Baltimore cyclist finds joy in collecting lost hubcaps and stringing them into art

BALTIMORE (AP) — Cyclist Barnaby Wickham has collected more than 700 lost hubcaps, mostly on bike rides around Baltimore. They have inspired a quest to turn litter into art, including Christmas wreaths, a giant fish and a large head of Snoopy.

It is a hobby that developed nearly two years ago from his love of cycling and the joy of making something out of the junk he has collected.

“I think it’s sort of the excitement of the hunt, for one thing," Wickham said. "I love to cycle. I love Baltimore. I love to go out in Baltimore, and there’s just enough hubcaps and other things like car grills to be interesting, but not so many that it’s too easy.”

Wickham, 54, says he can't quite explain it, but one day while cycling in early 2024 he decided to bring home a lost hubcap. Since then, he has started stringing hubcaps he comes across to his backpack.

“I keep track of them, and I have a Google map," he said. "I pin locations where I find each of them.”

Others in his community who have taken an interest in his projects let him know when they see hubcaps by the road. Now, Wickham keeps a list of them that he refers to as “hubcaps in the wild.”

He wants to do the collecting himself. That is part of the joy.

Wickham also gets a hand from his wife, Kate, who helps hold materials during construction and offers opinions.

“I’m just support team, and occasionally the cautious person who says, you can’t drive on this road, you can’t bike on this road or whatever. So I’m just more kind of supporting his love of trying new things,” she said.

It might seem like an odd pastime, but Baltimore has been known to celebrate its quirky side. The city is known for director John Waters, whose offbeat films earned him the moniker of the “Pope of Trash.” Baltimore is also home to the American Visionary Art Museum, which is nationally recognized as a repository for the work of self-taught artists and intuitive art.

Wickham, who works in marketing for a defense technology company, stores his finds in his garage and works in his front yard. He uses expanded metal as a framework, with sheet metal with holes and wiring to hold the sheets in place. He uses zip ties to link the hubcaps on the sheet metal.

“It’s all held together with zip ties," he said. "Hubcaps are filled with slots or holes, and so it’s easy to get a hold of them to hold them in place.”

His works are big. The head of Snoopy is 16 feet (4.9 meters) tall and about 21 feet (6.4 meters) wide.

While most of the hubcaps he uses were found in Baltimore, Wickham expands his range when he travels. Visits to see his son at Kent State University have added a few hubcaps with Ohio origins. A business trip to Italy, which included a bike tour in Rome, yielded a find. Wickham had to explain to his guide why he bothered to pick it up.

“And I was like, oh, I collect these. I’m just going to take this back with me. And I showed her a photo of the wreath, and she was like: ‘Oh, OK.’ Whenever anyone hears about it and understands it, they’re onboard," Wickham said.

Wickham donated two Christmas wreaths he made last year, one to the city and another to a nonprofit.

Wickham said the hobby has led to interactions with city residents. On one ride, a man who saw him pick up a hubcap, insistently signaled for him to come over to him. He wanted to let him know there was another hubcap nearby.

“It was clear to him that I was collecting these things, and all he wanted to do was help, to point one out for me. And there’s a lot of that,” Wickham said.

“It starts a lot of conversations, and it’s just something that people love to talk about," he said.

Cyclist Barnaby Wickham sorts through his collection of hubcaps stored in his garage, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, at his home in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

With hubcaps fastened to his backpack, cyclist Barnaby Wickham pedals through a neighborhood on his journey home, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Cyclist Barnaby Wickham steps down and dismounts his bike after spotting a lost hubcap on the side of the road, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Cyclist Barnaby Wickham mounts his bike before riding off to collect lost hubcaps, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Cyclist Barnaby Wickham poses for a portrait in front of his art structure made from hubcaps, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, at his home in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

LARISSA, Greece (AP) — A criminal trial opened in Greece Monday over a train collision that killed 57 people, many of them students, in a disaster that horrified the country and revealed long-neglected safety failures.

The February 2023 crash triggered a fireball on impact and left passengers trapped in mangled rail cars.

Most of the 36 defendants — all rail and transport officials — face serious charges linked to endangering public transport.

The crash occurred at Tempe in northern Greece after a passenger train was placed on the wrong track, into the path of an oncoming freight train — an astonishing lapse on a rudimentary rail network.

Investigators say the error was compounded by non-functioning signal systems along with failures in staffing, oversight and maintenance during years of delays in safety upgrades.

A converted campus is being used to house the trial to accommodate the scale of the proceedings that involve hundreds of witnesses. It is expected to last two years.

Riot police formed a cordon around the court as several hundred demonstrators gathered outside and victims' relatives, many dressed in black, arrived to attend the hearings.

“Real justice would be to get our kids back. But what we are asking for now is the exemplary punishment of those responsible,” said Pavlos Aslanidis, whose 27-year-old son Dimitris was killed in the crash. "It is very sad that three years later, no one has gone to jail.

The defendants include station masters on duty that night, their supervisor, former rail officials, senior transport ministry staff and former executives from the Italian-owned operator Hellenic Train.

Victims’ families, many of whom have campaigned for accountability, are expected to attend throughout.

The disaster has remained a deeply emotive and politically charged issue, sparking multiple public protests and strikes, with critics accusing the conservative government of shifting all responsibility onto rail officials.

At a makeshift memorial outside parliament in Athens, the victims’ names are written in red paint and surrounded by candles and flowers.

Several separate legal cases linked to the disaster are in progress, including a parliament-sanctioned probe into political accountability.

Kantouris reported from Tempe, Greece

Maria Karystianou, center, mother of 21-year-old Maria-Thomai, a victim of the Tempi train crash, arrives at the court in Larissa, Greece, Monday, March 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Relatives of victims of the Tempi train crash, waiting the the trial at the court in Larissa, Greece, Monday, March 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Nikos Plakias father who lost twin daughters, Thomi and Chrysa, and their cousin, Anastasia, victims of the Tempi train crash, arrive at the court in Larissa, Greece, Monday, March 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Relatives of victims of the Tempi train crash wait for the trial at the court in Larissa, Greece, Monday, March 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)