Pair of dice lost? They may end up in Found

One ordinary day, you’re walking down the street, and suddenly something glinting in the sun catches your eye. Maybe it’s a quarter, maybe just a piece of tin foil. But maybe, just maybe, it’s a treasure; a lost key, a dime-store ring, a fork flattened by years of traffic. You bend down to get a closer look, and then, when no one is looking, slip it in your pocket. And you’re not alone.

Just look through the pages of Found magazine. Created in 2001 by Davy Rothbart and his co-publisher, Jason Bitner, the yearly magazine publishes hundreds of what Rothbart calls “finds”: discarded ticket stubs, old birthday cards, notebook doodles, ripped-up love notes, grocery lists, yellowed photographs, lost homework assignments, rusty keys and other detritus galore, plucked from trash bins and sidewalks across the globe.

Found’s contents are sometimes bizarre, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes downright hilarious, and other times a combination of all three.

This year Rothbart has cobbled together a greatest hits of Found magazine in a book titled “Found: The Best Lost, Tossed, and Forgotten Items From Around the World” (Fireside Books, $14).

It all began as a hobby for Rothbart, but Found has quickly became a phenomenon. “I didn’t realize so many people shared this fascination. It’s become a gigantic, collaborative art project.”

Its appeal, he says, comes from the fact that people are naturally curious.

“We’re surrounded by strangers all the time, walking up city streets, waiting at bus stops. And you don’t know what’s going on in people’s hearts and minds. Found provides little snapshots of those people.”