Travelers passing through the New York area's three major airports last fiscal year left behind more than $75,000 in loose change at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints, according to the agency's annual report released this week.
The TSA's 2014 fiscal report says passengers at JFK left a staggering $42,550 at TSA checkpoints; travelers left $16,786.05 at LaGuardia and $16,669.72 at Newark. Nationwide, nearly $675,000 in loose change was forgotten at security checkpoints in the 2014 fiscal year -- and the TSA gets to keep it.
Congress gave TSA the authority to use unclaimed money -- in this case, defined as change passengers leave behind at airport screening checkpoints -- for security operations in 2005, the agency said.
"TSA makes every effort to reunite passengers with items left at the checkpoint, however there are instances where loose change or other items are left behind and unclaimed," the agency said in a statement. "Unclaimed money, typically consisting of loose coins passengers remove from their pockets, is documented and turned into the TSA financial office."
Receipts of unclaimed money are deposited into a special TSA fund so the resources can be easily tracked and the expenses accounted for. The amount of loose change left behind at airports nationwide has increased every fiscal year since 2008, when $383,413.79 was recorded in unclaimed money. It jumped from $638,142.64 in the 2013 fiscal year to $674,841.06 in the 2014 fiscal year.
A bill introduced in the U.S. House in Representatives in 2013 called the TSA Loose Change Act would have required the agency to give unclaimed money to charities providing travel-related support to U.S. service members and their families. It passed the House; the Senate never acted on it.
