My knife slipped past TSA airport screening — accidentally of course; twice actually

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Pics below. Sorry for the long OP. You can quickly scan through it. TLDR = a few times I’ve accidentally forgotten my knife in my carry-on bag. Sometimes it got confiscated by TSA but 2x it did not. Has this happened to you?

I am not advocating attempting to get weapons past TSA. These incidents are mistakes on my part, over the many years. Have you ever had this happen to you?

For decades I usually have a pocket knife (usually an SAK, Swiss Army Knife) and/or a Leatherman on me at all times. Or both. When I used to travel for work fairly frequently, my wife would jokingly call out as I left for the airport, “Weapons check!” Instead of saying I love you or Safe travels, that’s what she’d say. I love that girl.

There have been some times when I’ve flown, my SAK was forgotten in my briefcase and then confiscated by TSA. Major bummer. Quite a loss. This has happened maybe 2x-3x over the many years.

Some airports actually have mailing stations where you can mail your errantly-contained knife. Once TSA found my knife and instead of confiscating it they kindly (and gratefully!) told me about such a kiosk in that airport (don’t recall which one). I had enough time to step out of line, go to the kiosk and fill in my address and CC info, and mail the SAK to me at home in the strong and small plastic envelope.

My brother who lives in LA (I’m in SF; he and I have the same problem!) shared a time when he was at the airport and realized his knife was in his carry on. Fortunately he was early enough and had some time — he stepped out of line and found a roll of tape at an airline ticket counter, wrapped his SAK in a sheet of paper and that tape, and he taped that bundle to the bottom side of one of those luggage cart vendor racks. When he returned a few days later, his knife was still there, still hidden. A great idea and I’ve had to do that once myself. It does work.

Over the course of some 30-40 years of travel, I’ve probably had 2 or 3 knives confiscated by TSA. The running joke at my company is when traveling with @Bullitt do NOT go through security screening with him! Largely because my wife worked at the same company and she loved telling these stories at work.

There are also non-TSA related events, like entering a museum or baseball park or other venue with metal detectors. I’ve stepped away from the line, found a bush or shrub to stash it under, then entered the building. The trick is to remember to fetch it after you leave. I’ve never forgotten to retrieve it. Have you done something similar?

Once in London my wife and I entered a museum. On entry they wanted all of our pockets emptied. They saw my SAK and they informed me that in London (maybe in all of England?) you cannot have a pocket knife on you. It’s a weapon, they said. It’s a tool, I said. I lost, they won, and my beloved SAK was confiscated. What a stupid law.

But this is about TSA. Twice I’ve had a knife slip past their screening and I found it when I was on board. The first time was shortly after 9/11 and I was flying home from DC from DCA, Reagan National. When I got to my seat I was rummaging through my bag and I found my knife (!). It was a Spyderco knife. Cheap enough, but I would’ve been sad if it had been confiscated. Seated in my seat I softly exclaimed, “Oh!” in such a way that the guy sitting next to me asked, “What is it?” I quickly assessed that he’d be cool with it and so I told him, and I showed him my knife. He just said, “Oh”, and that was that.

This thread is because I found these old photos from a year ago, October 2023. Here’s my knife aboard a United Boeing 757 —

We were flying Grand Junction CO home to SFO. Of course, I forgot my knife. This is a great knife and it’s pricey (about 7x the cost of my typical SAK; an Emerson knife ➜ https://emersonknives.com/shop/knives/every-day-carry/cqc-13/cqc-13 ■), so I am very glad it did not get caught and confiscated.

I took some pictures of it on the full flight. I was at the window and my wife next to me in the middle seat. The guy next to her on the aisle wasn’t observant and I could see that he was clueless about me taking these pics.

[Album] My knife got through TSA, accidentally of course

These are not weapons. These are tools. That Emerson is still in my pocket. I have my SAK in another pocket. And a Leatherman in my belt. And even though I’m retired, in my briefcase is another. Overkill? I don’t think so.

So do you have any “accidental knife” or “accidental weapon” story to share?

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The 9/11 terrorists used box cutters to hijack planes and they are more a tool than that. Just saying.

For me, the closest thing I carry that might be used as a weapon is a pen.

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Yes, I flew a couple of times with a box cutter knife in my carry-on bag. And then flying out of LAX, they caught and confiscated my paring knife.

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A tactical pen, perhaps? These are allowed by TSA.

Added — yes a pen can be an effective weapon in the hands of a trained person. But that’s not me. I don’t have that training.

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I finally found a couple of multitools that don’t have blades, so they now live in my Dopp kit when I travel. Only had TSA look at them once, and they just nodded and sent me on through. The local courthouse isn’t so forgiving. They let me keep it, but gave me a thorough wanding just to be sure I wasn’t going to hijack the building to Cuba or something.

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TSA found a sentimental Swiss Army knife in my backpack that I had forgotten. Fortunately, I had enough time to run back to my car to drop it off.

I have a couple of those folding knives like the OP - they are sharp AF - call them what you want, but they can easily maim or kill someone, even in non-trained hands.

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I have a keychain-sized pocketknife with a 1.5" blade. I’ve carried one of these around for years–mostly for opening boxes, trimming my nails, and so on. It’s significantly less dangerous than a sharpened pencil; but it earned me a patdown from airport security the one time I forgot it was on my keychain. There have been a couple of other occasions where a security guard made me return it to my car or throw it away, and one time where I stashed it under a bush and forgot which bush.

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I had a very cheap, dull, and broken waiter’s corkscrew confiscated out of the bottom of my toiletries bag. I didn’t even know it was there. It was one of the kind where there are 3 little things that flip open - the part you rest on wine bottle’s neck for leverage, a teeny 1/2 inch “blade” to remove the foil, and the corkscrew itself. The case on this thing was so cracked that all the bits wobbled, and I’m not sure any of it was sharp enough to puncture newsprint let alone human flesh. I was not sorry to see it go.

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Back around 2005 (post 9/11) I did a weeklong backpack in the Grand Canyon. I shipped my backpack with supplies down but decided to fly back with my backpack as carry-on. I have no idea how I forgot, but my backpack had knife, fuel canister, lighter & matches. It went through with no issues (I assume the screeners were scared by the stench of the very dirty clothing within). I realized while we were mid-flight and had a mini-heart attack.

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I was given a wallet monkey by a niece some years ago. Similar to this:

I put it in my wallet and forgot all about it. I probably flew over 100 times with it in there. Then a few months ago the bin with my wallet in it was pulled aside for examination. And they confiscated it.

I didn’t think it broke any rules, but apparently they did.

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I’ve had one (Victorinox Midnite Manager) on my keychain for years. A while back I was refused entry to a county fair because of their “no weapons” rule. After that I started taking it off my keychain ahead of time in case an event might have the same policy.

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We once flew to Washington and stayed at a cottage on the Puget Sound. There were multiple places selling fresh oysters, so I bought some plus an oyster knife, and we feasted on grilled oysters at the cottage. I suddenly realized that I probably wouldn’t be able to take the knife home with me on the plane, and it was a good quality knife, so I went to a local post office and mailed it home to myself.

Afterwards, I wondered if TSA would care about an oyster knife. There is no sharp edge, just a blunt flat blade like a dull little butter knife about 3" long.

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An item can’t be both?

mmm

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You aren’t alone.

In 2017, internal testing showed that TSA failed to detect 70% of fake guns, knives, and explosives put through the screening process.

[may be paywalled]

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Before I retired and moved to NC i flew back and forth almost once a month. I generally carry a pocket knife, which I usually remember to put in my checked bag before heading back to Chicago. However, on several occasions after checking my suitcase I would reach into my pocket and find my knife still there. I would then slip it into my carry-on and hope for the best. The TSA either never saw it, or decided to let it go; I never had it confiscated.

One time the TSA did want to confiscate a laser pointer that was in my carry-on. Fortunately, I was somehow able to go back and put it into my checked bag.

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I’ve lost 2 or 3 knives to the TSA. Once I was lucky enough to be able to mail one back home. I lost one at a Garth Brooks concert because I was too lazy to walk back to my car. The guy that took it said that they were being donated to local Boy Scout troops. I’m skeptical that it actually happened.

At a Pink Floyd tribute band (Brit Floyd, if anyone is interested. They’re really good.) I saw that they were wanding people as they entered. I put my SAK in my shoe and didn’t have any trouble.

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I’ve heard of people who are doing a return flight hiding knives in airport plant pots, or stashing in drop ceilings. I have a Kershaw Leek with me every single day but I’m good at leaving it/checking it while travelling. On the other hand, I’ve been “stopped” more often for my keys, which look like a pocket clip knife, but in fact are not sharp.

To be clear: you can bring all number of knives on a plane, even guns too if you declare it. You just need to check them, not carry-on. I have a feeling an oyster knife is treated the same as any other knife.

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Back in 2004, after our wedding, my wife was flying back home with a Tiffany cake knife we received as a wedding gift, in her carry-on. We didn’t have a Tiffany’s in our hometown, so she was taking it to return it to a Tiffany store in her parent’s home town. The blade was about 10-11 inches long.

After about 10 minutes of discussion with the TSA agents, they agreed to let her take it on the plane, but asked that she never tell anyone that they let her through with it.

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Does that mean they’re going to arrest her now?

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