What would you do if you found a wallet, a sword, or even some discarded underwear on the street?

These items – and many more – can be found on a list documenting everything handed in to Watford’s police station in 2011. And it makes for interesting reading.

The goods are stored alongside evidence inside the Shady Lane station, waiting for their owners to come to claim them.

As you may expect, one of the most frequent entries is “cash container”, which includes 237 wallets and 169 purses.

Harder to understand though is how not one, but two, people mislaid their safe.

More typical items include 95 sets of keys either dropped on the street or left behind, and 216 logs of people handing in cash.

Inconveniently 147 people lost their passports, and more worryingly five people lost their birth certificates.

Scores of weapons were also given in at the station, including 48 knives, four swords and a dozen guns, including firearms as well as air and BB guns.

Onto more valuable finds. Three “antiques”, four televisions, a violin and a guitar were handed in.

Four animals, including three dogs, looking for a home found their way to the station, as did three pairs of pants and two tents.

Gardeners need not feel left out either as a chainsaw, generator and a hedge trimmer were handed in, as was an electricity meter.

Even some scuba-diving equipment was given in.

Other items handed in before 2011 include a till receipt, a wheel and tyre, a hearing aid, cigars, fishing equipment and a ladder.

The police have several methods of disposing of the property if it is not claimed by the owner, including sale at auction, destruction or returning it to the finder.

A separate list shows how several lucky people were allowed to keep what they’d found including cash, jewellery and a pedal cycle.