The requisite two weeks had passed and it was on my ‘to do list’: head to MTA Lost and Found to reclaim the lost umbrella. [MTA calls it Lost Property on the sign outside the door.] Figured by this time, they should have a boatload of them. Arrive and the small room is crowded. Every one of the ‘clients’ is acting more or less civil, to each other and the man behind the window. Out of six, one man is given his lost item! He recovered what would have been a movie-camera-sized-case in days gone by, choccy-block full of the most miscellaneous items I have seen a man carry. I didn’t think to ask him how long it had taken for his bag to be found, as he was busy telling his side of the story that MTA wanted him to list everything in it. That is why he was displaying the contents… “How do I list all this?” he was asking. One lady was trying to pick up a found item belonging to her husband, she needed to bring not only his ID, she needed to go to a notary to have a permission slip by him authorizing her to pick up his goods. She had a chewed-on postcard she had received in the mail and she worked for MTA. A third lady was hoping to find her mobile phone. We all thought or some said- ‘Good luck with that’. An admitted non-believer in the system, I held little hope for any of them. A man in a MTA uniform entered the room, from the outside and rang the buzzer to be admitted to the inter-sanctum. I asked him if the place was packed with all kinds of stuff. He smiled, what to me was a knowing smile and said “Yes, we have a lot of stuff”. That gave me hope for my umbrella. But then my turn came. I handed in my computer print-out. Mr. Behind-the-Window, left and returned. No umbrella. “You have got to have a number of these”, I said incredulously. “Hot item”, he replied.