Only a few days after her first day of college, journalism freshman Trinady Joslin misplaced her keys in her dorm. 

Joslin eventually found her keys under her bed a week later but only after she had already paid $75 to have her locks changed.

“I realized that I had to deal with (the charge) because of my mistake, but after finding the key, I got a little more upset about losing the $75 because it wasn’t necessary,” Joslin said. 

UTPD Lt. Greg Stephenson said keys and student IDs are some of the most common items that are reported lost every day. UTPD Lost and Found receives dozens of these items every week, especially during the beginning of the school year.

“The beginning of the school year, especially the fall semester, since we have so many new students that are adjusting to university life, we definitely see an uptick in students reporting lost items,” Stephenson said. 

When students lose an item, they can report it missing at UTPD’s Lost and Found website. If their item is ever recovered, UTPD will have the student retrieve the item.

Neuroscience freshman Gracelyn Prom said when she lost her wallet in the Student Activity Center, she was able to quickly retrieve it from the UTPD station.

“Losing my wallet made me realize how important all of the things in there was,” Prom said. “I couldn’t drive because I didn’t have my license, and I couldn’t take the bus because I didn’t have any money or my student ID.”

To help UTPD with returning lost items, Stephenson said students can have their personal belongings engraved for free at the UTPD station.

“If it’s anything of value, have it marked with a personal identifier,” Stephenson said. “If you can’t bring all of your items to be marked at the station, we also will loan our engraving supplies out to people, and you can take it back and engrave your own stuff.”

Stephenson said if students have any items with a serial number, they should also register the serial numbers and their property at the UTPD property registration website.

“When you make a lost item report, you can say, ‘I’ve put the serial numbers in the registration and here is my EID,’ and now UTPD will have all the serial numbers that are needed to find your items,” Stephenson said.