The Hammer
Junior Member
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2006
- Posts
- 19
Remember that Swiss Army knife in your flight carry-on that you’d forgotten about until the guards who x-rayed your stuff at the airport security checkpoint “discovered“ it.
You wern’t planning on hijacking the fight, or even carving your name into the seat-back tray table.
It had been a special gift, from a special person who had taken considerable time, and spent about $130 to give you something that they thought would come in handy one day.
The range of items included were amazing, a pair of tiny scissors, some miniature screwdrivers, tweezers, and a couple of small blades.
The sort of things that come in handy in your hotel room for making running repairs.
But that wasn’t how the airport security guards viewed it. This was a lethal weapon - something that could make a mortal man capable of overpowering a hundred other aircraft passengers, gouge your way through the locked, reinforced metal coughpit door, and hijack the aircraft you were travelling on, crashing it into a building containing all of the leaders of the free world in the name of Balsamic Jihad.
And so it was confiscated. Well that’s what they said they were doing.
In many civilized countries, these confiscated items are placed into a paper bag on which your name and seat number are written, and you are handed a slip of paper which authorizes you to collect the said confiscated item upon arrival at destination.
How does it get there? Well prior to departure, an airline staff member will visit the security checkpoint, and all confiscated items for that flight are loaded into one “ship’s pouch” (big envelope), and then taken down and placed into the aircraft cargo hold, out of the way of aspiring terrorists.
But not the TSA in the USA.
The TSA sees these newly acquired, “confiscated” items as being theirs’ to have, to hold, and to hock.
Yes, there’s no second thought here, of returning this confiscated contraband to its rightful owners - unless they’re willing to pay for it once again.
It will often be auctioned off on eBay - much as a shoplifter or burglar might do with their illicit, ill-gotten goods. Or sold off to help compensate victims, and families of victims of war crimes, as was done with loot belonging to war criminals
Is it ethical of the TSA to sell these goods?
They (the TSA) are, after all paid for their services.
Confiscating possible weapons and flight prohibited articles is their responsibility to help protect passengers and crews, and ensure the security of flights.
But the income from the sales of these passengers’ personal bounty is extra topping on the cake, and in this writer’s opinion crosses the boundaries of decent and responsible behavior, as confiscated items are now viewed as possible sources of extra revenue, and not just as threats.
Source: PIREP.org
PIREP.org :: View topic - Is the TSA selling ill-gotten goods?
Do they do the same in Oz? I BET they DO!
You wern’t planning on hijacking the fight, or even carving your name into the seat-back tray table.
It had been a special gift, from a special person who had taken considerable time, and spent about $130 to give you something that they thought would come in handy one day.
The range of items included were amazing, a pair of tiny scissors, some miniature screwdrivers, tweezers, and a couple of small blades.
The sort of things that come in handy in your hotel room for making running repairs.
But that wasn’t how the airport security guards viewed it. This was a lethal weapon - something that could make a mortal man capable of overpowering a hundred other aircraft passengers, gouge your way through the locked, reinforced metal coughpit door, and hijack the aircraft you were travelling on, crashing it into a building containing all of the leaders of the free world in the name of Balsamic Jihad.
And so it was confiscated. Well that’s what they said they were doing.
In many civilized countries, these confiscated items are placed into a paper bag on which your name and seat number are written, and you are handed a slip of paper which authorizes you to collect the said confiscated item upon arrival at destination.
How does it get there? Well prior to departure, an airline staff member will visit the security checkpoint, and all confiscated items for that flight are loaded into one “ship’s pouch” (big envelope), and then taken down and placed into the aircraft cargo hold, out of the way of aspiring terrorists.
But not the TSA in the USA.
The TSA sees these newly acquired, “confiscated” items as being theirs’ to have, to hold, and to hock.
Yes, there’s no second thought here, of returning this confiscated contraband to its rightful owners - unless they’re willing to pay for it once again.
It will often be auctioned off on eBay - much as a shoplifter or burglar might do with their illicit, ill-gotten goods. Or sold off to help compensate victims, and families of victims of war crimes, as was done with loot belonging to war criminals
Is it ethical of the TSA to sell these goods?
They (the TSA) are, after all paid for their services.
Confiscating possible weapons and flight prohibited articles is their responsibility to help protect passengers and crews, and ensure the security of flights.
But the income from the sales of these passengers’ personal bounty is extra topping on the cake, and in this writer’s opinion crosses the boundaries of decent and responsible behavior, as confiscated items are now viewed as possible sources of extra revenue, and not just as threats.
Source: PIREP.org
PIREP.org :: View topic - Is the TSA selling ill-gotten goods?
Do they do the same in Oz? I BET they DO!