In reading about the new rules regarding carry-on luggage after the recent terrorist arrests I noted that several of the people being interviewed said that they had to “throw away” some fairly expensive lotions, cosmetics, drinks, etc. that they had intended to take on the planes. Now that the new rules are known, there really is no crying over what would be confiscated, but on the day that the rules were implemented there was no advance warning for passengers. So what if someone waiting for their plane on that particular day and had some particularly expensive liquid/gel products (expensive wine/champagne/perfume/etc); could they designate that the products be kept until their return or perhaps shipped separately to their destination somehow, or were they forced to decide between losing the stuff or missing their flight (and presumably forfeiting their tickets)?
I lost a very nice Swiss Army knife when I packed my bags as usual soon after 9/11, and I was told that the official policy was something like “Bwahahaha!!! Your knife is MINE now, shitface civilian!! Bwahahaha!!!”
A few years ago (pre-9/11), I was returning from Great Britain and was stopped at Manchester Airport because I had a tube of SuperGlue (Cyanoacrylate “Crazy Glue”-type stuff. A 2 ml container.) Mind you, I was leaving the country, having already brought this stuff in from the US. They weren’t concerned about the knives, screwdrivers, and other tools I had/. And, I have to add, the Glue was still in its unopened blister pack.
Why, I asked, were they confiscating this? I was told that it was “an irritant”.
My wife’s theory: Somebody had to glue something.
The official story is that I could call at the airport (or send someone to do so) to pick up the glue. But they must have known that was unlikely.
I was also carrying a Christmas Pudding (this was a couple of days before Christmas), which is arguably more harmful, in the wrong hands (or mouth), but they let me bring that on the plane.
I asked this question of a woman who worked at Customs at the DFW airport many years ago, and she told me that the items are just thrown away, but that it was common practice for Customs inspectors to “appropriate” items they wanted as long as they were not acutally illegal (e.g. drugs and the like). But that was way before the current travel climate, so I don’t know how this might have changed.
The photos I’ve seen were of people throwing stuff in the trash. They were give the opportunity to put items in their checked baggage, but there wasn’t anything available to wrap up breakables.
I accidentally left my Swiss Army knife in my pocket when I traveled 2 months ago by myself. I felt in when I went to take the things out of my pocket at the security line. I pulled it out and the guy that came to see me was really, really nice about it. He offered to let me take it back to my car but I didn’t have time. Then he offered to help me ship it back home. I still didn’t have time. He reluctantly put it in the destroy box. This was in the Providence, RI airport. At Logan, they would have shut the facility down for days and had an unflattering picture put on the front page of the Globe with an ? across it.
I used to carry that same knife with me in airports across the country a few years ago. Now passengers are going to be calling the police because they are sure they smell 7-Up on someone.
TF Green is the cutest little airport. They’ve always been helpful to me.
An article I read sometime ago about the amount of loose change forgotten at US security gates really surprised me: $321,329.48 from Oct. 2003 to Oct. 2004! The article goes on to say the money is deposited in the general fund of the US Treasury.
The article also notes that:
eBay has regular sales of stuff confiscated. I think the procedure is that TSA puts the non-illegal material up for auction in bulk, then wholesalers buy it and stick it on eBay. This won’t work with liquids, of course, but you can buy scissors by the ton.
One day the masses will rise in revolt, and the TSA drones will all go to the wall.
There were shots on television of an employee dragging big bags of confiscated cosmetics and stuff out to a dumpster. The airport was not mentioned, so it’s hard to know how typical this was. But given the volume of junk collected yesterday nobody would have time to sort through all the trash for good stuff. Just getting it out of the way was probably enough of a challenge.
Mmmm… Dumpster cosmetics…
I used to be a TSA screener and we would throw the stuff in a large box and out to the dumpster each day unless it was something like a valuable knife or something. But this was when TSA first started, but I’m sure it’s still not much different nowdays. Each airport also has different policies that work in conjunction with TSA’s rules.
Michele Pred is an artist who uses items confiscated at the San Francisco airport in her work. Here is a gallery with examples of her art, and here’s a news article about her.
My sister works at a charitable organization that receives all the confiscated knives, etc from the local airport. They in turn end up giving most of it to a local foundry, but I can assure you that her family is never lacking for those keychain-sized Vitorinox. And I can’t complain either. I recently got a nifty little Buck assisted-opening folder she’d rescued. Twas rather rusty and scarcely opened, but a little elbow grease has it working like new.