How to Get Back the Stuff You Left at the Airport

CLEVELAND, OH - Luggage, coats, notebooks, jewelry, and so much more gets left behind at Cleveland-Hopkins Airport every day. Luckily, there are a few ways you can recover those cherished items from the lost-and-found bin.

First, passengers can claim their lost items by contacting the TSA lost and found office at the airport where they departed. To get the contact information for the TSA lost and found office at the airport you departed, visit the TSA website’s Lost and Found page. Type in the airport name or code and the contact information will appear.

For items left behind at checkpoints, travelers should contact the TSA lost and found office with specifics about the item including the date of the flight, the terminal that the passenger departed from, a very detailed description of the item, and a name and contact information for follow-up. If the item was turned into a TSA lost and found office, travelers can make an appointment to pick it up or arrange for the item to be shipped home or their destination at the customer’s expense.

Second, you can go directly to Cleveland-Hopkins and ask for help. If you're going to contact Cleveland's regional airport, it's important to have an idea of where you may have left your item. If you left your mother's necklace on your plane, you'll need to call or email your airline. On the other hand, if you took your coat off at the luggage carousel and forgot to grab it off that chair, contact the airport at 216-265-6000.

The most common items that people leave behind at TSA checkpoints include belts, glasses, keys, their identification (i.e.: driver’s licenses, passports), cell phones, laptops, jewelry, coats, sweaters, hats, scarves, gloves, neck pillows and umbrellas.

This is two of three full racks of coats that have been left at Reagan National Airport recently.

Here are five helpful tips to ensure travelers don’t leave their items at a checkpoint and to help ensure that lost items will be returned:

1. After showing the TSA officer their ID and boarding pass, travelers should put their driver’s license back in their wallet or their passport back in a carry-on bag so is isn’t left behind in a bin.
2. As travelers know, they must empty their pockets before they go through the checkpoint screening equipment. When emptying pockets, travelers should put those items into their carry-on bag so they are less likely to leave something in a bin when they leave the checkpoint.
3. Don’t remove jewelry unless it is very bulky or if, from previous experience, an individual knows it will alarm the scanner. If a traveler does remove jewelry, it is best to place it directly into a carry-on bag instead of in a bin.
4. Travelers should put an ID tag on their carry-on bags. Regardless of whether it’s a duffle bag, rolling suitcase, knapsack or tote bag, put an ID tag on it.
5. If someone is traveling with a laptop, it’s a good idea to tape a business card, return address label, or hand-written name/address/contact information directly onto the laptop. TSA will contact the laptop’s owner to return it if contact information is affixed to the laptop.

By Deb Belt

Lead photo from Shutterstock, photos of lost coats, toy courtesy of TSA