There’s nothing like that drop in your stomach when your bag gets pulled aside for inspection at airport security. Maybe you weren’t aware you packed a liquid over the 3.4 oz liquid limit, nonetheless, it can still be simultaneously embarrassing and intimidating.
But have you ever wondered where your confiscated or lost TSA items really go—especially as an average of 90,000-100,000 items are left behind at security checkpoints monthly? Well, according to the official TSA website, any lost and found items left behind at an airport checkpoint that have been unclaimed for 30 days are either destroyed, given to the state as surplus property, or sold by TSA.
In fact, there’s even a website you can go on to search for various items acquired by TSA. Known as GovDeals.com, this website is used as an online auctioning site for government surplus items. The site has more than 15,000 sellers and more than one million registered buyers. New York State even has its own page specific to the state’s surplus assets, ranging from consumer goods to real estate and beyond.
To filter your search on GovDeals to surplus items from TSA, just type “TSA” in the website’s search function. From there, you’ll see a page populate with various chargers, pocket knives, watches, tools, sunglasses and more. According to the TSA website, all of the profits from sold items that have been retained by TSA go towards the state.
Of course more illegal items such as drugs and firearms get directed to local law enforcement.
Not interested in purchasing your lost item back or lost something more important like a passport? You can attempt to retrieve it within the 30 days by contacting the lost and found and going to pick it up at the airport.