In my last post I spoke about finding a Tshirt and bag at the side of the trail on a trip to the Mourne Mountains. It bugged me at the time and it continued to bug me over the next couple of days. I wasn’t sure about my response and I wasn’t happy that I’d dealt with it properly. So, I reached out to Mourne Mountain Rescue for advice.

This was their response:

Hi Niall,

It’s a worthy concern, and although people do surprisingly leave stuff lying around, including rucsacs/clothing etc, they can also be an indicator of someone’s location who may be in difficulty.

Thankfully nothing has been reported that may be related to your find but for future reference, just to ease your concern, simply report it through to the Police on the 101 number. Hope this helps?

So, my initial reaction was correct but I should really have followed through and called the Police there and then. At least if I’m ever in a similar situation I’ll know what to do.

Interesting Notes:

• He asked for the Grid Reference anyway. It was very casual but I got the feeling it was one of those “just in case” questions. I suppose it’s always possible that someone could be missing and not yet reported.
• There is no 101 Non Emergency phone number equivalent in the Republic of Ireland. The advice is to look up the landline for the local Garda station and report it that way. If there is an immediate concern for someone’s safety then it’s 999/112 as an emergency.