What's the Most Useful Item You Found at the Side of the Road?

[JerseyHarold]

In 1978 I saw an adjustable photo flood lamp on a trash heap.  Picked it up and am still using it today.

 

What's your all-time best find?

[JBNeal]

in the summer of '98, I found a pair of lineman's pliers buried 3 feet deep in a ditch, rusted solid, while cleaning out a box culvert that was choked up with very fine black silt...cleaned up, soaked in Marvel Mystery Oil for a month before they broke loose...still using them to this day, them big things will cut copper up to 4AWG, no sweat

[Tooljunkie]

4 empty garbage cans. All stacked together. I always tie mine in. 
they obviously blew out of a truck. 

[Dan Hiebert]

Not one item, but various tools, the vast majority along I-10 in Hudspeth County, TX.  Walked the side of the Interstate, secondary roads, fence lines, drag roads, ranch roads, field roads, pole-lines, etc. looking for people tracks almost every day for 7 1/2 years there.  Found everything from a 1/4" quarter inch socket, to channel locks, crescent wrenches, a set of combination wrenches, 1/2" torque wrench, pliers out the ying-yang, etc.  Some cheap stuff, some good stuff, some weird stuff, but all still in my tool box (except the weird stuff).  Looking down for details on the ground you can find a lot.   Stuff people would put on the hood, trunk, roof, etc. of their car or truck somewhere, forget it was there, then drive off.  That was close the middle of no-where, so no one would even think of going back to look for the things that fell off their car. 

Edited January 14, 2020 by Dan Hiebert
Typo

[busycoupe]

I once found an 5 pound box of eight penny stainless steel ring nails in the middle of the road in front of home depot.  It was a busy road, and the box had broke open.  I picked up what I could.  I used those nails for years for little repair projects around the house, they just ran out last summer.

[T120]

I was driving on country road ,lots of curves, headed down hill to a river valley.I slowed for a sharp curve and spotted a loading ramp off to the side of the road I stopped and put it in my truck, further down the hill I spotted the mate,stopped and picked it up.Twenty miles from the nearest town on a lightly travelled secondary road.I didn't see a trailer anywhere along the road for the next while.No identification on the ramps.

The ramps were well made, constructed using expanded metal and angle iron with good welds. My guess is someone had put them on a flat deck trailer,probably empty, hadn't strapped them down and bouncing along the ramps slipped off on the curves.

I've used them for the last 25 years.

[casper50]

A Stihl extended reach gas pruning saw.  But I got more out of all the soda bottles I picked up as a kid.  Used to make a pretty good haul once a month.  Spent the money on books mostly. lol

[John Rogers]

Back in about 1979 I found a 19" Zildjian crash cymbal in the grass on the side of Hwy 80 about 100 yrds  my house. It must have landed flat and softly because there was no damage  on it at all. Some poor soul probably had their drum kit in the back of their truck and it got blown out by the wind but it was a sweet find seeing as Im a drummer. I also found a small plastic tool box with tools in it. Someone must have left their tailgate open and it slid out and off the road.  "Lawson: was written on it on it I live in a small town so I looked in the phone book and called every person with that last name but no one had lost it. Being a bodyman and mechanic by trade I have all the tools I need so I gave it all to a friend that was in need of tools and he was thrilled with them. I also found a cell phone which had a bit of road rash but still worked. There was still enough of a charge on it that I was able to look in the contacts and found one "Dad" I called the number with my phone and it turned out that "Dad" was an old coworker Dads. His daughter had lost it a few days before. I drove over to his house and gave it to him.  My Dad had died 10 years prior so it really felt good to visit with someone that knew him.

                                     John 

[kencombs]

Not me, but a guy I used to work with found a like new Remington 1100, light 20 in a case.  Laying beside a public hunting area access road.  Likely laid on a trunk or tailgate by a careless hunter.  He posted the find on the bulletin board at the 2 nearest hunting/fishing supply stores.  Never got a response.  He already had a 12, 28 and .410 version.  So that completed his set!

[Todd B]

Found a girl along the road once. Picked her up and she was very useful until the next morning.   
 

[DonaldSmith]

Several years ago, a GM engineer found a DeSoto hubcap by the road, and reported the find to a co-worker who was an active  DeSoto owner.  The DeSoto guy noticed an ad in the club magazine by a poor soul who had lost his hubcap on the way to the DeSoto convention.  Subsequently, I was reunited with my hubcap, which I found most useful.   I gave the club member a DeSoto mug for himself, and another one to convey to his fellow employee.  

[plymouthcranbrook]

Well I found $20 in front of our local Post Office floating in a puddle.  And not technically on a road I found $50 on an amusement park train track.

[Frank Elder]

The shoulder........

[Old CWO]

On 1/13/2020 at 4:42 PM, JBNeal said:

in the summer of '98, I found a pair of lineman's pliers buried 3 feet deep in a ditch, rusted solid, while cleaning out a box culvert that was choked up with very fine black silt...cleaned up, soaked in Marvel Mystery Oil for a month before they broke loose...still using them to this day, them big things will cut copper up to 4AWG, no sweat

 

It's funny you post this, my answer is also Lineman's Pliers.  Sometime around 1988 or so I found a nice pair of red handled Japanese made lineman's pliers sitting on the side of the road at the intersection of Jackson Highway and Ione Road in California.  Back then that was considered "out in the sticks" so finding them laying there all by themselves in good shape seemed odd.  The pliers are still in my toolbox and get used regularly; the cutters are just now starting to get dull.