You wouldn’t think your own school could possibly sell some of your most valuable items that were lost, but that happens once a year at Long Beach State.
During summer break, I occasionally came to school and used the campus library. Its open space and calming environment was nice compared to the chaos at my house.
I would utilize the computer lab, but mainly used my laptop since all my projects were on there already. I was at peace because not a lot of students were inside the library and the lines at the Caffeine Lab were short.
However, one evening I was in a rush to get to the bus. Being in the library, I rushed and packed my things into my backpack without realizing at the moment that I left my Apple MacBook power charger plugged into the wall.
A few days later, I decided to visit the library to see if there was a possibility that someone had turned it in or an employee put it on hold. The information desk briefly looked around and directed me to call the Lost and Found services.
I gave them a call and told the employee that I lost my charger and gave him some descriptive details, the power connector was curved a bit from being used over the last three years. After checking, he told me that he was unable to locate my adapter.
I was prepared to “take the L,” but what the employee then told me next did not sit right with me.
He said, “If you need another charger, we are having a flash sale around Oct. 19.”
I became livid, but remained calm until the phone call ended. I was too stunned to speak.
The campus held this atrocity of a flash sale on Oct. 19 by the Student Recreation and Wellness Center from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Some people were looking forward to this sale, but I have to give it a side-eye. As a low-income student, I am all here for thrifting and buying used, but good-conditioned products. However, thrifting is based on donations, whereas this sale is based on items that students simply misplaced.
They are selling and making profit on paid for products that belong to students and staff. Where is that money even going towards? I have yet to see any information on where the money goes.
This is wrong and anyone attending the event is contributing to the problem.
They are selling items like clothing, electronics, exercise equipment, jewelry and water bottles. In addition, there is an online bidding occurring from Oct. 17-21.
According to the Lost and Found page on the CSULB site, big ticket items such as bikes, skateboards and AirPods will be listed for open bidding on the Public Surplus page during the week of the sale.
Imagine visiting the site or passing by the auction only to see your assets being sold to the public. If I pass through this event and see my charger, there will be problems.
I felt so “lost” after I “found” out this information and hope to bring awareness.