Seamus

Flew out of DCA yesterday morning; realized late last evening that did not have passport which I last recall using as ID at TSA security. Googled airport lost & found, learned the office is open weekdays only until 4:30 PM, but they do provide an online report form which I submitted. A bit of further online searching produced the number for the TSA office at DCA. Agent answering my call was pleasant and knowledgeable, confirmed that they had my passport (along with freshly reloaded DC Metro Smart-card.) I was concerned that if they handed them over to airport lost & found the chances of their being misplaced would increase. TSA officer took down the info required to allow a friend of mine who lives in the area to retrieve the items. Just got off the phone with that friend who confirmed that he had retrieved the items with no fuss other than producing ID and signing a release form in a pleasant interaction with TSA staff at the airport.
There is so much complaining about TSA and its staff (including from me) that I thought it only fair to note this instance of friendly, knowledgeable, efficient service.

colduphere

Sorry Seamus but I am going to press the triangle on your post.

emalloy

Good to know that they sometimes get it right.

SelfPropelledTripod

Great to hear!

And it's nice to be reminded that, despite all the complaints, by and large, the folks at TSA are good people, trying to do the right thing. In a lot of flying, I've rarely seen anything really screwed up (except for big, systemic stupidity, which isn't the fault of the agents in the airport). And the agents themselves have almost always been courteous and professional (with the notable exception of an agent who frisked me at SFO recently who kept running his hands up my legs fast enough to make me jump when he hit my balls , and then he got mad that I wasn't standing still, but I digress...)

travelgourmet

<i>And it's nice to be reminded that, despite all the complaints, by and large, the folks at TSA are good people, trying to do the right thing.</i>

Honestly, the only people I ever see or hear about having problems with the TSA seem to be those that have forgotten this fundamental truth.

P_M

That's great Seamus, thanks for sharing such good news.

thursdaysd

"Honestly, the only people I ever see or hear about having problems with the TSA seem to be those that have forgotten this fundamental truth."

You think? I guess that applies to the elderly women forced to remove adult diapers, the young good-looking women sent through "nude" scanners multiple times, children reduced to tears with parents forbidden to touch them... I could go on.

travelgourmet

<i>You think?</i>

Pretty much.

<i>I guess that applies to the elderly women forced to remove adult diapers, the young good-looking women sent through "nude" scanners multiple times, children reduced to tears with parents forbidden to touch them...</i>

Isolated anecdotes. Inconsequential given the millions of passengers every year. As for some of this stuff...

1) Sending "good-looking women" through multiple times would get you pretty much the equivalent of a truck mudflap. I doubt there is widespread voyeurism for such minimal payoff.
2) Crying kids need to toughen up.

<i>I could go on.</i>

I'm sure you could muster maybe 100 anecdotes. It still wouldn't be significant.

FWIW, thank you for confirming my suspicions.

thursdaysd

Fine until you're the one affected. In any case, this is costing billions of dollars and doing nothing to keep us safer. What was needed was hardened cockpit doors - done - and better intelligence gathering - hopefully done.