Hate hidden travel fees? Then pay attention when collecting your belongings at the airport security checkpoint.

In fiscal year 2010, travelers left $376,480.39 in loose change in the bottoms of plastic bins at the checkpoints, according to the Transportation Security Administration. In 2009, the abandoned coins totaled more than $399,000.

“Passengers say their six pennies don’t matter,” said TSA spokesperson Nico Melendez. “But it adds up.”

Melenendez said all the unclaimed pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters are turned over to the TSA finance office. After being documented and counted, the money ends up in the coffers of the TSA, which is authorized by law to spend that money as it sees fit.

But Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) wants to change what happens to that big chunk of change.

Miller has introduced legislation that would direct the TSA to transfer unclaimed money recovered at airport security checkpoints to the United Service Organizations (USO), a private nonprofit that operates centers for the military at 41 U.S. airports.

Miller first introduced the bill in 2009, but it didn’t get much traction. Now that he’s the chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, he’s trying to move the bill forward again.

“The money left behind at the airport checkpoints belongs to taxpayers,” said Miller spokesperson Dan McFaul. “The congressman feels giving it to the USO to help with onsite airport service for active members of the military would be a good use for it.”

McFaul said the bill is currently being considered by two committees – Homeland Security and Transportation – and that “the immediate focus is to get a hearing and get support.”

The USO, which did not initiate the campaign to redirect unclaimed checkpoint change, is nonetheless honored by Miller’s idea.

“Absolutely,” said Frank Thorp, USO’s senior vice president for marketing and communications. “Any dollar amount we get from the American people goes toward the troops and families who need us most. Our centers provide a warm and comforting place where troops can connect with family via Internet or telephone, play a video game, catch a movie, have a snack or just put their feet up and relax.”

As a federal agency, the TSA has no official position on the pending legislation, but Melendez says: “If people don’t want the TSA to get that money, they can do what I do. If I have spare change in my pocket, I put it in my briefcase so I don’t leave it behind.”

This story originally appeared on msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin.

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Everywhere you look right now there are Top 10 lists. So it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that the TSA’s “Blogger Bob” put together one too.

Here are his picks for 10 ‘catches’ that were dangerous, looked dangerous, caused major delays or were “just plain weird.”

Snakes, turtles, and birds were found at Miami (MIA) and Los Angeles (LAX).

A science project shut down a checkpoint at Omaha (OMA).

A concealed non-metallic martial arts weapon known as a “Tactical Spike” was found in the sock of a passenger at Pensacola (PNS) after being screened by a body scanner.

Inert landmines were found at Salt Lake City (SLC).

A stun gun disguised as a smart phone was found at Los Angeles (LAX).

A flare gun with seven flares was found in a passenger’s carry-on bag at Norfolk (ORF).

Two throwing knives concealed in hollowed out book were found at Washington National (DCA).

Over 1,200 firearms were discovered at TSA checkpoints across the nation, many loaded with rounds in the chamber that most passengers said they “forgot” they had a gun in their bag.

A loaded .380 pistol was found strapped to passenger’s ankle with the body scanner at Detroit (DTW).

Small chunks of C4 explosives were found in passenger’s checked luggage in Yuma (YUM).

Blogger Bob also listed some honorable mentions, including Invisible Space Aliens detected at checkpoints, five inert grenades found in passenger’s bag at Newark (EWR) and 240 live fish found swimming in 4 checked bags at Los Angeles (LAX).

That’s quite a list…. Let’s hope the things the TSA picks up this year are not truly dangerous but just “plain weird.”

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Each Friday on msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin, I track down the answer to a reader’s question. This week’s question was: What happens to all that stuff ‘surrendered’ at airport security checkpoints?

Betty Spencer doesn’t travel much, but she’s curious about what happens to items confiscated or surrendered at airport security checkpoints. “There are so many stories of people having to give up items,” Spencer, a patient accounts counselor in Spokane, Wash., wrote to Overhead Bin. “I wondered if any of the items could be donated or recycled. I would hate to think of so much waste.”

The Transportation Security Administration does indeed end up with a lot of stuff: Since 9/11, the TSA has detected approximately 50 million prohibited items, including 4,600 firearms, during airport checkpoint screening.

Hazardous materials are disposed of, and dangerous or illegal items such as guns and explosives are turned over to law enforcement. But travelers do have some say in what happens to other items.

“TSA offers passengers multiple options at the checkpoint for prohibited items that are less dangerous and not illegal,” said TSA spokesperson Greg Soule. “Passengers can return them to their cars, pack them in checked baggage, or at some airports, mail them home to themselves.”

More often than not, travelers end up surrendering their items at the checkpoint. After that, Soule says, the items end up being donated to state governments “to be auctioned off or sold as revenue. TSA in no way profits from surrendered or lost items at the checkpoint.”

Some states, such as Pennsylvania, operate a brisk and profitable business selling items left behind at airports in the state – and beyond.

“Not all states have a program that’s large enough to accept all the items left at airports,” said Troy Thompson, spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of General Services. “But we do. And we receive pallets of items from New York’s JFK and LaGuardia airports and from some airports in Ohio and Maryland.”

Thompson said all the items Pennsylvania gathers end up at a warehouse, where it’s sorted.

“We get a lot of pocketknives, scissors and corkscrews,” said Thompson, “but also frying pans and other cookware, and tools such as drills, saws, hatchets and machetes. Some of it makes you scratch your head and wonder how people thought they’d get those things on the plane.”

A sampling of the items are put out in a store at the state warehouse in Harrisburg, but most of the items get sold in lots, by weight, online at auction. Since 2004, Pennsylvania has earned about $700,000 from auctions held for many years on eBay and, soon, on govdeals.com.

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Update: The Transportation Security Administration employee who added the personal note (above) to the inspection paperwork placed in a traveler’s checked bag will be fired, the agency said on its blog.

“TSA has completed its investigation of this matter, and has initiated action to remove the individual from federal service,” the agency said.

After traveling with a small vibrator in her checked luggage, New York-based blogger and lawyer Jill Filipovic discovered that someone had scrawled “Get your freak on girl,” across the TSA paperwork left in her bag.

Under the title “Your tax dollars at work,” Filipovic posted the note on the Feministe blog and added her own comment, “Total violation of privacy, wildly inappropriate and clearly not ok, but I also just died laughing in my hotel room.”

She also Tweeted a photo of the note, adding: “Just unpacked my suitcase and found this note from TSA. Guess they discovered a ‘personal item’ in my bag. Wow.”

The TSA inspection card is printed in Spanish on one side and English on the other.

“The note was inappropriate,” said Filipovic, “the agent in question acted unprofessionally when s/he put in my bag, there should be consequences and I’m glad the TSA takes these things seriously. But I get no satisfaction in hearing that someone may be in danger of losing their job over this. I would much prefer a look at why ‘security’ has been used to justify so many intrusions on our civil liberties, rather than fire a person who made a mistake.”

(The original version of this story appeared on msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin)

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Photo courtesy TSA

Each Friday on msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin, I track down an answer to a reader’s question. This week the topic was: guns, knives and grenades at the airport checkpoint.

Throwing knives found in a carry-on at BWI

Should you pack your gun, your grenade or your carving knife in a carry-on bag when you go to the airport?

Definitely not, but apparently a number of people do.

According to a recent post on the Transportation Security Administration’s blog, TSA officers have found more than 800 firearms in carry-on bags this year.

And that number doesn’t include the countless knives that still show up at airport security checkpoints daily — it’s so many that the TSA doesn’t even keep count — or the many inert grenades that passengers try to take home as souvenirs.

Last week, for example, a passenger at the Orlando International Airport showed up with three pistols — a .25-caliber, a .40-caliber semiautomatic and a .357-caliber revolver — in a bag that also contained loose ammunition and a loaded magazine. In Baltimore, the TSA recently found three throwing knives in the carry-on bag of a Mexico-bound traveler. And on Monday, TSA officers at New York’s Albany International Airport discovered a loaded gun in the purse of a woman heading to Detroit.

The two passengers with guns were arrested; the traveler with the knives was cited, and his weapons were confiscated.

It’s unlikely that passengers plan to use their weapons during flight, but it’s difficult to know for sure since people often respond to TSA questioning by saying, “I forgot that it was in my bag.”

Given how frequently illicit weapons are discovered, Overhead Bin asked TSA spokesperson Lisa Farbstein for advice on the proper way to fly with firearms.

Farbstein said fliers may transport  firearms, ammunition and firearm parts in their checked baggage even though those items are prohibited from carry-on baggage.

“Basically, travelers must declare all firearms, ammunition, and parts to the airline during the ticket counter check-in process,” Farbstein said. “The firearm must be unloaded and it must be in a hard-sided container [and] the container must be locked.”

You can read more about traveling on airplanes with guns, firearms, knives and other weapons on the TSA’s website, but Farbstein adds that “airlines may have additional requirements for traveling with firearms and ammunition. Therefore, travelers should also contact the airline regarding firearm and ammunition carriage policies.”

Or maybe, just plan to leave your weapons at home.

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