Lost-and-found helps when things are amiss
About 7,000 items a month left behind at Orlando airport
If archaeologists 1,000 years from now could examine the lost-and-found at Orlando International Airport, they would learn much about the identities of airport travelers, what they wore and ate, how they communicated and, from the likes of lightsabers and Mickey Mouse dolls, why they came.
The lost-and-found department gathers in a surprising, sad and wondrous trove of about 7,000 items a month.
“We see so much, we get used to it,” said Patricia Sarria, who supervises four staffers. “Lately a lot of phones, iPhones and Samsungs. And car keys.”
Last month, the unfortunate bounty included 39 address books; 875 pairs of glasses; 508 passports, credit cards and drivers licenses; 140 lunch bags; 66 purses; 672 jewelry items; 214 sets of keys; 121 wallets; and 337 cellphones.
The office has dealt with an artificial hip, makeup, auto parts, furniture, champagne and, by the hundreds each month, laptops.
Sarria picked up a large Bible with a leather cover, its edges soft from wear. Yellow tape marks pages.
Notations are jotted on sticky notes inside. There is underlining from front to back.
A few feet away on a shelf are toys given out at fast-food restaurants, all dutifully bagged and tagged.
About 46 million passengers a year arrive at or leave the airport. About 70 percent of lost goods are retrieved from the two TSA security checkpoints. About 60 percent of items are returned to their owners.
Each day, items brought in on the same date one month earlier and still not claimed are taken to the airport’s Material Control.
Weeks later, they are shipped from Material Control to George Gideon Auctioneers in Zellwood.
The company’s website bills itself as “Central Florida’s Largest Public Online Auction of Government and Local Industry.”
Revenue from sales of the airport’s goods goes back to the airport’s operating budget. That amount was not readily available.
The next auction of airport goods will be Monday.
Items to be sold are gathered in batches for presentation on the website, including one featuring a photo of a cardboard box with a few shoes poking out and a brief description: BOX OF ASSORTED MEN’S & LADIES SHOES. HEELS FLATS SANDALS SNEAKERS DRESS
“Yesterday we got one shoe,” Sarria said, describing an instance that surprised even her.
“The day before, we got the other shoe. One came from one TSA checkpoint, and the other came from the other checkpoint. Same brand, same size, same color. One was the left; the other was the right.”
She had no explanation for the footwear adventures.
Items also are brought in by airport employees and passengers.
Staffer Karim Le Roy was stymied initially by a bag retrieved from the luggageclaim area.
Inside, folded shirts and other apparel nearly concealed a pair of sneakers.
“We’re trying to figure out if it’s a man or woman,” Le Roy said, looking for evidence of ownership.
Credit cards, drivers licenses, wallets and purses reveal their owners more readily.
Tablets, watches, cameras and items likely of sentimental value, such as wedding bands, other jewelry and that Bible get a reprieve from the monthly rotation.
As two of the staffers handle calls, the other two take on detective roles.
They examine, for example, laptops from top to bottom, including any repair-shop stickers.
The lost-and-found office has a routine with UPS. Owners of items pay for shipping. For visual impact, the lowly belts win. Of items tagged last month, 930 were categorized as clothes, which includes “belts, jackets, sweaters, pants.”
So many belts arrive that they fill a bag each day. Within the daily bags, belts are coiled, individually bagged and tagged.
About 3 percent of them are returned to owners.