Money from the sale of all lost and found items goes to the U.S. Department of the Treasury and into a general fund used to pay towards the U.S. national debt.

To retrieve the item, you must be able to describe the item, when it was lost, the color of the item, or any information identifying the item, to ensure it is reunited with its rightful owner. 

TSA works with the airport to reunite passengers with all lost or unclaimed personal property, including personal identification items such as drivers’ licenses and passports, left behind at a checkpoint. If the ID is not claimed within 30 days, it is destroyed.    

TSA makes every effort to reunite passengers with items left behind at the airport checkpoint. Lost and found items are generally kept for 30 days and if not claimed, are either destroyed, turned over to a state agency for surplus property, or sold by TSA as excess property. The state may dispose of the items through sales, destruction, donations or charities. The state keeps any money from sales, not TSA. At a number of locations, lost and found items are turned over to the airport at the end of each day.