Russell for sale at MHT?

[KBCraig]

Hmmm, perhaps Russell, having been denied entrance and "confiscated" at the Manchester airport, should demand that he be sold off along with the pocketknives and mouthwash. It could be a fundraiser for LSF!

Interesting comments: "I don't even know what that is. Why would you need it on an airplane?" 

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Airport+bargains+for+sale+in+NH&articleId=4e26e1e9-9d4b-44b7-a25a-259cb56e4f2b

Airport bargains for sale in NH

By SCOTT BROOKS
Union Leader Staff

Concord ? The bargains at Kathy Newton's warehouse are hard to beat: $2 for a Swiss Army knife, barely used. A pair of corkscrews, no more than a buck.

Just about the only person getting a raw deal is the poor sap who lost the stuff in the first place when he tried to bring it onto an airplane.

"I don't even know what this is," says Newton, fishing a hunk of German metal from one of several boxes of hardware on the ground outside her office. "Why would you bring it on your carry-on?"

Newton and her co-workers at the state's surplus property warehouse have close to two dozen boxes of airport contraband, from used pocketknives of all colors and sizes to toy handguns to an assortment of hammers, screwdrivers and wrenches.

Each item was seized by screeners at one of four New England airports, including Manchester-Boston Regional and Logan International.

"I still don't get it," says Newton, who helps run the warehouse. "It's so widely known that you do not take this sort of thing on an airplane. And they still do it."

Screeners at Manchester-Boston Regional and Pease airports collect about 100 pounds of contraband each month, according to Ray Carolan, federal security director at the Transportation Security Administration's local office.

Travelers caught with a prohibited item have a choice. "Either it can be abandoned or they don't fly," Carolan said.

Most seized items are promptly discarded, he said. That includes a vast supply of liquids, gels and lotions that were banned on Aug. 10, when authorities overseas foiled a terrorist plot to destroy passenger airplanes over the Atlantic Ocean (A list of prohibited items can be found on the TSA Web site, www.tsa.gov.)

Employees from the State and Federal Surplus Property programs in Concord visit the airports roughly every six weeks to pick up the rest. Those items are hauled back in buckets to the program's Clinton Street warehouse, situated by a cornfield in what was once the White family's old dairy farm.

The warehouse is open to the public on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays. It will close this weekend until Nov. 1, as staffers prepare for the state's biannual surplus property auction, to be held this year on Saturday, Oct. 14.

Most of the seized items sell for $1 to $3.

"I can't get over it," said Ed Swiniarski, of Windham, who went rifling through the program's inventory with his wife, June, this week. "There's a ton of knives. I mean, geez, look at these things. This one's still got a tag on it."

Some pieces seemed downright bizarre. Among other things, Swiniarski found an orange caulking gun, a number of loose butter knives and a pair of 5-pound dumbbells.

"What the hell do you need this for on a plane?" he asked, inspecting a staple gun, on sale for $2.

Robert Stowell, the state's administrator of purchasing, said the program sold $26,000 worth of airport contraband last year. Revenues go toward the program's operating budget.

Swiniarski walked out with a box full of hardware for just $20.

"I'll be back in November," he told the manager. "I'll bring some friends."

[Pat K]

"Some pieces seemed downright bizarre. Among other things, Swiniarski found an orange caulking gun"


O-K you fuckers fly this plane to Cuba or I start caulking....

[Jason Rand]

I am curious why a caulking gun would be confiscated, if this is on some sort of official list, or if this was a judgment call by a screener.  It doesn't seem completely unreasonable to confiscate such a thing since it is metal and could easily be used as a weapon, especially if the plunger part was broken off.

But this is also true of so many other things.  I have a backback that I have often traveled with and take as a carry on.  It is made with two rigid aluminum stays that slip inside a sleeve inside the pack with a velcro flap over the top to hold them in place.  Each of the stays is about 18 inches long and could easily be perforated on an angle either in-flight or beforehand, and then snapped in two.  This would yield four 9 inch aluminum daggers, or, if each one was perforated in two places, a total of six six-inch daggers.  I imagine that something similar could be done with the collapsing handles of rolling suitcases.  For that matter, I even wonder about the aluminum arms that attach to the fold-down trays in front of each seat.

The 5 pound dumbell is another interesting item on the list, and I can also understand the reasoning on that.  They are sufficiently heavy and compact that they could easily be used as a weapon to knock someone out from behind with a crack on the skull.  But a similar weapon could probably also be fashioned from other things easily brought onto a plane.

[Lloyd Danforth]

'Revenues go toward the program's operating budget.'

How cold they not?

[JonM]

Corkscrews: allowed
Toy guns: allowed (f they don't look real)
http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/prohibited/permitted-prohibited-items.shtm

Hell, scizzors with < 4 inch blades are allowed, but not my tube of Crest.  What are they going to do when they figure out breast implants contain liquids?

One thing struck me . . . why are toy transformer robots specifically mentioned?

[d_goddard]

What are they going to do when they figure out breast implants contain liquids?

Well, they'll have to manually check any suspiciously large breasts.
It's OK, though... it'll be only female guards doing the checking.

... and the fees collected from men who with to observe the process will more than compensate for the airlines' budget deficits!

[Kat Kanning]

Really really butch female guards.   

[Dreepa]

Uhmm maybe I didn't check my bag and I was going to do some caulking at the destination!

Freakin' morons!

Bring your toothpaste etc in your pocket.

[KBCraig]

Bring your toothpaste etc in your pocket.

"Is that a family-sized Colgate in your pocket, or are you really happy to be groped by TSA?"

[Spencer]

Why are they seizing butter knives?  They are knives in name only.  The TSA ought to have random temporary additions to the prohibited list.

How about next Wednesday we try to get everyone to surrender their zipper pulls?

The whole thing could be based on a spinning Wheel of Confiscation -- revenue from the syndication of this new game show could help offset the costs of administering airport security.

At least randomizing the list would make for an entertaining trip to the airport (what do you mean they're confiscating car keys today?): imagine the panic.

[lildog]

"Some pieces seemed downright bizarre. Among other things, Swiniarski found an orange caulking gun"


O-K you fuckers fly this plane to Cuba or I start caulking....

Oh come on... I love sitting down next to some cute girl on a plane and showing her my caulk and talking to her about how I like the nice white caulk that starts off soft and hardens when the air blows against it.   

[Rosie the Riveter]

"Some pieces seemed downright bizarre. Among other things, Swiniarski found an orange caulking gun"


O-K you fuckers fly this plane to Cuba or I start caulking....

Oh come on... I love sitting down next to some cute girl on a plane and showing her my caulk and talking to her about how I like the nice white caulk that starts off soft and hardens when the air blows against it.   

LMAO