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Tesco's branches in Blackburn and Clitheroe have raised about £3,000 in the last six months by selling the hundreds of items lost in their stores.

Gerry Cottrell, customers service manager at the Clitheroe branch, said about £1,000 cash had been handed in during the last year as well as more than 300 other items. He said notes were sometimes left in the cash machine outside the shop by customers who forgot to take money they had withdrawn. He said: "Personally I always make sure I get my money, but I suppose some people have such a lot on their minds. Fortunately we have a lot of honest people in Clitheroe who hand it in."

Dozens of pairs of glasses, rings and credit cards were also left in the store by absent-minded customers and at least one pushchair was abandoned. and never reclaimed.

Gerry said: "Some people must take off their glasses to read the labels then forget to put them back on their face. But I don't know how you forget a pushchair -- after all, they must have brought somebody in it."

Dozens of people have apparently learned to walk in the Blackburn store in Hill Street -- prams and walking sticks are regularly abandoned. But the strangest item was a pair of hedgetrimmers left last summer. A spokeswoman said: "We thought perhaps the workers who maintained the grounds had left them, but they were never claimed."

All lost property is kept for at least three months in case the owner returns. Less expensive items, such as clothes and glasses, are given to charity shops or clothes banks, but the rest is sold through Tesco's head office. In the last six months, more than £100,000 has been raised nationwide and the money given to Macmillan Nurses.

Russell Craig, Tesco spokesman, said: "We would love to reunite lost property with its rightful owners, but it is often impossible. Anyone who has ever mislaid anything in store can take heart that worthy causes are benefiting."