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 International Airport.
TSA spokesman Ross Feinstein had this to say with the release of data on the agency’s found money:
“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. Unclaimed money, typically consisting of loose coins passengers remove from their pockets, is documented and turned into the TSA financial office.
“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 with New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, where travelers left behind $42,550.00, tops in the country.
The TSA collected $10,457.51 in Atlanta in fiscal 2013 and $11,611.66 in fiscal 2012.
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