The TSA’s Spare Change Payday

Over the years, particularly in the security obsessed ones that have followed 2001, consumers have drafted a long list of complaints about the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Favorites include slowness, obnoxiousness, seeming disregard for the fact that people are at airports to catch planes that leave at certain times, “handsiness,” and general obliviousness paired with a totally misplaced fastidiousness. Now it looks like passengers have yet another reason to hate the TSA – they are also swiping pocket change.

As it turns out, a little pocket change from a lot of people can really add up.

Two days ago (April 6) the TSA released its 2014 fiscal year report. Among other things, the document disclosed that the government agency collected almost $675,000 in loose change left behind by travelers in 2014 — and it gets to keep every penny.

“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,” TSA press secretary Ross Feinstein said in a statement Tuesday. “Unclaimed money, typically consisting of loose coins passengers remove from their pockets, is documented and turned into the TSA financial office.”

Last year was a particularly good year for profiteering off of hapless passengers. It was not, however, the TSA’s first year of six-figure pocket change collections.

In 2008, the TSA collected $383,413.79. And since then, the annual total has not dipped below that number, with the 2013 fiscal year bearing $638,143 in change.

New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport was the TSA’s most consistent source of spare change –  passengers left behind $42,550 at the security checkpoint.

LAX ($41,506) and San Francisco International Airport ($34,889) were also go-to locations to grab a more than healthy handful of change. Miami, Dallas and Vegas also placed highly.