I've picked up a lot of good tools and equipment over the years... Full size commercial moving blanket, nearly new and NOT HF! Eighteen inch breaker bar with 1/2" articulating head. A nearly new truck mud flap with a raised letter Mexican business address and phone #. Craziest pick story is from a friend. He was making a long haul on an interstate and didn't have time to stop for an item as it just wasn't safe at the time but took note of the mile marker. A week later on the return trip south he remembers the mile marker, gets off an exit and heads back to the mile marker. The item is there just where he saw it a week ago! What was it!? A slightly road rashed Snap-On 1/2" air impact wrench. Remember, SAFETY FIRST! Make good decisions. Please don't endanger yourself or others.
10 ft Werner fiberglass ladder and a box of construction tools - Laying in the middle of 2 lane highway. Jorge written on most of it. Small floor jack, bottle jack, and an aluminum wheel on I55. Don't know why they didn't take them with. Lots of lumber, hitch receivers over the years.
One time a nearly complete Craftsman wrench set. Up to 1 1/4". Some were pounded into the blacktop hard enough that I needed a screwdriver to get them out. Another time I see a large socket hit the bounce up from a truck and take out my windshield. The next week at the same place stop and pick up the same socket.
I found this pair of Snap-On pliers on a small county road. I stopped at the Fire Station, cleaned them up and put them in the pocket of my "bunker" coat. They were used frequently on all types of calls for over 25 years. I retired as a volunteer Fireman after 30 years and now the pliers are in my tool drawer. I think they miss the fire station and I just might have to find a fireman who could use them.
Found a 15" Crescent wrench on the highway. Then a nice hand truck/dolly another time. Still using both.
Living within walking distance from the Sagamore bridge as a kid I used to go up on the bridge late at night with my Rayovac flashlight and grab all the change that drivers threw off the bridge and missed making the canal, I did well on weekends.
mac tools 3/8 ratchet, snap on 1/4" wobble extension, lowes 5/8 combo wrench, various adjustable wrench's snap on 1/4 " drive 1/2 " socket, etc- it pays to watch out while driving
Lots of tow straps ( the type that big rig hold down their loads with).few tools in front of my shop on the Main Street as I work in a complex , people leave the tools on the motors or Fender Wells excetera and take the car for a test drive and they fall out
Back when I had to carry a pager (remember those) for work I was working a swing shift but first thing in the morning I was on a personal parts run on the I-10 freeway. There was a perfect condition 6 foot Werner fiberglass step ladder on the shoulder. So of course I stopped and picked it up. When I got home I couldn't find my pager. Looked all over and finally drove back to where I picked up the ladder. There on the shoulder was my pager, undamaged. Later that day on my way to work I drove past a broken down lumber truck in the exact spot where I found my pager. If I hadn't gone back for the pager that "free" ladder would have cost me a long ass memo about how my pager was run over and probably the cost of a new pager.
Used to find quite a few hand tools when I was traveling the state on service calls. Not on the road much anymore and it seems anything I find is now is from China; although I did find a nice pair of MAC vise grips last week. Came across a engine driven welder in the middle of the street a block from my house once. Horsed it over to side so nobody would run into it while contemplating how to get it in my Suburban; but of course the guys that lost it returned. Took the three of us a lot of effort to get it back in their truck.
I help out on the yearly roadside cleanup day, here's me a month ago. This year got a rubber wheel chock, which I'm currently using, a pool sweep and some plumbing fittings. My partner across the road found a baggie of pot, about a 'lid'. Offered it to me but I said "No no no no, I don't smoke it no more..".
Bank deposit bag stuffed with money, another tine a hand bag. I'm as honest as the day is long returned all. 1/2 " air ratchet that I kept. Ralphie
Found this last week, there wasn't a jack tho.. Also found a 700R4 transmission sitting off the side of the interstate.
As much as I enjoy getting free stuff, I would prefer that people not let tools or other things fall of their vehicles. I've spent too much money over the years repairing damage caused by these things getting flung up in traffic. Worst thing I was unable to avoid was a shovel. That one hurt.
One of those huge industrial size zip ties. The person that left it there must have known I'd be by with a broken tail pipe hanger one day.
Over the years the occasional socket or hand wrench. A Snap-on cotter pin extractor ( black handle, chrome shaft looks like a double bent ice pick ) One of those H/F little $9 batt / charge sys testers One head from a V-6 scrap An aluminum elbow coupler 4 or 5 inch throat, from a gasoline tank truck 2 blocks from home, set out for trash day, an old, heavy, no name top box empty tool chest
Never found anything of value but I did lose a 3/4" snap-on end wrench off a truck running board. Watched it in the mirror as it went end over end and into the storm sewer...never saw it again.
lotsa wheels, guess people forget to put the one with the blown/flat tire back in the trunk - often notice tools shifting around on top of the bumpers of trucks going down the road, try to stay well back from those - went 60 miles to a job last week on 99 and when I got there found a screwdriver on my bumper that held on the whole way, guess I drive like an old man now
Bottle jack, Snap On 9/16 combination wrench, OTC pry bar, pilots survival knife, screwdrivers and a few dollars in cash. To be clear, these items were not all found at the same time…
We (young kids) found a large cooler full of ice and liquor on a gravel road. never did find out where it came from but hay good times.RLS
A cordless Milwaukee drill in the middle of a gravel road. The 18 volt ones popular with contractors. I don’t have a charger for it, so use it seldom, but a year later it still has a charge.
Many years ago I had a 50 ford with a 6cyl that smoked like a fog machine. A guy I worked with looked out in front of his house one day and there was a new short block strapped to a pallet laying in the road. He drug it in the yard with his garden tractor, and asked me to come over and try and identify it. Sure enough, the motor for my ford, purchased right
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