all that stuff?" I asked. "Oh, this is where we keep the lost and found. Can you believe that people just leave this stuff here? Most of it never gets collected - we just give it to charity. See this?" Tracy was holding the biggest dildo I have ever seen. I was relieved to see that it was still in the box. Turns out that recently-purchased sex toys are often left in cabs.

I continued to wait. Another driver turned up with a cosmetics case that had been left on his back seat. Tracy showed me how she has to go through everything to make sure that there are no drugs (apparently people like to hide their drugs in with their toiletries) and to check for clues. There was a Chicago transit pass being used as a bookmark. We thought that might be a clue. Tracy wrote it down.

We also had to look for anything valuable - valuables have to go in the safe. She showed me all of the engagement rings in the safe. Apparently a lot of engagements end in the back seat of a Las Vegas taxi.

In the end, the driver never showed up, and Tracy offered me a ride back to the hotel in her pick-up. Turns out she had turned 30 on the same day as me. The purse ended up escaping Vegas via Fed-Ex the next day, but I learnt that lots of other stuff really does stay in Vegas.

Photo by mliu92 via Flickr