WASHINGTON — If you lose or forget something at the airport, whom should you contact? It depends on where your item was lost.

Check with your airline for items lost at check-in counters.

To try to find items left in gates, restrooms, shops or restaurants, you should contact the lost and found at the airport. You can do that online, for example, for Reagan National Airport, Dulles International Airport and BWI Marshall Airport.

People forget everything from coats to toys and laptop computers at security checkpoints for the Transportation Security Administration.

“One of the tips we recommend is that if you’re traveling with your laptop … tape your business card to your laptop,” said TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein. “And then we can ship it to you at your destination or back to your home or whereever you like” — at your expense, of course.

You can file a claim online at the TSA’s website to try to retrieve an item. “Or you can come pick it up at the TSA office,” Farbstein said.

The numbers for TSA’s lost and found offices in the Washington/Baltimore region are:

• BWI International-Thurgood Marshall (BWI): 410-689-3620
• Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA): 703-603-2516
• Washington Dulles International (IAD): 703-662-2234

So, what happens to things that aren’t claimed?

“They get turned over to the state and then the state sells them as surplus items. The state keeps the profit; TSA makes no profit,” Farbstein said.

“The requirement is that we keep [items] for 30 days, but most of the lost and found offices keep them longer.”