July 14--As summer travel revs into high gear, Krystyna Dorsey's office at O'Hare International Airport resembles a high-end thrift shop brimming with overstock. New deliveries are made daily.
Dorsey runs American Airlines' lost and found department at O'Hare, and has been on the job for 17 years.
She remembers when the most common personal entertainment device that air travelers carried with them was a paperback novel, and forgetting it on the plane didn't spoil a vacation or business trip.
Today, the latest must-have ultra-compact electronic gadgets that are a breeze to tote on airplanes are even easier for hurried passengers to leave behind in seat pockets, overhead bins and around airports.
Lost smartphones, laptop and tablet computers, e-book readers, cameras, DVD and game and music players -- many lacking any identification of the owners -- are sent daily to the lost and found department, which for American is next to the baggage claim in O'Hare's Terminal 3.
Along with keys, wallets, glasses and a variety of other items, they fill cabinets and bins. Clothing is hung neatly in a storage closet.
"I sympathize with these people, I really do, and I'm doing everything that is possible to get them their property back," said Dorsey, 58, who wears an American uniform but is actually employed by Prospect Airport Services, a contractor for American at O'Hare.
Each lost item turned over to lost-and-found is cataloged, including the date it was turned in. Electronics and jewelry are kept for up to 30 days if the owner does not call the airline looking for them, while the shelf life for the rest is two weeks.
"Sometimes I keep the items longer because I know people travel," Dorsey said.
After those deadlines pass, unclaimed items are shipped to American's headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. From there, they eventually are transferred to a salvage company, said American spokeswoman Mary Frances Fagan.
American declined to provide a dollar value for the items salvaged each year.
"We acquire more than 100,000 lost items each year (systemwide)," Fagan said.
Dorsey approaches her job like detective work, which might account for her ability to reunite about 80 percent of passengers with their lost belongings, she said.
Every day she phones people who labeled their property with their name and phone number. When a passenger who has lost something calls, Dorsey's first steps are to check the flight and determine when and in what city the plane was cleaned, she said.
In addition to the general absence of ID tags on lost items, Dorsey's task is made more difficult by the fact that items found by airline cleaning crews on planes landing at O'Hare might have been left behind by their owners on other flights around the country or around the world.
She has called grocery stores to try to track down travelers through the discount rewards fob on lost key chains, she said.
In addition, Dorsey said she has tracked down the owners of lost property through clues that include their airline frequent-flier number or -- if she finds an address book -- by cold-calling people in the listings.
She keeps an assortment of electronic chargers on hand so she can repower devices that have dead batteries in order to turn them on and hunt for the names of the owners, she said.
"What if it was my parents or it was my stuff? I just feel sorry," she said. "Things happen, we are human, we make mistakes."
As she spoke to a reporter, a man entered the office and identified himself as Bob Becker, saying he had received a phone message from Dorsey advising him about an iPad that he had left on an American flight from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the day before.
"Oh, Bob Becker, hello. You made it easy for us to find you," Dorsey said.
The iPad was not password-protected and it was linked to the iCloud storage service, which told Becker the location of his device and also put it into "lost" mode, so his name and phone number appeared on the screen.
"I can't thank you enough," said Becker, a Chicagoan who is an American frequent-flier Platinum member. "I've never lost anything before and I was really worried."
"It makes me happy to see a big smile on your face," Dorsey said.
Dorsey said she has lost items on planes twice herself. Pilots and flight attendants have also come to her for help.
Her advice to travelers is to tag or somehow otherwise identify their expensive belongings, even if only with a phone number. Don't forget to include the area code, she said.
When Dorsey positively matches fliers with their property, the owners have the option of coming to the airport to make a pickup or paying to have the lost items shipped to them. Dorsey sends a stack of boxes each day, she said. She recently shipped lost property to owners in Brazil, England, Italy and Sweden, she said.
Lost property found on flights operated by American's partners -- including Iberia Airlines, Air Berlin, Japan Airlines and Qatar Airways -- also ends up at the American lost-and-found at O'Hare.
Cash found in wallets and purses is deposited in an American bank account; if the owners are found, checks are issued, Fagan said.
Dorsey approaches each shift with a feisty pride.
"If something happens to you, just call me," she said. "I dedicate myself. If I am not going to find it, nobody will."
American's lost-and-found number at O'Hare is 773-686-4234.
The strangest items that Dorsey has received include a kitchen sink left on board a flight from Mexico, a bag containing a large amount of cash and a glass eye and devices to enhance sexual enjoyment.
"Sex toys, bras, underwear. Nothing surprises me anymore," she said.
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