Dry-Cleaners Find Many Valuables In Garments

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29717, 10 January 1962, Page 10

Dry-Cleaners Find Many Valuables In Garments

After seven years of searching the pockets of gar lents sent to a city dry-cleaning firm, Mr R. Spackman is still amazed at what he finds. He has found money totalling £l5OO, wallets, letters, documents. spanners, razor-blades and keys. One in 10 garments—especially men’s clothing—was likely to have something in the pockets, said the general manager of the firm <Mr D L. TSylor). The most common find* were threepences, sixpence* and keys. The fob pockets in men’s trousers yielded a lot of snail change The search was primarily to find objects which might cause damage. Mr Taylor said Worst among these were lipstick, razor-blades, knives, sharp brooches and ball-point pens. "The pens.” he added, “are the dry-cleaner’s nightmare. In the old days, when we used spirits for clec.n ! ng. we kept a special look-out for wax matches.” Money Retamed Useless things like pencil stubs and old tickets are discarded. Documents, objects of value, and money are put into envelopes and an effort is made to return them to their owners. Often spectacles and pens fall out of pockets during han Hing. These are put in envelopes, marked with the date, to await the owner’s claim. The biggest find known to Mr Taylor was £360 in notes, found in the inside pocket -f a man’s jacket. He recalled a recent case where the owner of a £5 note pleaded: “Please don’t let my wife know about it" Occasionally, the factory received garments with the

pockets full, and obviously i unsearched. The factory was; often visited by customers* who were convinced somei missing article was in the! pocket of a garment sent for cleaning. “They are usu-lly w’rong.’’ Mr Taylor said. I