Seoul subway lost and found: W3b in cash unclaimed over 5 years

Seoul subway passengers left behind an average of 460 lost items per day last year, and cash alone accumulated to 3 billion won ($2.24 million) over five years, according to data released Friday. While the number of items left on trains — wallets, phones and bags among them — has grown every year, the share actually returned to their owners has declined.

Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Hwang Hee (Yangcheon-gu A, Seoul), a member of the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, analyzed data submitted by Seoul Metro showing that 820,106 lost items were logged on the Seoul subway from 2021 through September this year.

Annual figures rose steadily: from 101,618 items in 2021 to 127,387 in 2022, 146,944 in 2023, 152,540 in 2024 and 167,738 in 2025 — a 65.1 percent increase over five years. A further 123,879 items have been logged through September this year.

Wallets were the most commonly lost item, accounting for 191,223 cases. Clothing came next at 125,174, followed by mobile phones at 114,834, bags at 109,240 and valuables at 49,028.

Despite the rise in reported items, the rate at which they were returned directly to their owners has fallen. The owner return rate stood at 65.6 percent in 2021 but dropped each year — to 63.0 percent in 2022, 60.0 percent in 2023, 56.9 percent in 2024 and 51.5 percent in 2025. Over the full five-year-and-nine-month period, 468,915 items (57.2 percent) were returned directly to their owners. Another 320,389 items (39.1 percent) were transferred to police or otherwise disposed of, while the remaining 30,802 items were still in storage as of the end of September.

Cash lost items over the same period totaled 52,859 cases worth 2.98 billion won in aggregate. Of that amount, 2.22 billion won (74.4 percent) was returned to owners, while 763.8 million won (25.6 percent) was handed over to police.

The station with the most lost items last year was Banghwa Station on Line 5, with 8,943 cases, followed by Yangcheon-gu Office Station on Line 2 with 6,121 and Bonghwasan Station on Line 6 with 4,724. Terminal stations tend to concentrate lost items because they are where items left on trains are collected. The data also confirmed 18 cases of misconduct or disciplinary action involving lost-property staff.

"Lost items — someone's precious assets — keep piling up every year, yet the rate at which they actually make it back to their owners has dropped to around half," Hwang said. "Seoul Metro must overhaul its return notification and search systems from the ground up, and put in place rigorous internal controls to stamp out misconduct in lost-property management, so that public trust in the system can be restored."