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.
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," reads another.
As long as a passenger can reasonably identify his or her property, the TSA will gladly return it.
At Los Angeles International Airport last week, a man lost his laptop. "We asked him, what was the picture on the laptop when you turn it on?" Melendez said.
"He knew it was a white puppy, so obviously it was probably him. Otherwise, we ask for a user name or password. If they just tape their business card to their laptop, it's a pretty simple reunification process."
One of the more unusual items left behind, also at LAX, was false teeth, Melendez said. "It's one of those things you don't have to remove, and wouldn't you notice that your teeth weren't in when you left the security checkpoint?" he asked.
Keeps items 30 days
The TSA keeps items for at least 30 days. Expensive items are eventually sold -- laptops are scrubbed of data first -- and items of minimal value are donated to a state agency for surplus property.
Driver's licenses are returned to state motor vehicle departments, and passports go to the local issuing embassy. Credit card companies are notified before the cards are destroyed.
Linard Davis, 60, of Richmond, who has worked at the airport since 1978 in various capacities, had a simple solution to avoid all the hassle: Get to the airport early. He said he leaves home three hours before his 7 a.m. start time at the airport's travel agency, which doubles as the storage center for items left at TSA checkpoints.
Don't rush
"The ones that get here early, plenty of time, no pressure, not in a hurry," go through the checkpoints with all their gear, Davis said. "The people that leave items like this behind, those are the ones that are in a hurry. They're rushing."
He said passengers shouldn't blame the TSA if they lose something important while rushing through the checkpoint to catch a plane.
"You're blaming them because you had to take it off," Davis said. "But if you got to the airport in plenty of time, you wouldn't have that problem."
Henry K. Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: [email protected] Twitter: @henryklee
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