November 15, 2025, 6:02 am | Read time: 4 minutes
Air travel often means exceptional situations for many people. The hustle, stress, and unfamiliar procedures can easily lead to lapses in attention. Perhaps this explains why the most bizarre things are lost at airports and on planes. Sometimes even living creatures! TRAVELBOOK takes a look at particularly unusual finds from lost-and-found offices related to flying.
Crazy Things Lost on Air Travels
Perhaps you’ve also charged your phone while waiting at the gate, only for boarding to suddenly begin. Grab your bag and go–it’s easy to forget the charger. A loss one can probably endure! But alongside countless insignificant or less valuable items, truly precious things are also lost on air travels. To pass on all these finds meaningfully, many airports regularly hold auctions. For instance, the annual Theodore Bruce Auction at Sydney Airport has brought in more than 1.14 million euros since its inception in 2013, as reported by the “Economist.” The money benefits a charitable initiative. This year, around 2,000 unclaimed items went under the hammer. Included were 200 headphones, numerous designer belts, unopened perfume bottles, bottles of duty-free alcohol, even a premium brand vacuum cleaner, and more than 250 laptops.
It Should Actually Be “Forgotten” and Not “Lost”
What’s interesting is not so much that travelers forget belongings in the heat of the moment, but rather that so many are not retrieved later. For bulkier finds, the reason they are left behind often lies in airline regulations. The “Economist” also reported on a left-behind hoverboard–a two-wheeled, electric motor-driven vehicle. Like the vacuum cleaner, it likely wasn’t allowed on board. However, it’s not the case that items are immediately sold upon arrival at lost and found. In Germany, for example, a legal retention period of six months applies. Nevertheless, airports like Berlin’s consistently accumulate enough finds for a substantial auction each year.
The consumer portal Flightright published a report in 2015 on particularly bizarre items found at airports worldwide. Not all were auctioned–which would be extremely questionable in the first example!
How a Luggage Auction Works at the Airport
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Babies, Cars–and Sometimes Even Sanity
According to the Flightright publication, a Hamburg family forgot their baby at the airport in a burst of spontaneity–specifically in the travel agency there. They had booked a last-minute trip on-site, leaving them only a few hours to go home, pack, and return to the airport in time. The travel agency staff offered to watch their sleeping baby during this time. The family made their flight–and took off! Without stopping by the travel agency to pick up the youngest family member. “With much effort, the staff managed to contact the pilot,” the report states. The “equally relieved and probably embarrassed family then gave them the grandmother’s phone number.”
Forgotten cars, on the other hand, seem anything but rare. This is apparently especially true for Frankfurt-Hahn Airport. In one of the annual auctions, 13 vehicles were auctioned off–their owners never came forward. And sometimes, according to Flightright, travelers apparently lose their “sense of reality.” This refers to a case where a traveler–specifically, the daughter of the then-CEO of the operating airline–forced the crew to turn back at cruising altitude. The reason: She was served the wrong nuts. The case made headlines in 2024 and resulted in a prison sentence for endangering flight safety.
At Alabama Airport, a full suit of armor was left behind, and at another U.S. airport, even the missile guidance system of a fighter jet, which was promptly forwarded to the Department of Defense. Flightright also reports on a prosthetic leg forgotten at Sydney Airport, a 40.95-carat emerald with a 5.8-carat diamond in a sock, and a Barbie doll with approximately 700 euros hidden inside.
Particularly Peculiar Finds at Changi Airport
Singapore Changi Airport is one of the largest hubs in the world. Countless items are found here: According to a report by “United Aviation,” an average of 3,300 lost items are found each month. According to the airport, dentures are found in the transit area about every two months–and most are never claimed. Other unusual items found over the years include a complete bed frame (!) that travelers transported to check-in. The report also mentions washing machines and wine coolers appearing in the lost and found office.
And: even a live hamster. Its owner noticed the loss in time, as did the owner of a roughly 1-kilogram gold bar. “It was safely stored overnight in the lost and found office until the owner–who had already arrived in Penang, Malaysia, and filed a police report–returned to Singapore to retrieve it,” the portal reports.