Loot from Logan and other stories...
From yesterday's Boston Metro...
The recent 5th anniversary of September 11 has Americans thinking how flying used to
be...those days when people could watch - from the airplane gate - their loved ones arrive or depart, and when retired band teachers (at least at Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport) manned the security checkpoint area. Now, when we fly the friendly skies, the first thing that greets us when we open our checked suitcase is a paper flyer telling us that it has been opened, inspected, and possibly damaged - if it was overpacked, the passenger's fault, of course - by a TSA screener. Well, some people are finding that they arrive at their destination with less than they thought...the most confiscated item remains lighters, but some have complained that precious jewelry and other items with sentimental value have been lost through TSA screenings. Perhaps this should be a lesson to keep the valuables with you (really, what idiot wouldn't?).
Here is the breakdown of complaints against TSA at Boston's Logan International Airport...
For those, like me, who have been unlucky enough to have had items confiscated from carry-on luggage at the security gate, there's hope - at least for Bostonians - for retrieving such items. All airport contraband is taken to a place called White Farm in Concord, NH (this is not the same Concord as in Lexington and Concord of the American Revolution) and sold for outrageously cheap prices. One can purchase a pocketknife at a flat $1 price, or for $2 for a Swiss Army brand knife. All other tools are sold for prices ranging from $1-$3. A Boston Globe article notes that once TSA accumulates between 1700-2000 pounds of such items (which is typically over a 6-week period), they are trucked to the facility in New Hampshire.
So I guess there's hope that I can buy back my great grandfather's pocketknife...but I don't have the time or energy to sort through the tons of metal to find it. After all, it was confiscated over 9 months - or about 6 tons - ago!
The recent 5th anniversary of September 11 has Americans thinking how flying used to
be...those days when people could watch - from the airplane gate - their loved ones arrive or depart, and when retired band teachers (at least at Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport) manned the security checkpoint area. Now, when we fly the friendly skies, the first thing that greets us when we open our checked suitcase is a paper flyer telling us that it has been opened, inspected, and possibly damaged - if it was overpacked, the passenger's fault, of course - by a TSA screener. Well, some people are finding that they arrive at their destination with less than they thought...the most confiscated item remains lighters, but some have complained that precious jewelry and other items with sentimental value have been lost through TSA screenings. Perhaps this should be a lesson to keep the valuables with you (really, what idiot wouldn't?).Here is the breakdown of complaints against TSA at Boston's Logan International Airport...
For those, like me, who have been unlucky enough to have had items confiscated from carry-on luggage at the security gate, there's hope - at least for Bostonians - for retrieving such items. All airport contraband is taken to a place called White Farm in Concord, NH (this is not the same Concord as in Lexington and Concord of the American Revolution) and sold for outrageously cheap prices. One can purchase a pocketknife at a flat $1 price, or for $2 for a Swiss Army brand knife. All other tools are sold for prices ranging from $1-$3. A Boston Globe article notes that once TSA accumulates between 1700-2000 pounds of such items (which is typically over a 6-week period), they are trucked to the facility in New Hampshire.So I guess there's hope that I can buy back my great grandfather's pocketknife...but I don't have the time or energy to sort through the tons of metal to find it. After all, it was confiscated over 9 months - or about 6 tons - ago!
posted by Evan at 7:32 PM
3 Comments:
I think the only thing I've lost is a cheap wine opener. I didn't know you had a knife confiscated.
that is really horrible. they should make some sort of system where you can get your item shipped to you if you pay an extraordinarly high price. that way, only people with keap-sake items would want to pay it--but they could get those special items back.
maybe you should just go and buy another pocket knife as a way to remember the old.
They gave me the option to get out of the security checkpoint line and go through the checked bag line all over again to check in the knife...this was the Friday before Christmas, and that whole process would have taken me another hour, which I didn't have. The system is there to get items back, but it's a huge pain in the ass.
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