Where does all the lost stuff go?

I've always wondered what happed to all the stuff I've lost and never recovered over the years; the ridulously small blue halter top at uni, my 18th birthday watch (which disappeared from my room), the fancy watch that disappeared from my wrist (really!) in the late 90s, the expensive black fur-trimmed coat on Airfrance, my wallet in Birmingham, and just the other month on a work trip to a country house in Spain I left a beloved beige-knit cardigan (ok it's only a cardigan) and called back the next morning to be told there was not trace of it (leaving the hotel staff anf my colleagues as chief 'suspects' ;-)) Ok, I accept that in a lifetime you're going to lose a certain amount of stuff, and sometimes other people will find it, and usually they won't try to find you and give it back if they like it. Finders keepers, losers weepers. But what always gets me is that whilst my old stuff presumably finds its way into the hands of fellow bi-peds, I never find anything! (I lie, once, in a park 15 years ago, I found a 1-pound coin) Surely if we are all losing, say, 5 items a year, we should also be receiving about that amount of other people's lost stuff too!! Or maybe the majority of the lost stuff is finding it's way into the hands of just a few? For example airport workers must get their hands on a whole load of lost goodies. Like my coat on Airfrance. Ok, I don't seriously want to get my hands on other people's lost stuff, but I've always had this weird urge to be a fly on the wall watching someone else use my lost stuff, to see that Air hostess/passenger wearing my 'best' coat, or perhaps find it stuffed in some invisible space in the aircraft, undiscovered and never to be seen again. Anyhow, I was reminded of all this when watching España Directo this afternoon (a TV programme for marujas, or fuddy duddy housewives, reporting human interest stories from around the country e.g. 'my hamster accidentally got washed in the washing machine and survived'). Today, they were reporting on a new website called Loede, which unites losers and finders of objects and even pets. What a nice idea. It's hard to believe that anyone is good enough to actually try to return items to their owners, but you look at the website and see that there are people who find things like rings and digital cameras and actually try to give them back. Made me smile.