You’re at the airport. You’re furiously emptying your pockets before going through the security checkpoint so you can get to the gate (or bar) and not have to worry about anything until your flight starts boarding. You’re tossing your wallet, sunglasses, keys and the change from your pre-airport Starbucks stop into the bin with your shoes. A couple coins fall to the ground instead of in the bin.
No big deal, right? Not for individual travelers, but over the course of the year, that can amount to a huge chunk of change. Literally. How much can we really be talking about, here? How many people even carry change around with them? A lot, apparently. In the fiscal year 2014, travelers dropped $675,000 worth of coins in U.S. airports during the mad scramble of the security line. That’s not a typo. And the Transportation Security Administration gets to keep it.
How does that much change get left behind? According to the TSA, more than 653 million people went through security checkpoints in 2014. All it takes is every 10th person dropping a penny to approach that amount. So someone who drops a quarter is covering for nearly 250 people who manage to scoop all of their change out of the TSA tray. Someone who’s in a hurry and leaves the entire contents of their pocket piggy bank behind can end up donating to the TSA on behalf of 1,000 passengers.
So where is all this money dropping happening? As you might expect, it’s at some of the country’s busiest airports. New York’s JFK International Airport scrounged together an even $42,550 from dropped change. LAX’s TSA crew picked up $41,506.64 worth of coins off the floor. San Francisco got $34,889.63, Miami came in at $32,590.63, and Dallas/Fort Worth rounded out the top five with $29,684.03.
