Misplace a Wheelchair? Try the TSA Lost and Found at SFO

Aug. 22–A pink, size-8 1/2 women’s To the Max! high-heel shoe — just one, for the left foot. Teeth-whitening strips. A wheelchair.

Those are just some of the 20,000 items left behind by frazzled or absent-minded passengers so far this year at San Francisco International Airport checkpoints run by the Transportation Security Administration. Only 2,000 of those items have been reunited with their owners.

“I would guess that a lot of this stuff goes unclaimed because passengers just don’t know when they lost it, or where they lost it,” TSA spokesman Nico Melendez said Thursday.

“These laptops are sitting here, waiting for somebody,” said Melendez, pointing to a stack of laptops on a table, sitting and waiting for somebody. “So come and get them.”

It could be that passengers aren’t looking in the right place — the TSA isn’t responsible for items lost somewhere at the airport other than at a security checkpoint. Airlines, car-rental agencies and San Francisco police all have their own lost-and-found procedures. San Francisco Airport lost and found

But the TSA has enough on its hands. Bins and bins of it, in fact.

There’s small, important stuff, like the 85 passports and 825 driver’s licenses left behind. There’s the large, expensive stuff, like the 900 laptops and 357 memory sticks searching for their owners, who are probably searching for their work. There are 2,335 sunglasses of varying value.

There are things that probably can be easily replaced, like the red pajama top featuring Turbo the snail that already wasn’t going anywhere fast.

There are some head-scratchers, too, like the orange Graco child car seat. Or the wheelchair that someone presumably used to get to the checkpoint.

From eyeglasses to Mickey Mouse light sabers, the TSA keeps it all, marking each item with a bar code and a description.

One doll’s head

“Doll’s head; drawn-on features on soft ball with brown ‘hair’ and tiara with purple stones,” reads one. “Jack Kerouac and friend City Lights bookstore poster,” Continue reading