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How to buy goods confiscated by the TSA
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Last week Catherine pondered the question, what does the TSA do with your confiscated goods? Well, we learned that knives and cigarette lighters, for example, are donated to the Boy Scouts (um, just kidding about the cigarette lighters, folks!). Other metals are melted down and recycled. But not everything is given away or destroyed. Many states save the confiscated items and actually sell them online.
So, if you're wondering how to get back that Louisville Slugger you purchased at the Louisville Slugger Museum in Kentucky and thought you could take on the plane, check out Heather Eng's recent Budget Travel article, Leftover Loot. Not only does she post links to sites that sell confiscated TSA goods, but she also reports on some of the "craziest items" routinely taken from passengers. For example, travelers in Illinois apparently like to fly with nunchucks. And furry handcuffs are all the rage with passengers in Pennsylvania. Go figure.
Related Link: Buying Other People's Lost Luggage
Filed under: Airports
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Siviyo Jan 3rd 2010 12:47PM
I had a small snow globe seized last week at Dulles airport. I asked that I be allowed to smash it so that no one else could have it the intended recipient couldn't (petty, ain't I?). I was told that there was no need as everything TSA confiscates is destroyed. If I see that snowglobe up on the block someone is getting a strongly worded letter.
Coaster Feb 8th 2010 12:24AM
I know someone who works at TSA. He said it all gets sent to a warehouse, much like the end of Indiana Jones, where you see the Ark boxed up and put in a warehouse. There are boxes and boxes of knives. They get auctioned off, they do not get donated to boy scouts. Possibly, the money from the auctions do.
fedup Jan 11th 2008 10:47AM
Isn't it illegal to sell stollen property? Where do the profits from the sales go?