A student leaves a bar late at night, and realizes that he or she left their credit card behind.
For the bar owners and managers, it is not an uncommon situation to find lost items after closing.
“People will be banging on the door at three when they see we are still there, and they realize they had gone to the next bar and left their card,” said Rick Ault, the owner of One49 and Kamikaze’s.
Along with leaving credit cards behind, some students will forget to close tabs, said Banan Alkilani, general mawnager of Cla-Zel.
Some of the most common items lost in the bars are IDs, credit cards and jackets, said Gavin Nickle, the bartending manager at Uptown/Downtown.
“We find girls’ wallets or purses a lot too,” he said.
Alkilani said he finds a lot of lost cell phones.
“Cell phones get put down in the bathrooms and forgotten a lot,” he said.
Senior Kristy Lyons said she has lost things when going out.
“I’ve lost my keys, and my friends have lost credit cards,” Lyons said.
As the weather gets colder, students tend to bring coats to the bars, Ault said.
“We have a lot of jackets left, and a lot of them never get claimed,” Ault said. “We keep them for a few months and then donate them to Goodwill if they aren’t claimed.”
To keep personal belongings safe, Nickle recommends that when students go out, they take advantage of the services the bars offer.
“Take full advantage of the coat check,” he said. “Use the coat check for purses too.”
Alkilani said students should only take the essentials when they go out.
“Leave extra credit cards, take only what you need and extra cash,” Alkilani said.
Ault said students should try to be more responsible with their things.
“I’m not targeting this generation in particular because my generation was the same way. It hasn’t changed,” he said. “They should be thinking about where they’re at and what they are doing.”
Some students already take many precautions when they go out.
“I leave my cell phone in the car and just take in my ID and the money I need,” said sophomore Karrie Barbee.
Some of the owners and managers have found strange things around the bar after closing.
“I found a soiled pair of underwear in the bathroom,” Ault said.
Nickle said he usually does not find things too out of the ordinary.
“It’s all pretty common stuff,” he said. “I would say the strangest thing we find is shoes or a shoe; just a single one.”