Returning items to their rightful owners: Inside Salt Lake City airport’s lost and found

During his trip to Japan, Gustavo Ougo purchased a special edition Nintendo Switch that cannot be found in the U.S.

While traveling through the Salt Lake City International Airport last week, Ougo lost the device.

“I didn’t have space to put it in the suitcase, so I was carrying it in my hands. I had to go to the bathroom, and then I totally put it down and forgot about it,” he said.

The next day, he decided to check at the large international airport lost and found to see “if there’s still good people” who may have turned it in.

And there it was.

Even though many don’t even know it exists, Salt Lake City’s busy airport — which has as many as 30,000 daily visitors — has a robust lost and found on the third floor of the main terminal. A staff of three full-time employees keeps the thousands of misplaced items cataloged and ready for reunification.

The lost numbers are astounding.

The found stories are astounding as well.

Between January and November, the group received 29,594 items, averaging 1,427 claims each month.

“Here in Lost and Found, we’re doing a lot of organizing all of the items that we get in,” said customer service supervisor Melissa Royle, adding that 400 to 600 items arrive a week. “It’s a lot of processing.”

What is found?

All items that are left in public areas of the airport — shops, lobbies, terminal areas, parking lots, buses and TSA screening — are brought to the lost and found.

The items are organized by type and when they are brought in.

Walking into the room of the lost and found, a few sections stand out; one section is filled entirely with AirPods.

“We get hundreds and hundreds of AirPods every week,” Royle said.

There are areas for books, luggage, clothing, different types of jewelry, glasses and larger items such as strollers.

Items will stay in the lost and found for 30 days, with an eight-day grace period. If an item reaches the time limit without being claimed, then it will be destroyed, donated or auctioned off.

While lots of items in the lost and found aren’t surprising — like backpacks, IDs and sunglasses — the more unique items draw one’s attention. Some of the more interesting current items include a full tactical vest, a wooden oar, two “SpongeBob SquarePants” art prints and a Chilean flag.

Interestingly, Royle said, a good number of musical instruments lose their owners. Currently there is a violin and a unique type of harp that has been claimed and is ready to be shipped back to the owner.

“The other day, we had a bag that had not only an electric guitar, it had a ukulele and an acoustic guitar,” she said. “So a lot of merchandise in one package that poor musician was without for quite a while before they realized that they could go online and file the claim with us.”

The team also recently had some handcrafted Indigenous regalia worn for dances and powwows that has been returned to its owner.

Is ‘airport brain’ the cause?

It may seem strange that people can leave behind items of high monetary or sentimental value, but Royle blamed it on what she calls “airport brain.”

“You come into an environment that’s super hectic, full of lots of people, and you’re just in an unfamiliar space, just being rushed through the process. As soon as you start rushing, that’s where, unfortunately, people lose things and whatnot,” Royle said.

Out of the nearly 30,000 items received by the lost and found between January and November, 2,680 were bags. That included 7,193 items of clothing, 6,143 computers and other electronic devices, and 2,795 cards or IDs.

“It’s a very hectic process. People are taking things out of their pockets, out of their bags, and they’re being moved through quite quickly. It’s an unusual process,” said Royle, who noted that even airport employees’ possessions often end up in the lost and found as well.

The investigative process

Once the misplaced belongings arrive, Royle and her employees start processing.

“We’ll image each item, we’ll inventory it, look through what it is, add notes into our system, and then tag it, and then store it,” she said.

They work very hard to reunite people with their items, and this includes good old-fashioned investigative work.

With each item, they try to see if they can find a name or contact information on it. If not, the next step includes looking up names on social media, reaching out to airlines, trying to find a phone number online or doing overhead pages at the airport.

Because an airport is a travel hub, oftentimes the misplaced items belong to those who live outside of Utah. Royle and her team ship claimed items both nationally and internationally.

“The job isn’t always straightforward. There’s a lot of different things can happen throughout the week,” Royle said. “There’s a lot of helping ease people’s minds and hoping and reuniting things. There’s a lot of researching that happens, calling people, and just a lot of detective work for the most part.”

Once unclaimed items reach the end of the road, the process becomes more final.

“If there’s items that needed to be destroyed, like personal documents or just like a journal or what have you, unfortunately, we would shred it to ensure that the personal information isn’t out there,” she added.

Royle said one thing that makes her job so interesting is learning about strangers through their belongings.

“I’m taking this step into their life,” Royle said.

Making sure the items are returned to the right person

Part of the process, Royle said, is gleaning information about the owners so they match the owners with their treasures.

That includes a system that helps them verify that the person claiming the item is actually the owner.

“I always say, hey, sorry, I’ve got to play this ’20 Questions’ game with you, and it just helps really filter out, you know, who actually owns this item,” Royle said. “But I feel like gut feeling has a lot to do with it.”

Royle described an incident where a very expensive watch found its way to the lost and found, only to have a pair of different claims for it. After putting in a lot of work and asking both parties multiple questions, she determined who the real owner was and that the other person was a scammer.

Video cameras spread throughout the airport have also helped the team identify the correct owners, including a successful delivery of an envelope containing almost $5,000 in cash.

That video helped the team confirm that the man who came to claim the cash was the actual owner.

Royle said people often personalize where they conceal their cash and other valuables.

Tips to make claims

Royle said all items have been cataloged online. So she suggests starting there.

If someone doesn’t see their item posted on the lost and found’s website, she said “don’t fret.” It takes time to process the items.

Royle also encourages people to file a claim for their items even if they aren’t yet posted online. This way, the lost and found team can match found items to any filed claims.