I am not sure if this is a typically British thing or whether it is worldwide, students stealing (OK borrowing) such things as traffic cones, keep left bollard and assorted other pieces of street furniture or other souvenirs'.

When I was talking about it to Ren I was wondering how widespread it is so decided to make it a thread in here, her suggestion was that we should offer a prize for the best offering - perhaps a bollard or a trip to Sheffield.

Does it happen all over the world?
What is the strangest object you or your friends have borrowed?
What everyday objects have you borrowed?
What the devil do you do with them once you leave university/college?

My daughter had a traffic cone, I got fed up with looking at it so tied a ribbon around it and gave it to my friend for her birthday as she was wanting one to place outside her house to stop people taking her parking spot.

My daughter's fiance has a keep left bollard in his study, no idea how long he intends to keep it.

My son, his wasn't a piece of street furniture, it was a piece of laboratory equipment from university, the less said about that the better. I don't know what he did with it when he left his student accommodation, probably left it for the next students who rented the house.

Edited for typos and to add this link which shows what a keep left bollard is for those who don't understand, they are those yellow and white things in the middle of the road with the blue arrows.

Ren found me an even better one the bollard is the one under the traffic cone (except my daughter's was the traditional red and white striped design)

Over here it's very common practise among students. I lived in a dorm for a while and there was loads of stuff standing/hanging around. The most annoying thing was this car wash sign, about 1.5 m high, "car" written on one side and "wash" on the other. If you passed it fast enough, the sign would spin around. Another "trophy" was a huge (1.5 x 6 m) banner that someone had brought home from a skiing trip. It said "slow down" in 5 different languages and used to stand on a dangerous crossing of trails. Which made it a bit of an irresponsible thing to steal, if you ask me.

What happens with the souvenirs after you graduate? You just leave them in the lounge of your dorm, and the next generation of students is stuck with them.

Here in the states it happens all the time. Common stolen items include traffic cones (of which I have had several in my trunk in my time), the flashing lights from the tops of Road Closed barricades, sometimes the barricades themselves, and any type of street sign one can get their hands one. Occasionally, a traffic accident will leave street signs bent over and ripe for the picking. I think my friends once stashed a STOP sign in my trunk. I'm not sure I've ever been brazen enough to steal anything like that though, I've just been the resting place for such items.

However, I DID go through a phase of stashing restaurant menus in my bag before leaving. I have one from the Hard Rock Cafe in Berlin, and also one from the rotating restaurant atop the TV tower, also in Berlin, and a few others. Come to think of it, I also went through a phase of collecting telephone books from hotels I stayed at. At one time I had a collection of phone books from places such as Washington, DC, Berlin, San Diego, CA, Jacksonville, NC and a few others. Pretty much any place I visited while in high school, actually. That collection was recycled some time back.

I can attest to Lothruin's statement that it happens all the time here in the states. I'm embarrassed to say that while I was still in high school, I was helping some male friends "acquire" their road signs as they were heading off to college soon. I lived near a tunnel in the mountains that had road signs on each side telling drivers to "Turn Lights On" when approaching and "Turn Lights Off" after leaving the tunnel. These friends had their signs prominently displayed in their dorm rooms along with others acquired at other times. One time a singer/songwriter (who shall remain nameless) came to town and these friends befriended this artist and invited him back to their room for drinks. When the singer entered their room, he said "Hey, I know where those came from", and proceeded to tell them exactly where they got them (many miles and a state away). I have no idea what eventually became of their signs; I didn't have any in my dorm room when I went to college.

My brother has a 'stop' sign on his bedroom door, it's one of the really huge ones. He also has a 'Danger deep water' and another one which I can't remember.
We have a shopping trolly in our back garden that my Dad found and brought home. One time my brother and I thought it would be fun to let the dog (who is only a Jack Russell cross) pull it while we sat in it. This led to us both falling out and having big bumps on our heads for a few weeks after.
I've got one of those orange flashing lights that go on top of traffic cones.

I have a collection of flashing construction lights. I used to hide them all over my room, and people would wonder why my furniture was flashing! It took weeks for some of them to run down. I also have a light from one of those really big tall street lights. I didn't nick it from the actual light, but from the side of the road when the council workers left it unattended. It's quite useful for parties, because I can light up the whole house with one light

I used to go out with a group of friends looking for the more cliche road signs, like 'dangerous curves ahead' and 'slippery when wet', so i have a few of them.

Ahh, those were the days

We had some crime scene tape strung up in our living room.
I also had a street sign of a street that was named after me. Well, ok, maybe I just shared the name...

The best thing, though, was not mine but my Mom's. She was working at University of Wisconsin at the time so maybe that counts? Anyway, a large cemetery was scrapping old tombstones, so my Mom and her friend, um, "rescued" one. It was beautiful, had a bas relief pieta on it. But we don't really know what it said as it was in Polish. We kept in in the non-working fireplace in the living room for years. Great conversation piece.

In a news story this morning, I heard that the town of Eugene, OR, home of the University of Oregon, has had to replace the "High Street" sign over 350 times because it is such a popular souvenir with the students at the University.

In a related peice of news, (actually, I hope it's not related) a man was killed in a traffic accident here last night. The stop sign had been removed, and he drove out onto the highway.

Oh, Agony - makes you think.

A girl I was working with and myself spent a summer collecting things like that - I was backpacking at the time and kept our souvenirs in the roof of the place we were working - signs, witches hats, lights, soap dispensers, people shoes who were silly enough to let me get a closer look at and so on .. .There was quite a collection there. We were going to dispose of them at the end of the job but the bosses had come up for the weekend we were leaving and we didn't get the opportunity to remove everything so it stayed there. Can't imagine why anyone would want to go into the roof so who knows? perhaps they are still there.

Quote:

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In a related peice of news, (actually, I hope it's not related) a man was killed in a traffic accident here last night. The stop sign had been removed, and he drove out onto the highway.

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How awful! I've heard of this happening before. Because of this, I've never fully trusted crossing intersections that didn't have a sign of some sort.