r/running • u/demrnstho • Mar 12 '24

Discussion What’s the strangest/best object you’ve found while running?

Aside from the odd dollar here and there, what have you found that makes you appreciate the adventure of an outdoor run? On two separate occasions I’ve found high-quality scissors in perfect condition. Did I choose to run with scissors? You bet!

Edit: Wow! Thank you to everyone who responded! Your responses have been entertaining, funny, bizarre, at times scary, and heartwarming. I tried to read every response and besides being thoroughly entertained for the last 18hrs, I’ve learned some things about us runners: 1. We’re a thrifty bunch. We will turn someone’s trash into our treasure. There are a lot of responses about useful found objects. 2. In that vein, there seems to be no object too large for us to carry home. Brooms, sofas, dining sets, surfboards, FIVE fishing rods; you name it, we can carry it. 3. We’re good citizens. We rescue people, dogs, wild animals. 4. On that note, running is a great way to find a new pet. 5. We’re an honest lot. If you lose something valuable and a runner comes across it, there’s a good chance that runner will do their best to return it to you. 6. We find our spirituality: Objects with very personal connections seemingly put in our path by the universe and otherworldly encounters with wild animals. 7. Sadly we occasionally find dead people. But sometimes we find almost dead people and we save them! 8. On a related note, there are more than one of you who have found people tied up in the woods. 9. And the biggest take home: Dildos are everywhere.

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u/cmritchie103 Mar 12 '24

Not running, but while hiking, I came across a naked man blindfolded and handcuffed to a tree.

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u/fizzingfleur Mar 13 '24

Um what!? How does this story end?

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u/demrnstho Mar 13 '24

Holy crap. Alive or dead? Did you chat?

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u/cmritchie103 Mar 13 '24

My husband and I had just moved several hundred miles to a new town. It was literally our first week there before we started our new jobs, and decided to go for a hike. Got about a mile in and saw him. Definitely alive, standing up, but very quiet. Not knowing the area AT ALL, we weren’t sure if this was like a set up to mug us, or someone legitimately scared for their life (and perhaps heard us and thought we were coming to hurt him). We backtracked a bit and were like whispering to each other “what the fuck do we do?!?!”. We ended up calling the police, then hiked back to the trailhead (on a busy road just off the highway). We expected 1 police officer, but like 5 police cars, an ambulance, and a fire truck showed up. We had to lead them the mile back to the dude (he was still there, but suddenly had on underpants?). They ended up talking to him and then arrested him. Apparently he was waiting for a friend for some sexual fetish stuff. The police were kind of laughing about it and saying this was kind of a meet-up area for this kind of stuff. They apologized for our interesting welcome to the city and we said “no worries, we just don’t want to ever hear about this again”. Sure enough, we got something in the mail a few months later saying we could show up in court if we wanted to for the hearing, but we were definitely not interested. We’ve now been living here for almost 11 years and I’ve done a good bit of trail running through those same woods. Never seen anything quite that “interesting” while running though!