Editing Grand Central Terminal (section)

==== Lost-and-found bureau ====
[[File:GCT Police-LaF.jpg|thumb|alt=Doorways into the offices in the terminal|MTA Police and lost-and-found offices]]
Metro-North's lost-and-found bureau sits near Track 100 at the far east end of the Dining Concourse. Incoming items are sorted according to function and date: for instance, there are separate bins for hats, gloves, belts, and ties.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/04/04/archives/new-jersey-pages-parcel-room-lost-found-grand-central-finds.html|title=Parcel Room Lost & Found; Grand Central 'Finds Treasure And Trash Left By Commuters; 'What Was In the Bag?'; False Teeth and Crutches; Systematized Cartons; Commuter Goes Hungry|last=Wald|first=Matthew L.|date=April 4, 1978|website=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331|access-date=January 5, 2019|archive-date=January 6, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190106010615/https://www.nytimes.com/1978/04/04/archives/new-jersey-pages-parcel-room-lost-found-grand-central-finds.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Lombardi 1996" /> The sorting system was computerized in the 1990s.<ref name="Santora 2002" /> Lost items are kept for up to 90 days before being donated or auctioned off.<ref name="CBS New York 2013" /><ref name="Belson 2007" />

As early as 1920, the bureau received between 15,000 and 18,000 items a year.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1920/09/19/archives/strange-finds-on-trains-more-than-15000-articles-turned-in-annually.html|title=Strange Finds on Trains – More Than 15,000 Articles Turned in Annually at Grand Central|date=September 19, 1920|website=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331|access-date=January 5, 2019|archive-date=January 6, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190106010354/https://www.nytimes.com/1920/09/19/archives/strange-finds-on-trains-more-than-15000-articles-turned-in-annually.html|url-status=live}}</ref> By 2002, the bureau was collecting "3,000 coats and jackets; 2,500 cellphones; 2,000 sets of keys; 1,500 wallets, purses and ID's {{sic|expected=IDs}}; and 1,100 umbrellas" a year.<ref name="Santora 2002" /> By 2007, it was collecting 20,000 items a year, 60% of which were eventually claimed.<ref name="Belson 2007" /> In 2013, the bureau reported an 80% return rate, among the highest in the world for a transit agency.<ref name="Carlson 2015" /><ref name="CBS New York 2013" />

Some of the more unusual items collected by the bureau include fake teeth, prosthetic body parts, legal documents, diamond pouches, live animals, and a $100,000 violin.<ref name="Lombardi 1996" /><ref name="Belson 2007" /> One story has it that a woman purposely left her unfaithful husband's ashes on a Metro-North train before collecting them three weeks later.<ref name="CBS New York 2013" /><ref name="Belson 2007" /> In 1996, some of the lost-and-found items were displayed at an art exhibition.<ref name="RN p. 128" />

[[File:Grand Central dining map.png|center|thumb|upright=2.75|alt=A diagram of the terminal's dining level rooms|Floor plan of the Dining Level]]