Phones, documents and wallets: what is most often lost in Barcelona

At the end of 2024, the municipal lost property office was storing 701 mobile phones, 647 DNI cards, and hundreds of wallets, purses, and keys. These are the stars of an involuntary ranking that reveals what Barcelonans—and tourists—lose most often.

The phenomenon is on the rise: since 2021, the city council has catalogued each item separately, and in just four years the number of lost items has almost doubled. Public transport tops the statistics: last year alone, the metro and buses handed in 17,257 items, ahead of the 13,404 from the Guardia Urbana or the 6,693 from the Mossos.

Many never make it back to their owners. Official documents are returned to the administration that issued them, while mobile phones, tablets, and laptops are wiped before being recycled or reused. The office, overflowing, is at once an archive of forgotten things and a mirror of the city’s fast-paced life.