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Lost & found at airports: Wallets and phones to watches and jackets, worth a total of ₹56 cr
: Every now and then, security personnel deployed at airports are approached by passengers about “an unattended object”
: Every now and then, security personnel deployed at airports are approached by passengers about “an unattended object”. These items, usually benign, need to thoroughly be examined for threat levels, before they end up in “lost and found” rooms and, if unclaimed for more than five days, in central storage units.
In 2022, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which guards airports, found items worth ₹56.11 crore left behind by passengers at the 66 airports across the country. An analysis of the data shows that people most commonly left behind cell phones, laptops and wallets, ear phones (especially wireless ones), smart watches, sunglasses, flasks, sippers, and even reading glasses. Of these, only items worth ₹11.47 crore were reclaimed.
Most of the items are left behind in baggage scanner trays; and the smaller they are, the more likely they are to be forgotten, officials who deal with such objects on a daily basis said. “We find AirPods on the ground or at the charging stations. In an airport like Delhi or Mumbai, the number of AirPods we find every day is around 15-25,” said a CISF official, asking not to be named.
According to the data, people travelling through Delhi left behind the most items (by value) at ₹10.1 crore, followed by those in Mumbai ( ₹8.8 crore), Hyderabad ( ₹4.6 crore), and Kolkata ( ₹2.2 crore).
“Finding smart watches and AirPods has become very common at the airports. People forget these things at the X Ray scanner counters or in the bathrooms,” said the official quoted above.
The force does not maintain an annual log of each item found, but maintains the worth of items recovered every day. On Wednesday, for instance, they found at least 11 watches and nine earphones at the Delhi airports.
The analysis of last year’s data also showed that in airports such as Chandigarh, Srinagar, Agartala and Bagdogra, passengers often forgot their jackets. These were mostly found near X-ray scanners and bathrooms, officials said, adding that these were the most common items retrieved in the winter months after laptops, cell phones and smart watches.
“Passengers who take flights at these airports are usually those travelling from hill stations. Because of the weather, they may be wearing warm clothes at the time of entering the airport. Many of them forget to take it back after sending the jackets through the X-ray scanners or after removing it inside the airport. This is a trend that is limited to only some airports,” said a second official, who asked not to be named.
But if losing gadgets was relatable, there were some who lost more precious items. The highest of such hauls is in Mumbai, where 11.42kg of gold or precious metals was recovered last year. In Bengaluru, this amount was 5.24kg, followed by Chennai (4.52 kg), and Delhi (3.44 kg).
CISF official pegged the value of the “total gold and precious items” found at airports worth around ₹21.54 crore.
If there is an expensive item or a wallet with cash, it is returned only after verification at multiple levels. The person has to disclose the contents of the wallet, the identity cards inside, or the details of the expensive item they claim is theirs. Next, we check the CCTV footage where the item was found. The pan-tilt- zoom cameras at the airport are powerful enough to zoom in on the face of the person at any given location in the airport,” said an official.
At airports, the items are kept in the “lost and found” room and the process of reclaiming depends on when the absent-minded owner is able to make their way to it.
Explaining the process at the Delhi airport, an official said: “For the first five days, all retrieved items are kept in the lost and found section. If no one comes forward to take it, it is taken to the central storage unit at Terminal 2. Such items are kept there for 90 days. If no one comes forward to claim the items, it is given to Customs. In cases of items of smaller value but which are important, after 95 days the items are handed over to an NGO so that it is put to good use.”
Delhi in February 2023 recorded a footfall of 5,761,787 passengers, followed by Mumbai with 4,079,678. Bengaluru with 2,866,773, Hyderabad with 1,824,814, and Chennai with 1,607,754 flyers.
