The TSA made $400,000 in 2010 from loose change
Posted by drocolate on January 13th, 2012
File this under holy shit you have to be kidding me.
The TSA keeps track of all the money people leave behind at security checkpoints and in 2010 the collective total of all those coins reached $409,085.56. It was not disclosed at press time if this number was before or after the Coinstar $.09/dollar fee came out.
Seriously though: Holy shit you have to be kidding me.
JFK International Airport in New York City was the biggest contributor, offering a whopping $47,000 in loose change over a 365-day stretch.
Maybe it’s because I’m a bit thrifty, but I would never just leave my change in the little plastic bowl. I mean, you’re already reaching in there to retrieve your keys and your phone, so why would you leave your coins behind? And how could more than $400k in change be left behind? That’s just insane. In this economy?
It has yet to be determined where the money should go but the top two potential destinations are a giant donation to the USO or back into the TSA budget. Personally I’m hoping for the former because the TSA doen’t need 400 more thousand in their “how can we find ways to brush our hands against people’s nipples in the name of security” budget.
In the meantime though just pick up your change. Stop giving your money away.
Tags: airplanes, free money, security