Has anyone ever FOUND a flashlight?

aginthelaw

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 28, 2007
Messages
2,655
Location
NJ, USA
I guess it's because i notice things with my former training and experience, but i recently found 2 flashlights laying on the highway, 2 different times in the past week on my ride home. The first one was a keychain light using button cells but it was bright enough to get my attention while weaving in and out of traffic. I made a u-turn and parked and walked gingerly towards the highway. i picked it up and found it was halfway decent quality, with a metal case. no scratches, still intact, and even had a fairly sturdy tail clicky.

the other one i found was a dome light. why that was in the roadway is beyond me. it was about 2 inches in diameter,4 red led's, with a red diffusing cover. it might have been rigged as a bike light, as it was flashing when i found it.

couple months ago, i found a maglite minimag. it was in bad shape: no tail cap, no lens, reflector was fogged up, the bulb was intact. i doubt it will ever be in working condition again, unless i send it off to someone to chop it in half and make a single 14500 light out of it. at my old job, i went thru cars that were on their way to the trash heap. i found a brand new incan 3d maglite with 3 batteries in it. the batteries were corroded, but for some reason they were sealed in plastic. i don't know if the former owner stored it that way or what.

in some of the police cars i went thru, also going on the trash heap, i found sl-20 flashlights, mag chargers, strions and stingers, incan and led models! as well as a few other things that had to be tagged as evidence (who taught these guys to search a prisoner?)
 

firsttothescene

Enlightened
Joined
Sep 9, 2015
Messages
304
A few years back I found a stream light stylus lit up in the middle of the street. It was demolished but still worked. So I took it in to a stream light dealer and he gave me a brand new one, no questions asked!
 

Poppy

Flashaholic
Joined
Dec 20, 2012
Messages
8,359
Location
Northern New Jersey
I once found a idk $6 single AA Rayovac lying in the street at an intersection.
It was pretty obvious that it had been through a motor vehicle torture test :whistle: it was all scratched up, a bit bent, and the lens was spider webbed. But it was still working, and so was the tail cap clicky switch.

I couldn't get the tail cap off and before the battery ran out, I tossed it. But I was impressed with the beating that this light must have taken and still kept ticking :)
 

Illum

Flashaholic
Joined
Apr 29, 2006
Messages
13,053
Location
Central Florida, USA
I've found several, mostly the 3AAA cluster LED types.

Where I live the road is straight til you hit a bend. speed limit is 35 but people go 55 and then proceed to negotiate the 15mph bend with whatever brake pressure then can apply in a hurry. Once awhile when I ride my bicycle at night I find goodies either by the road or in the ditch alongside it. included but not limited to:
Flashlights
PVC fittings
cresent wrench
16" crowbar
spare tire [later retrieved by owner]
handtruck [later retrieved by owner]
Beer cans
Soda cans
5 gallon buckets
socks
hats
pieces of landscape wood
children's toys
 

aginthelaw

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 28, 2007
Messages
2,655
Location
NJ, USA
just today i found a set of jumper cables at the end of a dirt road i was delivering to, in its own carrying case. i asked the guys at the shop if it looked familiar, they said no. they don't use them because their trucks have a port that you plug into, with the positive/negative clamps at one end of a cable and the plug for the truck at the other end. they told me to keep it. i tossed it in the trunk with a set of socket wrenches i found a few blocks away a month before. why cant i find a sealed bag of money dropped off an armored car?
 

aginthelaw

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 28, 2007
Messages
2,655
Location
NJ, USA
A few years back I found a stream light stylus lit up in the middle of the street. It was demolished but still worked. So I took it in to a stream light dealer and he gave me a brand new one, no questions asked!
.

wonder if i could do that with the maglite
 

parnass

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 11, 2005
Messages
2,576
Location
Illinois, USA
My wife found an incandescent D-cell Maglite w/batteries in the road and it worked OK.

I found a beat up Maglite Solitaire (without the tail cap) in a parking lot.

I've found many more tools than flashlights. The most recent tool find was a like-new pitchfork.
 

ch4ins4w

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Dec 9, 2015
Messages
69
A few years ago, I found a cool looking, but cheap led flashlight in the bottom of a cattle guard in the pasture. I gave it to my son and he used it for a couple years. He lost it playing airsoft war with his friends. Two years later, we found it sitting on a rockpile in the middle of another pasture. So I found the same light twice.
 

aginthelaw

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 28, 2007
Messages
2,655
Location
NJ, USA
I had a dream about finding a flashlight last night. Went to work today and lo and behold I found a 272 Lumen aa led minimag laying on the ground. It didn't work so i came home for lunch emptied it out, and put in a fresh batteries. Works fine. Has a chip on the bezel from getting dropped, other than that, it's going back to work. Not the one I dreamed about finding but it works for me
 

TMedina

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Dec 17, 2006
Messages
1,737
It's kind of cheating, but I found a Surefire M600 Scout weapon light just lying on the ground. Out in the middle of nowhere, with nary a soul in sight.

Granted, this was in the middle of LSA Anaconda in Iraq...

Word to the wise, use dummy cord to secure your weapon light to your rifle, on the off-chance the thumbscrew becomes loose.
 

idlplumb

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jun 13, 2011
Messages
18
I found a streamlight led stinger DS laying in the road here in Los Angeles a few years ago. Still have that light and I love it! It had been ran over a few times and part of the body was bent where the tail cap screws in but not enough to keep it from screwing in properly.
 

Wrongway

Newly Enlightened
Joined
May 3, 2017
Messages
20
Location
Cumbria, UK
I found a large D cell Maglite in the toilets/washroom on a campsite. I handed it in at reception and checked when leaving. Luckily the owner had checked as a last resort and was given it back. Nice outcome.
 
Top