Question: What happens to phones found by the TSA? I lost mine at the Kona airport June 6 at about noon. I left a voice mail but never heard back. The phone was left in a bin.
Answer: Items passengers leave behind when passing through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints at Kona International Airport in Keahole are stored in the agency’s lost-and-found for 30 days and are subsequently forwarded to TSA headquarters in Washington if they are not retrieved by the owner within that time frame, according to an employee in the Kona TSA Coordination Center who declined to give his name.
You did the right thing by calling the TSA, rather than only the airport administration; they maintain separate lost-property storage. You said you left a detailed message on the TSA Coordination Center’s voice mail the day you lost the phone, describing the device and the date, time and location you lost it.
We don’t know why your call was not returned. We did have better luck getting through to a live person when we followed up, though. We asked the TSA staffer who answered the phone Thursday to double-check the lost-and-found logs around the date your phone went missing. Sure enough, a lost phone was unclaimed — and it turned out to be yours.
The employee said the phone was logged as having been lost the day after your flight; he did not know whether that was due to a record-keeping error or because the phone wasn’t spotted in the security bin until the next day. At any rate, you followed up with the TSA in Kona directly to confirm that it was your phone and to arrange to have it shipped to you on Oahu at your expense.
You had already gotten a new phone and suspended service on the old one, because you had lost it more than two weeks ago. Still, you said you look forward to getting the old phone back because you’ll be able to retrieve irreplaceable photographs stored on that device.
Q: How much does a new teacher make?
A: A newly hired teacher in Hawaii’s public school system will earn from $35,952 to $64,815 for the 2017-18 school year, depending on education, training, licensing and experience. See details at 808ne.ws/paysked.
Housing help
Interest-free loans for down payments are available for low- and moderate-income families hoping to buy a home on Oahu, through the federal HOME program. Loans of up to $40,000 will be awarded to qualified households on a first-come, first-served basis, according to the city government. Applicants must provide 5 percent of the home’s purchase price as a down payment, be approved for a first mortgage through a lender and complete a homeownership course. A total of $110,000 in HOME funds remains available for applications submitted by Friday, and another $360,000 becomes available as of Saturday. For more information, call the Department of Community Services’ loan branch at 768-7076.
Mahalo
Mahalo to the young, local man with the black T-shirt and Primo Beer shorts crossing Atkinson Drive from the Ala Moana Hotel to the YMCA on Thursday at 5 p.m. The drivers of cars stopped at the light saw you talk to the confused old man waiting at the YMCA side of the crosswalk; help him cross to the Ala Moana side; and watch to see he was safely on his way before you resumed your journey. We saw your aloha, and it was a fine thing to see. — Impressed
Mahalo
I would like to thank all the staff at the passport office at the the U.S. Post Office at Honolulu airport. In a time when most bureaucratic offices get slammed, it’s time we praise the efficient ones. The staff was pleasant, helpful and courteous, and made it a breeze to apply for my passport. Great job. — A reader
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
