WASHINGTON -- Loose change adds up.

The Transportation Security Administration collected $674,841.06 in fiscal 2014 from money left behind at airport security checkpoints, which it uses to help fund its operations.

Of that sum, $10,630.43 came from Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport.

TSA spokesman Ross Feinstein had this to say with the release of data on the agency's found money:

"In 2005, Congress gave TSA the authority to expend unclaimed money for security operations."

Despite its status as the world's busiest airport, Atlanta ranked just 17th in the country for money left behind. Hartsfield passengers are penny-pinchers compared to New York's JFK airport, where travelers left behind $42,550.00, tops in the country.

TSA collected $10,457.51 in Atlanta in fiscal 2013 and $11,611.66 in fiscal 2012.

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Austin Walters died from an overdose in 2021 after taking a Xanax pill laced with fentanyl, his father said. A new law named after Austin and aimed at preventing deaths from fentanyl has resulted in its first convictions in Georgia, prosecutors said. (Family photo)

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