There Are So Many Lost Phones, Tablets at LAX, TSA is Destroying Them

Have you traveled through LAX recently and lost an Apple product? LAX may still have them and retrieving them is simple.

Phones, computers and tablets have become a common travel companion in the growing technological world. The hundreds of Apple products left behind at LAX during the security and screening process by the Transportation Security Administration is clear proof.

Passengers have left behind 154 laptops, 98 cellphones and 18 iPads left at LAX, according to Daily Breeze. Items are only held for 30 days, according to Los Angeles World Airports. After 30 days, the items are either destroyed or donated to charities by the federal government.

TSA destroys thousands of “high-dollar items” because people forget where they leave things during travel, TSA spokesperson Nico Melendez said. Valuable man-hours and resources are consumed annually by the storage, cataloging, and destruction of the items left behind, Melendez added.

“I’ve been in four cities in the past five days,” Scott Kraemer, a Los Angeles resident who has lost items at LAX on three separate occasions, said. “You just get lazy going through the motions. You forget sometimes.”

Items left behind at LAX, and any airport, are easy to retrieve and they have a process to claim lost items. For LAX, customers wishing to pick up lost items need to call either TSA Lost & Found at 310-242-9073 or the LAX Lost & Found at (424) 646-5678.

“TSA works great for us,” Kraemer added. “It’s just nice to know that you can call up these guys and come over here and get it.”