Posted on 02/18/2006 12:16:44 PM PST by MRMEAN
sends them out of state
BOSTON -- Ever had a spiffy lighter or all-in-one pocket knife snatched by security screeners at Logan International Airport?
If so, chances are it was donated to a government office in another state and sold for a modest profit.
After the Sept. 11 hijackings led federal officials to ban airplane passengers from carrying a host of sharp objects, airport security hawks have allowed officials from other states who take the surrendered items away from Logan to resell them.
Items from Logan previously were donated to Kentucky, but for the past six months have been passed on to New Hampshire, according to the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which took over airport security in February 2002.
Staff from New Hampshire's Federal Surplus Operation office venture to Logan once a month to pick up travelers' abandoned scissors, knives and tools. State and local agencies in New Hampshire have first shot at the items, which are then sold to the public via a surplus retail store, according to an e-mail from the Surplus Operation office.
The New Hampshire office resells items from Logan as well as Manchester International Airport in their state and T.F. Green International Airport in Rhode Island. January sales totaled $2,436, and for the second half of 2005 reached $11,368, according to the Surplus Operation office, which keeps the proceeds.
Officials from the office explained in the e-mail: "it was presented... that this was a 'cost avoidance' for the airport operation, and they were having a great deal of difficulty in getting pickups from scrap dealers."
Thirty million prohibited items have been surrendered by passengers at checkpoints in airports across the country, according to the TSA. The TSA does not profit by the sale of the items and only needs to move them along, spokeswoman Ann Davis said.
While some states including Pennsylvania eagerly snatch up the donated contraband and resell it, Massachusetts' State Surplus Property Office didn';t want the buckets of sharp objects.
Paul Guerino, Massachusetts's surplus property coordinator, said airport officials offered him surrendered items a few years ago.
Yet with no storage facility or staff, Guerino said he didn’t jump at the chance to try to turn the items he saw as having questionable value into cash.
"Do you want to use someone else's nail clippers?" Guerino asked about the devices security screeners used to prohibit but no longer do.
Davis said once the items are surrendered to security officials, travelers can't get them back.
"Once a prohibited item is surrendered at the checkpoint it becomes the property of the federal government, it is not possible for the traveler to get it back," Davis said.
She pointed out travelers found to have banned items can leave the airport to put the items in their cars, hand them off to other people not boarding planes or use a service provided by Massport at Logan to mail the items to themselves.
Not all items are sold to new owners, Davis said.
Hazardous materials are sent for disposal to Clean Harbors, a subcontractor of Science Application International, which has a multi-million dollar contract with the federal government. Clean Harbors handles items like paint thinner, self-defense spray and lighters with fluid, Davis said.
Despite the objections of flight attendants, the TSA late last year relaxed its restrictions on what passengers can carry on airplanes.
Previously banned items now allowed include scissors with a cutting edge of 4 inches or less and tools such as screwdrivers, wrenches and pliers smaller than 7 inches, according to TSA's Web site.
Some items such as chemical mace, crowbars, drills, hammers, saws and scissors and tools longer than the limited sizes are allowed in checked luggage but not on passengers. Items still banned on both passengers and checked luggage include lighters, flare guns and spray paint.
Emelie Rutherford can be reached at 617-722-2495 or erutherford@cnc.com.
"Ever had a spiffy lighter or all-in-one pocket knife snatched by security screeners at Logan International Airport?
"
Nope, nor at any other airport. I don't take those things there, since 9/11. It's not a big secret that you can't take them on the plane, so I leave them at home.
In a former country called America, this used to be known as "theft".
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