CLEANERS HAVE SEEN IT ALL - IN YOUR POCKETS.

Byline: Lynn Bulmahn Cox News Service

Did you remember to clean out your pockets before taking your clothes to the cleaners?

If you did, you may be a rarity.

Dry cleaners around Waco and Central Texas say they get all kinds of things turned in along with the clothes.

More often than not, they have to empty your pockets.

"It happens all the time - at least five to 10 times a week," said Debbie Ford of Zip Cleaners. "We get a little bit of everything."

"A lot of them bring them in, and they'll quickly rummage their hands through the pockets and miss things," said Josie Soukup of Ledbetter Cleaners.

But the cleaners don't.

"We have to check pockets, that's a No. 1 rule," explains Raymond Farrell of First Discount Cleaners. "Otherwise, it's the same thing that would happen if you left something in your washing machine. It would cause stains to get on the clothes."

Most cleaners have a policy that anything of value is promptly returned. Things of great value, such as fine jewelry and credit cards, merit a phone call to the customer. More ordinary items end up in a lost and found bag that is stapled to the invoice and given back when the customer picks up his cleaning.

Trash - items such as facial tissue, paper clips, hair pins, pieces of paper and matches - are thrown away.

Around the area, cleaners report everything from fish hooks to matchbooks have been found in pockets.

"You find house keys and a lot of church bulletins in suit pockets," Ford said. "I found a ring the other day in one."

Neck chains are a common item to find, she added.

Women commonly leave jewelry pinned on their suit jackets and blouses, Ford said.

"Money, lipstick, pens, wedding rings, checks, love notes, credit cards are usually the common things," Farrell said. "We get Lifesavers (candy) and gum. And there's medicine - usually prescription pills."

"I find pocket knives, Lotto tickets, checks, lipstick and fountain pens," said Betty Starling, owner of Betty's Cleaners. "Sometimes, I find washcloths in men's pockets. There's a lot of cards - personal cards or business cards, and grocery lists and Christmas lists."

Starling said pockets often contain printed jokes that were apparently circulated around the office. She's also found newspaper clippings, such as items from Dear Abby.

"There are always papers in people's pants pockets," she said. "Once I found papers telling someone when to report to his parole officer. They're supposed to keep those papers."

Credit card receipts, eyeglasses and sunglasses are other common finds.

Jennifer Vybrial of Al's Cleaners said men tend to be the worst offenders when it comes to not cleaning out their pockets.

"We find socks in their back pockets," she laments. " I don't know why they'd put dirty socks in the back pocket."

Her co-worker, Diane Gerike, said dirty socks and dirty underwear are common finds. "They forgot to turn their pants and jeans inside out," she said, adding that the underwear is often still inside the slacks.

"We've found pantyhose in a man's jacket before," Gerike said. "We just threw them away, and when the wife came in to pick up the jacket, we didn't say a thing besides, 'Thank you for coming to Al's Cleaners.' "

"I've found women's underwear in men's clothes," said Rick Burton of Service Cleaners. "I found a guy's hearing aid one time."

"This morning, we found a wig rolled up in a shirt," said Ward Miller, manager of Vogue Cleaners. "Some people leave payroll checks, up into the thousands, in their clothes and they don't even realize it's gone."

"One guy left his vacation money," said an employee at Roy Beatty Cleaners, who didn't give her name. "We returned $450 that was in a suit pocket. He was like, 'Oh, thanks.' "

Another cleaner remembers a co-worker finding a wallet with several hundred-dollar bills in it. His co-worker called the man, whose suit was being cleaned.

The man quickly retrieved the wallet, telling the clerk it contained his gambling money. He didn't want his wife to know, and gave a $100 tip - hush money, perhaps - to the clerk.

That may not be so unusual. An almost identical story was told by another employee at another dry-cleaning business.

Farrell said he found a check for $18,000. He called his customer, but the man didn't pick up the check for another week.

Another customer left $1,300 in cash in a pocket. "They didn't even know it was missing," he said.

Miller said he has returned as much as $400 in cash to customers.

But usually, the pocket paper money is only a $1 or $5 bill, the cleaners tell us.

Baylor University students commonly leave their student IDs in their pockets, said JoAnn Williams of Comet Cleaners, near the campus. She has also found credit cards and checks. "Usually after they do it once, they start checking their pockets," she said.

Then there are the more X-rated items.

Apparently, dry-cleaning patrons are practicing safe sex. Almost every cleaner interviewed mentioned finding condoms in clothing.

One woman was embarrassed to find a sexually explicit note in the pocket of a customer. Even worse, it was someone she knew. She said she opened the note to see if it was something of value. "I didn't read it all, but I was really embarrassed when I saw some of those words," she explained. The note was thrown away, and nothing was said.

Another worker remembers finding a sex toy. It was returned. The man who retrieved the clothing claimed someone else had put the item in his pocket.

Some employees have even found illegal drugs such as marijuana and crack in clothing.

In such cases, one said, it's the company's policy to flush the dope down the toilet without telling the customer. "They've already forgotten about it" when they turned their cleaning in, the clerk said.