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Missing your cellphone, bookbag or lunch box that you accidentally left behind on a SEPTA ride? Odds are, you haven’t lost it forever, and it’s waiting for you.

Every day, forgotten items turn up regularly on buses, trains and trolleys across the transit system. If a conductor or a good Samaritan finds them, they’re typically sent to one of SEPTA’s lost-and-found locations for safekeeping until claimed.

Bucks County resident Adam Walker lucked out with the lost-and-found service.

One January morning this year, he just had his fare ticket punched at Langhorne Station on the West Trenton Line, when he realized that he left his car unlocked. The train was fast approaching.

“I sprint back to my car and lock it up and I ran back,” said the Hatsboro/Newtown man. “Sometime in that whole skedaddle, my small wallet fell out of my pocket.”

Walker did not realize his wallet was missing until he was on the train heading to work in Center City, when the conductor was checking train tickets. Walker called the ticket office at Langhorne several times before doing what he described as “one of the worst things,” waking up his family “at 7:20 in the morning.”

“I’m like, ‘Can you guys drive down there and see if this little black wallet is sitting on the platform?’” he said.

His family was not able to locate the wallet. Meanwhile, the conductor gave him a ticket to get to the city.

When Walker reached 30th Street Station, he called SEPTA’s lost and found. He said he was thinking of the worst-case scenario if he didn’t find his wallet.

“I’m just going to cancel all my cards,” he said. “I’m just going to buy another new driver’s license, which I got only a month prior.”

But none of that was necessary. By 9:30 that morning, Walker received a call from the agency that they had his wallet at the lost and found at Suburban Station. He eventually found out another passenger at Langhorne turned it in about 20 minutes after his train left.

Is there one central hub for lost and found items on SEPTA?

For Regional Rail, found items are held temporarily at the passenger services office at Suburban Station in Center City. Items left behind on the Broad Street Line, also known as the B, are turned in at Fern Rock Transit Center and held at SEPTA headquarters on Market Street. Abandoned items on the Market-Frankford Line, the L, are taken to 69th Street Transit Center. The depots hold any unclaimed belongings retrieved from buses and trolleys.

Bart McQuoid, director of SEPTA customer service, said, on average, at least 1,000 items are left behind on SEPTA each month. He said they run the gamut from wallets, IDs, key cards and “a ton of cellphones.”

“People will leave a whole laptop, which you carried on to a vehicle,” McQuoid said.

Recently, WHYY News toured the SEPTA lost-and-found storage at Suburban Station. The space itself is a back room, about the size of a walk-in closet. Smaller items are placed in a tub labeled with the day the item is turned in. There is also a section for larger items, like suitcases and backpacks.

“I need more space,” said Pat Cantwell, a station manager who oversees the lost-and-found room. “We get slammed. It’s hard to keep up with in general.”

Though Philadelphia hosted several large events in the last month, including World Cup matches, the MLB All-Star Game and celebrations to mark America’s 250th anniversary, there has not been a large influx of lost items.

“I would say it’s been roughly about the same,” he said. “You do get some people that have left the All-Star bags, fresh hats, all that stuff.”

How long are items held?

McQuoid said items are generally held for 30 days; however, there are some caveats with that, like food.

“Anything that is perishable, you might as well forget about it,” he said, unless the lunchbox was left within minutes. “We cannot hold onto [food] because we don’t know how long it’s been there.”

Most unclaimed items, McQuoid said, are donated. Abandoned bank cards, IDs and other items with personal information are destroyed. Cantwell said SEPTA makes every effort to return those items to owners before destroying them.

“We send letters out as soon as they get them,” Cantwell said. “If they don’t ever respond, we can’t hold onto it forever. So, all their identification would get shredded.”

Walker, the Bucks County man who was able to retrieve his lost wallet, said he is a self-described “huge nerd” when it comes to SEPTA who keeps up with the workings of the agency. He noted that shortly after his situation, SEPTA posted a blog article about its lost and found.

Since the incident, Walker has bought a magnetic card holder that attaches to his mobile phone to carry his essentials. He suggests people who travel regularly on public transportation get to know conductors, operators and public service people who work on a line regularly.

“These people are really, really trying to help and they’re very generous,” Walker said. “I can’t stress that enough.”