Coat return

Year: 2004


I found an old melton wool gentleman's overcoat left on a bench in Queen's Square in the centre of Bristol in October 2003. A year to the day of its discovery I returned to the same bench and left it exactly where I had found it.


Then together with my photographer friend Andrew Atkinson, we parked up on the far side of the square with a good vantage point and sat and waited. Over the next few hours several people passed it, some looked at it, one man held it up and then left it and finally a young couple picked it up and left with it. All the while we were discretely photographing them. Once out of shot we decided to follow the new owners curious about them. Being inexperienced at tailing we got too close and they clocked us staring at them. Apparently panicked they immediately dropped the coat and ran.


We drove on leaving the coat where it had fallen.


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