A python, a winning EuroMillions lottery ticket, Harry Potter's wand and breast implants: just some of the bizarre items left in UK hotel rooms last year
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A python, a winning EuroMillions lottery ticket, Harry Potter's wand, breast implants, a bucket of live crabs and a diamond-encrusted iPhone have topped a list of the most bizarre items people have left behind in hotel rooms.
Budget hotel chain Travelodge has named some of the items relegated to their lost and found offices across the country last year.
Topping the most unusual items was a pet python called Monty who was discovered by a staff member in a room at the Bristol Severn View hotel.
While the company found several weird, wonderful and rare items mislaid, it said the 10 most popular items left behind were phone and laptop chargers, pyjamas or clothes, teddy bears, toiletry bags, books, electrical items including laptops and tablets, satnavs, mobile phones, electric toothbrushes and bags or suitcases.
The company said that during the last 12 months, more then 20,000 books were left behind in its hotel rooms - 7,000 of which were Fifty Shades Of Grey.
Travelodge staff also reunited 76,500 forgotten cuddly bears with their owners.
With more than 13 million people staying in the company's hotels each year, it said it was finding the busy lifestyles of its customers were resulting in items being temporarily mislaid.
Shakila Ahmed, from Travelodge, said: "Each year our lost and found departments provide plenty of revelations.
"From keys to a Bugatti, Harry Potter's original wand, a micro pig, breast implants to a script from a well-known British soap programme, our customers' left-behinds demonstrate what a cross-section of people stay in our 527 hotels.
"What is becoming evident after speaking to customers is that the pace of life has become so fast and we are so eager to get from A to B that priceless possessions are easily being forgotten."
One customer must have thought his luck had deserted him after placing his winning EuroMillions ticket under his mattress for safe keeping, but oversleeping in the morning and forgetting to pick it up.
The owner of two tickets to the Olympics - for what later became known as Super Saturday - quickly realised his mistake after leaving them at the hotel and rushing back before the events had started.
More mysterious objects included a pantomime horse, a pair of breast implants left by a guest who was en route to London for a cosmetic operation, a script for a soap opera, a box of 200 Queen Elizabeth masks and a wand - worth £2,000 - that was used in the Harry Potter films.
At Basildon Wickford Travelodge an 8ft pop-up spray tanning booth was left behind by a group of girls nursing their hangovers.
A Persian chinchilla kitten participating in a cat show at the NEC was left at Birmingham Airport Travelodge when the owner was in such a dash to get to the show that she forgot the cat box containing the kitten named Porsha.
A bucket of live crabs was found by staff at the Brighton Seafront branch and a micro pig called Percy at Glasgow Cumbernauld.
More valuable items included a wedding ring found at Carlisle Central after a couple who were staying there got married at Gretna Green.
The hotel said the bride was relieved when she realised where the ring was, having only worn it for a few hours.
At the Oxford Peartree hotel a Tiffany engagement ring worth £10,000 was found after the couple got engaged the night before but the ring did not fit properly.
The lucky lady had kept it in the box under her pillow for safe keeping, but in the morning she forgot to pick up the box because she thought she had placed it in her handbag.
She realised on the journey home and made a fast U-turn back to the hotel where they found it still under the pillow.
Other diamond-encrusted items included an iPhone 5 and a set of false teeth.
A Rolex watch worth £50,000 was left at Droitwich by a business customer who had taken it off to shower.
The Travelodge lost and found inventory report includes items left behind in the company's hotels from January 1 to December 31.
PA
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