What are some Road Treasures that you've found?

Road Treasures are the crap you see on the side of the road that's worth picking up and hauling home.  I found an iPhone with very light damage today, while trying to get it back to its owner I thought of all the stuff I've seen over the years.

For me, the highlights include:

• A powerglide transmission (banged up, friend used it for a core charge he didn't have)
• 2 gallon, all metal gas can
• a 9/16" wrench (it punctured my front left tire and almost killed me)
• a 3/4" ratcheting wrench (just sitting on the side of the road this time)

But the best goes to Dad.  While driving in town he found a 9mm pistol.  Looked to be new in the box, he picked it up and dropped it in the back of his truck, then drove to the nearest gas station and called the cops.  Relayed all the info he had on it and turned it over.  Unfortunately someone either claimed it in the 90 days (or whatever it is) or it was attached to a crime or something and he never got it back.

Honda 2000 watt generator

My dream is to build a Challenge car on side of the road freebies. Still looking for light frame rails and an engine. 

I've found a lot of smaller hand tools. A couple years ago I found a 10lb sledge hammer with a fiberglass handle.

Small Craftsman broken combo wrench.  Sears didn't have the replacement so they gave me two new wrenches.  Felt right.  

In high school my friend would get caught with crap by the authorities and tell them he found it on the side of the road (weed, counterfeit dollar he made, rolling papers, magic pipe)  

my client had merely found these drugs and was on his way to the police station to turn them in. 
 

Ice chests blow out of trucks and boats. I have picked up several, including a couple of high-quality Marine coolers.

One of those is a 72 quart igloo, and the other one is a 200 quart (that's right, 50 gallons) commercial fish box size.

I've picked up several hand tools, in fact the last time I did I started a thread here on what I called road tools.

Last Thursday there was a really nice 8ft aluminum extension ladder sitting in the middle of the WB Crosstown Expy entrance ramp coming from NB 301. I would of stopped and threw it in my truck but I was running a bit late and I didn't think to stop until a few minutes down the road.

I actually need a ladder since the house I'm renting has 10' ceilings and I need to replace some bulbs and the furnace filter. Dammit

I found a convicted felon's drivers license during an Adopt-A-Highway trash pickup volunteer event. That was weird.

Lot lizards 

Ball peen hammer 30 years ago, still use it with same handle.  More than a few wrenches, 2x4's and, of course, dirty magazines back in the pre internet days.

Twenty bucks. Yes, cash. While driving down a country road, GF said, "Is that money?" regarding the piece of paper fluttering across the road. She screeched to a halt, I jumped out, and grabbed the bill. Someone on a motorcycle noticed it, too, but we beat him to it, as he was turning around, when I got back into the car.

mr2s2000elise said:

Lot lizards 

You don't find Lot Lizards.

They find YOU.

10mm 1/4" drive Snap-on socket. Seriously. In the middle of nowhere. Everyone else is losing 10mm sockets, but I am ahead.

And a jerry can.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Well, 10mm is spectacular ...  but 1/4 drive is not spectacular. But what you scored is still pretty damn good!

I found a welder in the ditch once, drove by thought nah that can't be; went back and it looked like it had been mounted on a service truck bed side and came loose going around a corner. I went to grab my father in law to help me get it loaded and when I got back the actual owner was there so we helped him load it back up. 
 

So close

A new small aluminum hf floor jack 

A neon bumper 

Lots of wreches, sockets, rachets

A new in box microwave

Cooler full of beer. 

Metal and plastic gas cans 

Lawn mower(s) 

Weed eater (s) 

A riding mower 

Half dozen alternators. (2 are on my super charger's) 

I stumbled upon (basically tripped over) some sockets on the side of the road about halfway into a 15mi run. Quick pause to inspect and they were snap on 1/2" drive. I had two full fists and some jingly pockets the rest of the way home. 

Stampie said:

My dream is to build a Challenge car on side of the road freebies. Still looking for light frame rails and an engine. 

Someone put out some form of mopar v8, trans, and transfer case out at the end of their driveway nearby last summer, I didn't have it in me to load an engine at the side of the road.  
 

Is this found as "fell off a truck" or do garbage night scores count?

I find a lot of stuff on the road and usually my Wife will ask, how the hell did you see that?

I once picked up a bungie cord from the side of the road because I was already stopped and it looked new. My kids were little, thought free bungie cords were pretty cool, so it became a game. Every time either of us saw one I would stop and pick it up. If I saw one and they weren't there, I would show it to them when I got home. I had to stop after a year because I literally had close to a hundred bungie cords.

6' aluminum step ladder

Gas cans

Lot's of tools

a SS 2 1/2" ricer muffler that I still have in my shop

One of those really heavy orange work coats with the reflective cross on it. It had keys for a BMW in the pocket so I took it off the road and hung it on a fence post near where I found it

A really nice digital camera that I spent almost a year trying to find the owners of.

I once saw a little black ball of something on the road that was interesting enough that I had to stop and see what it was. It was a brand new Ipod and pair of Beats headphones in a carrying bag. It took a little work to get into the Ipod but we did and were able to find a phone number. I made a call, left a message and it turned out that it belonged to a 9 year old kid passing through town on the way to a lacrosse tournament. They dispatched grandpa to make the 2 hr drive to retrieve it, and if the two page note the kid wrote me was any indication, they were all pretty happy to get it back.

I'm sure I will remember more

Appleseed said:

mr2s2000elise said:

Lot lizards 

You don't find Lot Lizards.

They find YOU.

Then that would make ME the road treasure? 

Backpack style leaf blower fell off a landscape truck as they ran a red light turning left in front of me.  I had to stop short (also trying to run the same light LOL).  I grabbed it before my light turned green.  Traded it to a friend for shop privileges when I didn't have a work space of my own.

I found a GTX fiberglass hood for a Pontiac Grand Prix on the side fo the road.  From the damage, it appeared that thehood latch ripped out of it, allowing it to fly up and rip off the hinges.  We ended up cutting it down and repurposing it as a hood for our "Deathscort", a rallycross rental ad ice racer.

A couple of bricks cocaine.

I stood their and had a 5 min moral arguement with myself then called the police lol

Dad found a dead body once.  He stopped to pee and walked over to the tree line and realized he was standing on a hand.

I have found a ton of the big truck ratchet straps over the years.  My best was a tow-behind rotary compressor like they use on construction sites.  It even ran once I cleaned the carb.  That was a fun trip home with a pintle loop on a hitch ball and a c-clamp to keep it on.

yupididit said:

A couple of bricks cocaine.

I stood their and had a 5 min moral arguement with myself then called the police lol

Having not done drugs ever, what is the street value? GT3RS or Boxster?

I found four washers (2 of one size, 2 of another size) while walking around near the grandstands at the Challenge last year. Does that count? They weren't all together, they were spread out as if someone was doing a weird easter egg type hunt.

I saved them for later use but now I don't remember where I put them. Dangit, could've had "free parking lot washers" on my budget spreadsheet.