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ALTHOUGH AIR TRAVEL has become significantly less rare for many of us in the era of cheap flights, there’s still a certain factor about going to an airport where many people treat travelling to the airport and flying overseas as a big event.
As a result, we tend to focus on making sure we have everything organised – passports in hand, boarding passes printed, no liquids in our hand luggage – and so, despite the significant volume of people that travel through Dublin every year, there’s not very much lost property.
That said, a quick look at the log of property that people have found at the country’s biggest airport reveals a healthy batch of stuff left behind by travellers and handed in by others passing through the buildings.
A look at the items left in so far this month contains no fewer than 12 pieces of luggage, while three laptops and a tablet machine have also been left behind in the last few weeks – not to mention the 18 mobile phones and four iPads left behind since the start of November.
Airport Police, who handle the lost and found property at the airport, hang on to items left behind for a maximum of 90 days – but we wondered what happens to property that’s left unclaimed after 90 days.
We asked an airport spokesman, who said: “Any unclaimed property of value is sold and all proceeds go to the DAA’s Charity of The Year, which this year is Barretstown.”
Naturally this poses a slight issue for electronic items like mobile phones and computers, which could have sensitive data on them.
In these cases, if something is left unclaimed, its contents are wiped clean and the DAA donates them to the charity Camara, which collects old computers and refurbishes them for educational use in Africa.
“The same system applies with any items surrendered by passengers at security screening,” the spokesman said. “Anything of value that can be sold is sold and the proceeds go to the DAA Charity of the Year.”
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Why to schools in Africa there are plenty of needy children in Ireland real patriotic from a state organisation
yes i agree .. they should keep those bits and pieces found for our third world country here
My thoughts exactly!
By the sounds of the article most stiff is sold to benefit their charity of the year which is Irish.
The electronics are sent to Africa as an added measure of security. If anyone was to recover the deleted data from the equipment then it would be much harder to use the information for scammers etc if it is on the other side of the world (admittedly far from impossible to do though!)
@cooperguy because there is no such thing as an African scammer, I’d rather trust a company here to be honest.
I once won the Ugandan lottery but as the crown prince of kilmuckridge who’s father recently died leaving a massive sum of money to me, I asked this guy for 200 euro to pay off the royal guard and flee with the money but he didn’t reply
Surely we have enough people/businesses in Ireland that are capable of wiping data from computers without any scams!
Haha yeah the chances of an iPad being giving to charity
It’s terrible to see what a cynical nation we have become. A story about charity inevitably gets the dregs of society posting negative stories trying to belittle the good deeds these people are doing. They need not have mentioned anything about what they do with the left over luggage if most people were going to accuse them of thievery anyway.
Same at security screening, that’s why you fill your empty brylcream container with veet if you lose something they do too lol
brilliant!!!!
Hahahaha that’s deadly!!!!
I’m off to fill up my mouthwash bottle with used cooking oil!!!
Why is it every time we raise a few bob here we go and give it to some country in Africa, this place here is on its knees, already we have caught a minister in Uganda his hand in the charity coffers that our government gives to that country, how much does this country of ours give away every year when we have people dying on trolleys in hospitals here ?
It beggers belief.
Yes, Ireland is set to spend the most money over Xmas per head than any European capital.
Methinks the lady doth protest too much.
Let’s see if this pans out – I doubt it somehow…
Oh, clearly selling a few laptops and mobile phones left in an airport is going to benefit Ireland much more than the charities they’re donated to!
I left a bag with FIFA 13 and playstation controllers in it on the train. I never thought I’d get it back but someone handed into the station and when I rang Pearce st they had it for me. I wish I could thank whoever gave it back, if you read this and were on the train from maynooth the night before Halloween, thank you very much, I got my bag back
Once I lost my wallet and it had just a fiver in it. It arrived in the post with the fiver still inside and all my bank cards etc.. a few days later.
Most people don’t want FIFA13 to be fair. Majority don’t play play station.
they have a stereo and 3 jackets belong to me
Well, go claim them then.
If they can wipe clean an iPad or mobile phone, surly they can call the owner or dial some other number listed on that same device to at least try to contact the rightful owner.
Who does the wiping of sensitive data?
Camara
always get cheap smokes off customs workers too
My husband was made put his wedding ring in one of those trays that go through the x ray machine by a security person. Only time either of us was ever made so that. It never came out the other side. Got zero help from the people on the machine even though we were standing right there when it disappeared with toddler & me 6 mths pregnant at the time. Ring never turned up, calls to lost & found were never returned. Very upsetting and unsettling thing to go through.
Laura that’s very upsetting of all things to loose a wedding ring :((( I suggest you write a letter of complaint!
That’s awful. They obliviously stole it since it didn’t come out the other side. Why did they make him take his ring off anyway? They have no right to do that.
Painful memory – I left my iPad on a Ryanair flight to Murcia in October. Luckily I had changed the password to a longer version with symbols, as I heard that a four digit pin can be cracked in 15 minutes. Readers take note!
Did you not get it back?
Afraid not
Howcome u didn’t get it back?
Unknown to me I left my wallet behind in Stansted airport as I was about to board the plane my name got called over the speakers. Some kind person handed it in.
Brendan I’m surprised Ryanair didn’t try and sell it back to you
I Lost my bank card on the street in Killarney and some kind person handed it into the bank and the bank rang me and I got it back. Thanks to that lovely person who did.
A friend of mine worked with the DAA and she found either a Nintendo ds or something like that and after the 90 days she got as the finder got to keep it! Charity my back side!
I always wondered where they sell the stuff!
Joe, They used to sell it to staff at a kind of market they set up during break/lunch time!
have your say