TSA stole my scissors!

[Baitball Blogger]

The background: I knit and had to travel last week. After reading the TSA guidelines I thought I was safe to take my project along with me. The needles are the small kind that are attached by plastic line, so not as threatening looking as the long needles. And then I made the mistake of reading the TSA guidelines again and decided to take my pocket scissors.



They're cool scissors. Looks like the picture below, but much smaller and the other features are really too small for much use, like a nail filer fit for an elf. The entire piece was maybe an inch and three quarters in size folded. But then you opened it transformer style, and it turned into scissors with blades that could probably cut yarn with ease.



The blade part was tiny. No more than three quarters of an inch long. Along with its handle, it was less than three inches when it was in scissor mode. So, based on the TSA guidelines, they met TSA's approval:

TSA Guidelines:
Sewing Needles
Carry On Bags: Yes
Checked Bags: Yes

In general, you may place your knitting needles and needlepoint tools in carry-on or checked baggage.

Circular thread cutters or any other cutter or needlepoint tools that contain blades must be placed in checked baggage. You are permitted to keep scissors smaller than 4 inches in your carry-on baggage.

https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/whatcanibring/items/sewing-needles

The one thing that I applaud the TSA for, is that they found this tiny thing in my baggage after a scan. Kudos. And though the TSA officers were respectful and reconsidered when they realized they were scissors and not a switch blade, the only concession made was that I could have them back IF I stashed it in a suitcase that I would have to check in.

So I gave them up because time was of the essence and we wanted to hit the ground running after we landed.

In the end, question I have, is there any way to appeal and try to get my scissors back? Or is this a lost cause?

[we can do it]

1. Just curious if you have TSA Precheck?

[Baitball Blogger]

2. Yes, we do.

[we can do it]

8. Well that just sucks.

I got hassled over a tiny glasses repair kit, in tin labeled eyeglasses repair kit. These are positively allowed. The tiny screwdriver might be an inch long. This agent was not even slightly nice. This was Juneau Alaska.

I also have TSA precheck.

[Baitball Blogger]

12. I know what you're talking about.

Wow! Those things are tiny!

Well, it was weird how they switched officers when they pulled my bag out of the line. It was a white woman who saw them through screening. Then, after she found them she stepped off the line and allowed someone else to search my bag and this second person pulled them out. This woman was a black woman and she was nice about the whole thing.

[vanlassie]

3. I have had to give up tiny thread cutting scissors as well.

It would be nice if we could have a credit to pull a confiscated pair from the bunch at our destination airport.

[paleotn]

4. That's a really good idea.

[Baitball Blogger]

5. I wouldn't have packed them if I hadn't felt assured by their guidelines.

Instead, I had to pay five bucks at the nearest pharmaceutical and left them at the house where we were staying, since I know they wouldn't have met approval.

Next time, I might try one of these:

[llmart]

6. I wonder what happens to all that confiscated stuff?

Do they sell it on Ebay? Keep it for themselves at the end of the shift? At the end of each day, there must be a whole lot of stuff that's been confiscated.

[Baitball Blogger]

9. It's a good question.

I pictured my scissors ending up in a box for training purposes to show TSA trainees what qualifies as legal.

[we can do it]

10. TSA agent yard sale.

[Earth-shine]

19. It gets sold in bulk to liquidator companies and individual people who sell on eBay and elsewhere.

I speak from experience. Buying TSA-confiscated swiss army knives on eBay is a great way to acquire them.

[RockRaven]

7. I strongly suspect that it is a lost cause.

I very much doubt the system is designed to facilitate anyone recovering anything. I don't think they keep track of what is surrendered by who or where. The logistics/administration of such a system would be onerous, so I suspect they aren't even allowed to entertain such requests to avoid creating expectations or precedent.

The website says that the decisions of the TSA screeners are final, so even if they were wrong by any reasonable reading of the language of the rule, they are nonetheless declared right categorically.

[Baitball Blogger]

11. Thanks for looking that up.

I guess you only get things back if you're a white man traveling with a gun through a Sanford airport. They'll keep it safe for you until you return.

[llmart]

13. +1000

Meanwhile, they'll be making sure Granny hustles on over to the chairs to take her shoes off because she could possibly be stowing a bomb in her shoes, since that has happened ALL OF ONE TIME in our country.

[RockRaven]

15. I looked a bit more and found something very thin/weak. It might be possible to get stuff back.

This FAQ question:
https://www.tsa.gov/travel/frequently-asked-questions/what-happens-items-left-security-checkpoints-there-process

"What happens to items left at security checkpoints? Is there a process?

TSA makes every effort to reunite passengers with items left behind at the airport checkpoint. Lost and found items retained by TSA for a minimum of thirty (30) days, and if not claimed, are either destroyed, turned over to a state agency for surplus property, or sold by TSA as excess property. The state may dispose of the items through sales, destruction, donations or charities. The state keeps any money from sales, not TSA. At a number of locations, lost and found items are turned over to the airport at the end of each day."

So it sounds like you could try to go to the airport's lost and found within 30 days, but it seems like the TSA often washes their hands of the outcome and shoves it off on the airport, their claim of "every effort" notwithstanding.


And your comment about the gun brings to mind that there is one circumstance where the TSA definitely would keep track of your stuff -- when the thing is bad enough that just bringing it into the checkpoint area is a crime (like a gun). In that case the item is evidence of a crime, and the cops/prosecutors will hold it in an evidence locker as part of your arrest and prosecution. So not ideal, obviously.

[Baitball Blogger]

16. This is what they did in 2014. I don't know if they changed their policy.

https://www.aviationpros.com/aviation-security/news/11302364/an-armed-passenger-stopped-by-tsa-last-week-received-conciergestyle-service-from-the-orlando-sanford-international-airport-police-department

[Floyd R. Turbo]

14. An asshole TSA agent in Seattle confiscated my 96 year old mil's tweezers because they were a

“Poking weapon”.

[Baitball Blogger]

17. Seems excessive.

Another reason why I didn't press it, is because I know between the Trumper terrorist and Putin being painted in a corner, I just don't know if someone was shaking the trees and listening to chatter and being extra cautious.

[imavoter]

18. Gifted someone a pocket tool.

Did you remind them
of the rule?
Just curious.

[Baitball Blogger]

21. I froze. It's why I'll never make a trial lawyer.

I started questioning my reading of the rule on the website. I wondered if there was something going on and someone had raised the Defcon terrorist alert number and they were being more cautious. I was also afraid that if I questioned them, they would take me aside for further searching, as they did the day I refused to walk through the x-ray machines.

But, it's because I hesitate in the heat of the moment, that I am such a bruiser when I write, after I have had time to confirm the facts and collect my thoughts.

[Submariner]

20. The George W Bush Memorial TSA Waiting Line

has turned into a lucrative business.

My Dad gave me my Swiss Army knife, so I couldn’t let it go, got out of line and went home and flew out a couple of days later. My mistake for packing it.

[Conjuay]

22. I once had

my tool kit checked at a courthouse. They confiscated a ring knife. This was not an assassin's ring knife, this was to cut string and strapping - the blade faced in towards my knuckle.

But they did let me hold onto a 1-3/8 inch open end wrench that was easily 16 inches long and weighed probably. 8 pounds.

Ya gotta love security.

My wife- two hips and one knee replaced gets her hand swabbed for gunpowder residue by TSA.
I guess they think her walker is packed with dynomite.