kong
I found a Kong dog chew toy in the road. (These things are premium dog chew toys, for those of you who don't know dog chew toys. ) Actually, I first saw it in the gutter on my way home Wednesday evening, but decided to leave it a day in case its owner came looking for it. When it was still there Thursday I "rescued" it. James will enjoy it. (I think it should take a pass through the dishwasher first, since we don't know where it's been....)
It's much easier to pick up cool stuff in the road on a bike. Car drivers probably don't even see most of it, and they're not about to stop. I don't always leave things hoping their owners will find them. Most interesting things would probably be destroyed by traffic in short order, so if I don't rescue it, nobody gets it. Sometimes things have an address or a name and I can return them. But I've still got somebody's BMW, house, luggage, etc keys - I figure there's a microchip in there and a BWM dealer could find the owner, but they never got back to me.... (They must have been replaced by now. I'll bet that wasn't cheap. Folks, put a friend's phone number on your key ring. It won't lead the bad guys to your house, but it will help the good guys.)
I pick up things that might do damage, too. I've got a bunch of neon push pins, and one evening I found razor blades strewn all over the street. (Of course, my thin tires are much more susceptible than cars' are.)