There is a man who works the night shift at Sydney’s Central Station who people call the “fixer” – and he has certainly earned that title.
Reg Agar works tirelessly through the night to reunite people with their lost items.
It’s a big job on a huge train network where hundreds of missing items are found every day.
“It’s not uncommon for us to receive about 15 mobile phones a day, and on a rainy day we are likely to find more than 50 umbrellas,” he told 9 News.
Sometimes, the lost property includes very important items.
Mr Agar, who is officially Central Station support officer, has found all sorts of things like a wooden box containing someone’s ashes and a bag with nothing in it except for $10,000 in an envelope.
One time he had to put on his detective hat to locate a woman’s bag with her passport, wallet, phone and laptop – the night before she was due to leave the country.
She had lost the bag between Sydney Airport’s domestic terminal and Central Station.
The “fixer” contacted airport management to use CCTV to determine which train she got on.
At about 12.30am they found the train was stabled at Leppington Station. He was worried about his chances of contacting someone to search the train but did in fact find a staff member to help, and they found the bag.
“I received a call at approximately 3.30am to be told that the bag had been found with all the belongings intact,” Mr Agar told 9 News. The bag was sent to the owner’s nearest station for collection at 7am before her flight.
“She screamed with happiness and couldn’t thank me enough,” he said.
It seems it’s not rare to witness tears in the job.
Mr Agar also said he once had two German backpackers “crying uncontrollably” because they lost their passports, plane tickets and wallets three hours before their flight home.
They had caught a bus to the station so Mr Agar managed to find a team at the bus depot to help (a tricky task when all the backpackers knew was that they boarded a bus “next to a wharf”). Their items were then returned on the next bus to arrive at Central Station.
“Our German customers couldn’t believe what they were hearing and were crying with joy. I myself shed a tear or two I must admit,” he said.
Last week, Mr Agar was celebrated in a post on Transport for NSW’s Facebook page for his act finding the woman’s bag in the early hours of the morning before her flight.
Members of the public responded by labelling him a “champion”, “legend” and “true hero”.
“That just restores my faith in humanity. Well done Reg and also all the passengers who saw the bag and didn’t steal it!” one person commented on the post.
Others shared their own stories of losing items on the train and the joy in being reunited.
“My neighbour left her bag behind. Her husband [was] very sick in Sydney hospital. [She] came running over to us to see if we could help. Phoned the transport office after hours and they phoned back, said someone had handed in and they put it on the train to Morisset Station,” one person said.
“We took her up to pick up, nothing taken and her house keys were in there too … Thank you so much to the transport department, wonderful job. You are excellent. Made me cry with joy.”
Another wrote: “Had a similar experience on my way to an international cruise … When we got off at Circular Quay my partner left her backpack with both of our passports and the cruise tickets on the train.
“The [other] passenger she had been talking to noticed after we left and when he got off at Wynyard handed it to the staff there. About 15 minutes later my partner realised her mistake and went back to Circular Quay.
“The staff there already knew the story and all my partner had to do was get the train to Wynyard, pick up the bag from there and come back. We were very grateful to the passenger that noticed our bag and the staff both at Circular Quay and Wynyard.”