What do you carry in your car?
Posted by Tom Benjamin
The car is often the place we dump things we don't have a space for in the home and rental cars are yet another spot people use to dump a range of items.
Europcar, one of the leading car rental companies in Europe, has revealed some of the strangest things found in vehicles that were returned to its UK network.
One of the most bizarre things to be left in a rental car was a false leg, which one customer returned to the firm's Liverpool branch.
A mannequin was returned to a branch in Hull, while staff at Europcar Yeovil were surprised to find a set of furry handcuffs and workers at the branch in Hamilton were forced to dispose of 50 fluorescent lightbulbs and a Scottish Piper's Black Ostrich hat, which were left in a vehicle.
Staff at Aylesbury came across a printer in a rented vehicle and the Bradford branch was left with a collapsible wheelchair in the boot of a vehicle.
Worryingly for staff in Reading, an ammunition case and stretcher were found in the boot of a car, as well as half a pint of beer with a CD called The Art of Speed Seduction.
Workers in Salford were surprised and confused to find ten odd pairs of shoes in one returned vehicle.
Ken McCall, managing director for Europcar, said: "There's never a dull day in the life of a hire car as some of these stories and items of lost property reveal. Our staff are always professional and understanding no matter what the reason for late return or damage and often go to great pains to reunite lost and forgotten property with their rightful owners."
As well as items left in their vehicles, Europcar revealed the best excuses for damaged or the late return of vehicles to its branches.
Animals featured heavily on the best excuses list, as a customer in Liverpool blamed damage to their car on a coming together with a cow, a driver in Newcastle claimed a horse sat on the bonnet and damage to a car returned in Newport was blamed on a lion taking a dislike to the car.
A nasty accident with an ice cream, missing keys and a car being lost in a multi-storey car park were all cited as reasons for late return of a car.
I carry ear plugs in my car and an eye mask because I like to park in the shade during lunch and take a 50 minute nap. I also have a vacuum cleaner in the trunk that I’ve been driving around for 6 months because I’ve been too lazy to throw it away. I’m sure it wastes a lot of gas just hauling it around,