Reusing, Recycling Confiscated Carry-Ons
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 07.18.07
Sometimes we TreeHuggers love re-use so much you'd think we were all born in the Great Depression. Or, at least that we want to avoid something worse happening. After reading a Wall Street Journal story about states managing items confiscated by the US Transportation Security Administration, we were thinking someone should design a chair made from baseball bats and furry hand-cuffs. Ohhh baby.
The "...TSA, a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, relies on state agencies...to offload tons of other items that passengers "voluntarily surrender..." Some states trash or destroy some of the items, along with the shampoos, toothpaste and other gels and liquids banned in large amounts after a British bomb scare last August. But many states now sell the banned objects and keep the proceeds. Alabama, Arkansas and Illinois tout them online. Kentucky enjoys a cottage industry in Internet sales of miniature Louisville Sluggers surrendered after factory tours in the baseball bats' hometown. Pennsylvania, which collects goods at 13 airports including New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, says it collects a total of 2.5 tons of TSA goods a month and that the items, sold on eBay, since 2004 have raised $360,000 for state coffers, as of June..""
"Passengers often relinquish weaponry and restraints they had wrongly thought were mere toys. "We've got lots of furry handcuffs," says Kenneth Hess, director of Pennsylvania's Bureau of Supplies and Surplus Operations. "Riding crops. Studded collars.""
Via:: Wall Street Journal Online (subscription only; but hurry up before Rupert buys it and the rates go up). Image credit:: Flickr, via Boing Boing.
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"But many states now sell the banned objects and keep the proceeds. Alabama, Arkansas and Illinois tout them online."
Does that mean any Joe can purchase some of these confiscated items? I would like to know where they can be bought online, if possible.
==== author's response follows ===
Ebay was mentioned in the article.
7 pounds of confiscated cutlery
My old roommate used to work for TSA when it first started up. They confiscated the typical lighters and pocket knives which were all stored in a back room. They were required to keep them until they were thrown in the garbage or incinerated. If it's one thing the Bush regime can do well, is waste things.