Metro

‘Found, stolen, trashed’ by PA

If it’s lost at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, it’s never to be found again.

That’s because employees regularly plunder the Lost and Found Department, a whistleblower told The Post — and important items such as found passports are simply thrown in the trash.

“This is not only insane in this age of global terrorism and identity theft, not to mention how cruel this is to the poor people who lost such an important document,” said Ivan Carter, a former Lost and Found Department custodian for the PA. “This is a terrorist attack waiting to happen.”

Carter, 44, said he’d recover about 50 passports in the Midtown terminal in a given year.

But when he tried to mail passports that went unclaimed after a few days to their respective embassies, he alleged that he was instructed not to do so — and instead was told to toss the documents in the trash after 90 days.

“We were directed by our superiors to throw lost passports found at the PA in the garbage,” said Carter, a 10-year terminal worker who was fired last month for alleged insubordination.

And when they weren’t trashing, supervisors were looking for treasure, Carter claimed. Higher-ups treated the Lost and Found room as their own “King Tut’s tomb,” he alleged.

“If you lose your stuff, don’t bother looking for it,” he said. “The criminals in charge at the Port are only concerned about how much they can pillage from the public and protecting their criminal enterprise.”

The PA Inspector General’s Office is probing the allegations. “It’s an active investigation,” said agency Director of Investigations Mike Nestor.