Loose Change at Airports Big Bucks for TSA | Great Escapes

Ever clean out your pockets going through the security checkpoint at the airport? 

Ever forget to pick up that loose change in the plastic bowl after you go through the x-ray machine and make it to the other side?  If so, you're not alone. 

Travelers left behind $409,085.56 in loose change last year. Who gets to keep the cash? The Transportation Security Administration.

According to spokesperson Nico Melendez,

“TSA puts (the leftover money)in a jar at security checkpoint, at the end of each shift they take it, count it, put it in an envelope and send it to the finance office."

Melendez says TSA agents try to get the items back to their rightful owners, but if they're not successful, the money goes into the TSA's general operating budget.

Here's the tally from some of the nation's largest airports:  .