BOISE, Idaho — If you’ve ever rushed through the Boise Airport and left something behind — from headphones and jackets to your wallet or passport — there’s a good chance it ended up in the airport’s lost and found.
Hannah Jahn, who manages BOI's lost and found searches through the abandoned items, “Looks like we’ve got an iPad in here. We’ve got an SD card... Poor kids lose their little animals... The amount of headphones, earphones, those kinds of things that we get are just unreal," Jahn said.
WATCH | An inside look at the BOI lost and found
Jahn has seen her fair share of unusual finds over the years.
“Top news and noteworthy was a prosthetic leg. We had an individual who left it at the checkpoint and then just walked away,” she said.
She's even found some things you'd think would be impossible to forget.
“We had a tote bag that was full of Swarovski crystal jewelry,” Jahn said. “And I think when she came to pick it up, she said it was like $70,000 worth of jewelry.”
The Boise Airport sees thousands of items lost every year, but unfortunately, most never make it back to their owners.
“Our return rate based off of the items that come into our lost and found is about 25%,” Jahn said.
When staff find something like a laptop, water bottle, jacket, jewelry or a wallet they log it, store it and hold it for two weeks — enough time for the owners to either pick up items in person or get it sent to them by mail.
“It’s super easy. We just basically put it in a box, you hit the OK button, you’ll pay for the shipping on it, and then we take it to the post office and off it goes,” she said.
Items not claimed are sent to a salvage company to be sold — with the proceeds going back to the airport — or donated to local organizations.
“A happy customer is significantly better than having all of these items that just sit here and have to get boxed up and sent away,” Jahn said.
In 2025, the Boise Airport saw nearly 500 water bottles left behind, 206 pairs of sunglasses, nearly 100 laptops, 80 passports and 116 iPhones — in addition to countless one-off items.
Here are some other standouts from 2025:
- 14 CPAP machines
- 220 drivers licenses
- 226 wallets
- 32 stuffed animals
- 20 instances of cash
- 149 prescription glasses
- 79 iPads
- 179 sets of keys
- 277 jackets
- 15 pieces of art
- 12 strollers
- 161 hats
CPAP machines had a return rate of 92.6%, MacBooks came in at 90%, and iPhones were at 85.3%.
On the lower end of the return rate spectrum, we have earrings at 2.68%, reading glasses at 2.41%, books at 7.75% and water bottles at 11%.
If you lost something at the Boise Airport, you can fill out a lost and found form here to hopefully be reunited with your item.
This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been, in part, converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
