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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 30,2012 Business & Industry Plane items rife for losing By Joe Taschler Milwaukee Journal Sentinel From cellphones to prosthetic limbs, passen¬ gers have a habit of leav¬ ing everything imaginable behind on airplanes and at airports, forcing some airports and airlines to put systems in place to try to reunite lost items with their owners. Earlier this year the sit¬ uation became so unman¬ ageable for Southwest Airlines that the airline launched its own sophisti¬ cated computer software to match travelers with their wayward belong¬ ings. “It really is mind-bog¬ gling the amount of things that are coming through," said Robert Lehr, manager of central baggage services for Southwest. “The volumes are just staggering. “Basically, if you can carry it on a plane, it’s been left on a plane." And during the holi¬ days — the busiest travel time of the year, when airports and airplanes are packed with stressed peo pie it stands to reason that even more stuff shows up on the lost-and found pile. But it’s not just air trav¬ el. People tend to lose more items in December than at any other time of the year, according to sur¬ vey numbers released this month by electronic data backup firm Mozy. "The times when peo- I I I H | E : ||fl rj | Photos by Autumn Vetter Forsyth County News ■ "•*5? 0f.- M ELECTRONIC CIGARETTES M Try It Before You Buy It! 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The survey also showed the average person in the U.S. misplaced nearly $250 worth of posses¬ sions in the past 12 months. That adds up to more than $30 billion of lost property in the U.S. this year. While December is ground zero, the tendency to lose things is year round. Southwest typically gets 10,000 to 13,000 items turned in to lost and found every month. That’s 120,000 to 156,0(X) items a year. The airline has a warehouse devoted to nothing but storing and cataloging things that have been left on its airplanes. “By and large, it’s STOCK MARKET UPDATE MARKET IN BRIEF At the close of Dec. 28,2012 DOW S&P 500 NASDAQ -158.20 Close: -15.67 Close: •25.60 Close: 12,938.11 1/402.43 2,960.31 STOCKS OF LOCAL INTEREST Sign Stock Last Change AAPL Apple 509.59 -5.47 DAL Delta Air Lines 11.50 -0.07 F Ford Motor Co. 12.87 + 0.11 GAS AGL Resources 39.68 -0.25 GOOG Google 700.01 -6.28 HD Home Depot 60.65 -0.42 INTC Intel Corp. 20.23 -0.28 KO Coca-Cola Co. 35.97 -0.45 MCD McDonald's Corp. 87.58 -1.14 Where's my... Mozy surveyed 3,500 people in the U.S., United Kingdom, Ireland, France and Germany regarding their experience of los¬ ing and finding items. The top five things people are most upset to lose: • Bank card • Laptop • Smartphone •ID •Wallet/purse Top 10 things that go missing (global): •Smartphone •Jewelry •Sunglasses • Keys • Bank/credit card •Clothing • Umbrella • Purse/wallet •ID • Paperwork mostly electronic items,” Lehr said. “We get tons of cellphones.” It’s not just high-end electronics that are left behind, though. “Reading glasses we just get thousands of, just crazy amounts,” Lehr said. Seat-back pockets are Post-holiday shopping Local residents turned out in droves Wednesday, the day after Christmas, for shopping and to return items. Left, visitors walk the streets of the Avenue-Forsyth. AnnaTurner, below, looks through clothing at Kohl's. Below left, parking lots along Market Place Boulevard were packed with cars. ! DO Listen to your Body. People think of varicose and spider veins as a cosmetic concern. Varicose and Spider veins can also lead to serious health complications Are you experiencing leg fatigue, cramping, pain, itching or restlessness? If YES, schedule a FREE Ultrasound Vein Screening (Future procedures are covered by most insurers and Medicare) Renew the Way You Look & Feel Botox & Juvederm Call for Monthly Specials 2950 Buford Hwy, Suite 140 Cumming, GA Call 678-513-1600 for appointment Peter Wrobel, MD luxeveinimtituteandmedspa. com -j the black holes of aircraft, All sorts of things are left behind in those pouches. It’s so bad that Southwest has adopted see-through plastic mesh for seat-back pockets as part of the redesign of its aircraft interiors, Lehr said. Travelers aren’t just leaving things on air¬ planes. Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport sees thousands of items that are left behind by travel¬ ers each year. The airport has a team of volunteers who deal with lost and found items at the airport. The list of items left behind is long and ranges from mundane (paper¬ back books) to head scratching (oxygen tanks). Lost and found items at the airport include sun glasses cheap, design er and prescription — jewelry, clothing, car seats, strollers, mittens. gloves, credit cards, pass¬ ports and car keys. There also have been foam cheeseheads, wheel¬ chairs, crutches, garage door openers and can openers. Volunteers are often left to wonder how folks managed to continue on their journey without their crutches, wheel- foreythnews.com | FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS Sign Stock Last Change MSFT Microsoft 26.55 -0.41 PEP PepsiCo Inc. 68.02 -0.65 RF Regions Financial 6.93 -0.06 SGMS Scientific Games 8.41 +0.06 SO Southern Co. 42.33 -0.35 T AT&T 33.32 -0.34 TSN Tyson Foods 19.18 -0.19 UPS United Parcel Service 72.83 -1.08 WMT Wal-Mart Stores Inc. 67.61 -0.58 chairs or oxygen tanks. Those mysteries remain unsolved. (A local bot¬ tled-gas company ended up with the oxygen tanks when they weren’t claimed by anyone.) The same goes for Southwest. "A prosthetic leg was left on a plane,” Lehr said. “A prosthetic limb, we would think they’d want it back pretty badly.” Jacki Servi Margis, chairperson for the Travelers’ Aid Board, a self-governing volunteer organization that staffs a kiosk at the Milwaukee airport and handles lost and found, said volun¬ teers often become detec¬ tives when trying to find owners of lost property. “The volunteers go Q£gk MOVIES 12/28 Friday 01/03 400£3) mmm - Thursday DJANGO UNCHANGED (R) .......................1.00 4:40 5:20 THE GUILT TRIP (PG13) ...... 12:10 2:40 5:10 7:40 10:10 THE HOBBIT 2D (PG13) ...... .................... 12 45 4:25 5:05 THE HOBBIT 30 (PG13) ...... .................... 11:30 3:10 T OO JACK REACHER (PG13) ..... ........... 1:00 4:05 7:10 10:15 LES MISERABLES (PG13).. ........... 10:50 2:30 t:10 9:50 LINCOLN (PG13).................. ...........11:50 3:10 6:30 »:50 MONSTERS, INC. 3D (G) ..... ........... 12:00 2:30 5:00 7:30 PARENTAL GUIDANIAN (PG) .... 12:13 2:45 5:15 T 43 10:15 RISE OF THE GUAROMNS 20 (PG) 12:10 2.50 5.20 7:50 SKYFALL (PG13) ................................ 6:00 THIS IS 40 (R) ..................................... 12:45 3:50 7 00 10:03 WRECK IT RALPH 2P (PG) ............... 12:00 2:40 3:20 fUtCT TO CHANT-f WThOi IT NO' ALL SHOWS BEFORE 6 PM MON-THORS (EXCLUDING HOLIDAYS) $5.00 ALL SHOWS BEFORE 6 PM FRl SUN $6.00 • MOVIELINE * 678-513-4400 On Tlx? 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Lehr said. “These are people’s possessions and someone had that pit-of-the-stom ach feeling with every one of these things," Lehr said. “We have to do everything we can to get the items back to their owners. “We have worked very hard at this." Worldwide, fewer than half of lost items are ever recovered, according to the Mozy survey.