Lost and Found on Maui

SHT Happens.

We lose stuff. Everyone does. It’s part of life. Car keys, jewelry, wallet, cameras, gate remote controls, iphones, id, credit cards, even laptops.

These are lost items that someone found in the last few months at Makena State Park.
There are frequently lost hats, sunglasses, snorkeling gear and car keys. Sometimes items are given to the lifeguards, who then will give them to the police. Other items that are less expensive are dangled from sign posts, trees, and branches. The SD cards labeled Tasha were found on a tree stump at Big Beach. I gave them to the lifeguards.  

What do you do when you lose something on Maui? Can you get it back? Did someone take it? What are the chances it will show up again? Was it petty theft or were you just careless? Is it even worth filing a police report?

This past Monday, I lost something that is kind of valuable, but not in any way the end of the world. I’m not sure where I lost it. It’s usually something I pay very close attention to, but somehow I was very distracted and the last place I recall seeing it was at the Maliko Gulch Farmers Market at the 8^th Wonder Taco Booth. I know I used it there because I was intrigued with the slack key guitar musician playing that day. Did I set it down in a rush, did it fall out of my bag while I ran back to my car?

Or did I lose it later at another farmers market when I was taking pics of cooking bananas? Or did I lose it at the 2^nd parking lot at Makena State Park?

This is what I lost. Not the box, but the Samsung Video Camera inside.
It looks red and black. 

Questions that I may never know the answers to.

Losing the thing is not so important, but how easily it was lost. The lack of attention. The carelessness. The fact that I could have easily transferred the video card into my computer but didn’t want to do it because (x, y, z shoulda coulda woulda reasons….) How many times have I been hit over the head with that lesson?  I don’t even mind missing the Samsung video camera, but I miss the footage I took – about 5 minutes of Kala speaking about the Hokule’a when it visited Maui and some other random chicken footage, some Maui scenes.

Found! GoPro Camera in Hanalei Bay, Kauai. from Anna Kuperberg on Vimeo.
Is this you or someone you know? This video camera was found on Kauai recently.

So… what to do when you lose something? After turning all your stuff inside out and searching your belongings, your car and retracing your steps, making phone calls to places you were…Here are a few basic tips, some very obvious and some less so.

1. Check Craigslist.org. Go to the Lost and Found section and see if by any chance, your item has been listed in the region where you lost it. Post an ad on Craigslist.

2. Call the Maui Police at their non-emergency line. 808-244-6400. Option 2 as of today, was for filing a police report. I listened to all 8 or 9 options and there’s no option to get an operator, and the closest thing to lost and found was the police report. They wanted to send an officer to my location, which I thought was a bit much for a lost video camera. Then they offered to have an officer call me, which I thought was more efficient. They asked for my name, phone number, item description and a serial number. I didn’t know my serial number but found it on the box the next day.

3. If you think you lost something at a beach or park, call the Maui County Recreation Dept to get a hold of the lifeguards at the beach. I think the number I called was 808-270-6139 which was not the direct number, but B., who answered, called the lifeguards and called me back. Sometimes stuff is turned into them. Usually it’s not. But I myself have turned in lost items to them, so I know it happens once in a while.  If it’s the National Park Service, I couldn’t find a number for them, but their website is www.nps.gov. I bet a lot of stuff gets lost at Haleakala Crater and in Hana.

4. AND, at certain beaches on Maui, like Makena, there are certain trees or spots that people will hang things that are lost, like keys or slippers or USB cords, or hats, along the pathway. So look up at the branches along the path or on tree stumps along the way if you are retracing your steps. If you're a tourist, you would never think to do this, but regulars know the routine.

5. This morning I even got a call from Archie Kalepa, a well –known Maui waterman. I didn’t know he worked for the Parks Dept on Maui, and after he confirmed they didn’t have my lost video camera, I told him I heard his TedXMaui talk.

6. I had a great talk with Debbie of the Maliko Gulch Farmers Market. She doesn’t think the taco stand has it, but she will check with them.

7. Call a pawn shop. I talked to the one in Wailuku and they said because of liability issues, the only way they can file a report is for the individual to come in person and file a description. Complicated.

8. Maybe, is it worth the trouble? Post a lost and found with the Maui News and Maui Bulletin. I’ve even seen lost and found notices posted at Mana Foods on the inside bulletin board. I found out that the Maui News accepts Found ads for free, but lost items cost the same as a regular classified ad, about $13 for the first day or about $40/week.

Just found this on the Maui News site today 7/22.
Found: camera at the Maui Lani Golf Course on 7/12.
Call them if you lost one!

9. Tell everyone you know and search the internet. There is a less than 1/2% chance that if found someone will actually post the video or photo from a lost camera  on youtube or vimeo or facebook, but it could happen. There are two video cameras that have been lost in the last few months and a month or so later, their videos were posted and I have seen them floating around on twitter.       

A package left in our car after a hitchhiker left. Luckily, there was an ID card and I was able to track him down on Facebook. He showed up the next day. 

The most amazing recovery of a lost camera in Hawaii happened recently! It was found 5 years later, washed up on Taiwan. You never know.

10. Let go. There’s only so much one can do. If it’s meant to come back, it will. If not, live and learn. Maybe someone needed it more, like a Hawaiian sovereignty activist connected w/ the Maliko Gulch Farmers Market (if that’s where I left it). Maybe it will end up in a surfer boy’s hands. Maybe someone will learn about the Hokule’a or where my chicken lays her eggs at the foot of a ginormous eucalyptus tree in the gulch.  One can only wonder. 

Did you lose a GoPro video camera at Kanaha Beach on Maui this pasty May? There's youtube footage below. Go and claim your camera by messaging the finder on youtube.