Surprising Things People Lose on Thrill Rides

Ferris wheel

It is common that many people lose their articles when riding amusement rides, especially thrill rides. Often the lost things are cellphone, glasses, money, jewelries and so on. Sinorides here gives a list of 10 unusual things that people lose on thrill rides — some tangible, some physical and some psychological. Keep reading for a strange trip!

1. Prosthetic Limbs

At Six Flags Great America, a woman was once separated from her prosthetic leg during an acrobatic journey on Batman: The Ride. At least she had the sense to claim it at lost and found.

2. Body Parts

Sadly, a surprising number of people lose body parts — and even die — at amusement parks every year.

3. Their Lunch

Every heart-pounding ascent and stomach-dropping plunge is calculated to deliver precise jolts of fear, panic and ecstasy. But every so often, the squeeze of a corkscrew or the weightlessness of a steep drop is a little too much for the pile of nacho cheese fries churning in your belly, and before you can say, "Look out below!" you blow.

4. Dignity

Fabio and Jay Leno yuck it up on "The Tonight Show," a couple years before Fabio's unfortunate encounter with a goose — which Leno called "a collision between two birdbrains".

5. Bachelorhood

Asking someone to marry you is a lot like riding a roller coaster. Your heart races, your palms sweat and there's a pretty good chance that you're going to puke before it's over. So why not combine the two!

 6. Dentures

Because dentures need to be removed daily and cleaned, they are not physically attached to the mouth, which has some serious comic potential. According to the lost and found staff at Disneyland, the park recovers "a lot of dentures," including "full sets of uppers and lowers sometimes".

7. Glass Eyes

Like dentures, glass eyes aren't surgically implanted into the wearer's face. The glass eye is held into place by the upper and lower eyelids, and the prosthetic can be easily removed with a nifty suction device and cleaned using soap and water. But with the right amount of force — say, a jarring left turn at 90 mph (145 kph) — an artificial eye can be unintentionally ejected from the owner's socket. This has happened at least once at Disneyland, and also at a U.K. amusement park called Blackpool Pleasure Beach, where the dredging of a park pond uncovered several sets of dentures, a wig and a glass eye.

8. Celebrity Jewelry

Dietrich was a German-born cabaret singer-turned-actress who became a leading femme fatale in a series of Hollywood movies in the early 1930s. During an earlier visit to the U.K. in 1934, Dietrich spent a day at the family-run Blackpool Pleasure Beach. While riding the park's newly built wooden roller coaster, The Big Dipper, she lost one of her pearl and gold earrings. Park officials searched, but couldn't turn it up.

In 2007, more than 70 years later, construction workers dredged up an earring from a park pond while building a new ride. The delicate pearl jewelry matched Dietrich's exact description and was in excellent condition.

9. Memory

More than 10,000 people visited the emergency room in 2000 for injuries sustained on thrill rides. A 2002 report by the National Institute of Neurological Disease and Stroke showed that 58 people had suffered brain trauma after being on amusement park rides that operated normally.

10. Loaded Gun

In 2013, a woman riding the Dinosaur ride at Disney's Animal Kingdom with her grandson was more than a little surprised to find a loaded handgun in their seat. In 2007, authorities closed down Gillian's Wonderland Pier in New Jersey when an off-duty police officer misplaced his loaded weapon in the amusement park.