Take or leave a tiny treasure as Trinket Trade box comes to Los Angeles

Mystery, surprise and fun fill up trinket trade boxes, and the trend that is popping up on street corners and sidewalks across the country has made its way to Los Angeles.

Much like the popular "Free Little Libraries" where the community could swap books, the trinket boxes allow for the whimsical trade of tchotchkes.

On Third Street in the Arts District, there's a purple Trinket Trade box, and in it are things that are certainly not necessary, but they are fun.

A tiny monster truck, a thumb-sized roll of toilet paper, a plastic mini llama – Anne Hong, an Arts District local, set up the box and filled it with her possibly too large collection of trinkets.

All manner of baubles and bric-a-brac fill the treasure box. Hong heard about Trinket Trade boxes popping up in San Francisco and thought LA needed one too – a place for people to take or leave little treasures.

"It's just so cool that in our very, very frenzied world with lots of different news and a whole lot of awful stuff going on there's just a little piece of joy that people can like have," Hong said.

She said it's been up for a few weeks now, and while she originally stocked it with about 50 of her own little gems, it's emptied and filled up on its own, by way of traders. She said she saw a little girl putting her little paper toys she made inside it.

Hong's neighbor, Mike, walked by the box. "I haven't been brave enough to open it," he said. He did stop to chat, and Hong said that's the other thing the Trinket Trade box offers, neighbors or strangers stopping, looking and laughing together over what's inside – continuing their day a little lighter and hopefully happier.

"I was hoping it would be a spark of whimsy, as some would say. I didn't know it would bring so many people whimsy, it's kinda nice,"  Hong said.