The office of the Manhattan Property Clerk, as it is known, is a subterranean repository for lost objects and the tangible aftermath of crime and misadventure. Ms. Carryl has been a police evidence and property specialist there for more than a decade. Thousands of people walk through One Police Plaza each day not knowing an archive that allows the criminal justice system to run is just one story below their feet.

Almost every item that passes through the borough's 22 precincts must go to the basement to be numbered and cataloged to be held as evidence for a trial or wait for its rightful owner. Some objects come from crime scenes. Others were turned in after they were left behind on a park bench or a sidewalk.

But the Police Department faces the same problem that many New Yorkers do: a lack of storage space. Even this cavernous basement is only so big.

Before Ms. Carryl's time, the basement took in the .38 caliber-revolver that in 1980 was used to assassinate John Lennon and the bullets that took down mob boss Paul Castellano five years later.

Some items have been in the basement for decades. Many can never leave.

Gerry writes:

To read the complete article, see:
A Plush Dog, Samurai Sword and 42,439 Guns: Inside an N.Y.P.D. Basement(https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/14/nyregion/nypd-clerks-office-lost-found.html)