False Teeth and the Man Who Reclaimed Them
From belts to wedding rings (yes, wedding rings), the PIT Lost & Found is an anthropologist’s dream.
By Kristin Mageras
Published May 9, 2018
Read Time: 3 mins
Patty Getty doesn’t take her wedding rings off for anything.
Well, except to do her makeup. But from the database of lost and found items she keeps as part of her job as a customer service representative at Pittsburgh International Airport, other people — and men in particular — aren’t nearly as careful.
Jewelry of all kinds is the No. 1 item turned into Lost and Found. Counting back one year from March 31, Customer Service staff catalogued 863 rings, necklaces and bracelets, and 463 other baubles.
On average, about a thousand items get turned in every month and cataloged in Repo App, the online software tool Getty and the staff use to catalog and keep track of such items.
Wedding rings make up a small portion of that total — about two a month — but you would think the return rate on these precious items would be better.
“We only get about 50 percent of people calling or coming back to reclaim lost (wedding) rings,” said Elise Farris, customer relations manager at PIT. “My guess is that people forget where they left them or lost them and don’t think to contact [the airport].”
Repo App shows that 95 percent of all wedding rings brought to the lost and found are men’s-style rings.
Farris, newly engaged herself, wouldn’t speculate on why the gender divide exists, only to say that “I sometimes get paranoid in thinking I’ll lose my ring and I only just got it.”
“Most rings are brought to us by the cleaning staff or by TSA,” said Getty. “They must either take them off to wash their hands, or (incorrectly) think they have to remove them to get through security.”
Not so, said John Keddie, Community Liason for the Transportation Security Administration at PIT. “Passengers do not have to remove jewelry,” he said. “Our officers can advise passengers as to what might be making them alarm the detector, but it’s up to them whether or not they remove their rings, watches, necklaces, etc.”
Belts come in a close second, no doubt left behind at security check-ins, along with tablets and laptops, cellphones and chargers, and driver’s licenses and passports. Among the stranger items collected?