I Just Had The Most Interesting Conversation At My Local Lane

[GeoLes]

I just finished my lunchtime practice and the guy at the desk told me that he had just given 40 used bowling balls to the local school. They had just had their entire special needs Highschool group in for bowling and left with a bunch of used balls. They are going to do art projects with them. (Paint them and Place them in the garden.) These balls were not house balls, rather, they were "left-overs" from bowlers who either did not want them or forget their persoanl balls,leaving them on the ball return and never coming back to reclaim them. He said, if I see a personal ball on the return, it was mine to keep.

He does not keep them for in house use because he has lots of kids parties. Heavy, finger tip balls are easliy dropped by kids, so he does not keep them on the racks to avoid injury.

That means to me, if I see a personal ball on the return when assigned a lane, I can turn it over to the desk. If the owner does not come back in a reasonable amount of time, the ball is mine to be redrilled?

It would be nice to just stick it in my bag, as he suggested, but suppose I left a new ball in haste, drove home, realized I forgot it and came back only to find it gone already. It would be nice to be able to return in a reasonal amount of time and reclaim it. Also incentive to have your ball personalized.

With reasonable fairness rules in place, the "Left and found" is another potential source of bowling balls.

[Greenday]

If I somehow left a ball at a place and came back that same day and the house gave it away, they'd be buying me a brand new bowling ball or there would be hell to pay.

I'd understand holding it for a week and then giving it away, but less than that seems like an irresponsible practice to me.

[GeoLes]

I have to disagree.

If you leave your new Storm bowling ball unattended to buy a beer between games, it's fair game for me. Your bad is my gain. :)

Seriously, you make a lot of sense. There should be a reasonable amount of time to redeem a forgotten item. That's where the "left and found" comes in.

[dnhoffman]

If he has a lost and found and no one ever claims it.... That's ok.

If he's snaking people's balls and hiding them that's shady... But I can't see anyone actually doing that

[billf]

We "had" an employee taking balls donated for the youth leagues and selling them as his own used balls. One guy donated a Black Widow and saw an adult using it a few days later. He questioned the guy and then went to the owner. New employment was needed lol

[HughScot]

There is a law that applies that requires the place to hold the ball for a certain length of time before they can just throw it away or keep it. I'm not a lawyer but you can't just take other people's property and do with it as you like.

[billf]

True and that even applies if they leave it at your house!

[Hampe]

Who the hell forgets bowling balls at an alley? How is that even possible? I can get leaving a towel or shoes or something small, but a BALL? Really?


I guess that's one more reason to clean all your balls well after playing :)

[stumblintowards100]

Who the hell forgets bowling balls at an alley? How is that even possible? I can get leaving a towel or shoes or something small, but a BALL? Really?


I guess that's one more reason to clean all your balls well after playing :)

Luckily I've never done it, but with as much alcohol consumed by some of our league rollers (myself included), I can see it happening.

[Hampe]

Luckily I've never done it, but with as much alcohol consumed by some of our league rollers (myself included), I can see it happening.Yea I suppose....don't know if I've seen anybody getting that wasted at league games here before. I've gotten pretty smashed playing and drinking all night with buddies to where the next day, I couldn't remember putting my ball away. I'd be worried about it until I got back to the center that week and find my balls still in their locker. I have seen guys so frustrated with bowling that they just take one of their balls that wasn't doing what they wanted and put it in the rack and leave it there (these are the guys who buy new balls every month). I think that's actually how most of the house fingertip balls got "donated" :D.

[TCJ]

I am aware of one incident in which a bowler was so mad after bowling that he walked up to the rack and slammed his fairly new bowling ball down onto it, then he left. A bowler that I know saw him do it, so he decided to keep an eye on it. After about a week had passed and the man hadn't claimed it, he asked the counter about it, waited another week (I think) and then took it for himself.