Texas sells the stuff "willfully surrendered" by passengers at airport security

[Liberal_in_LA]

Where have all the snow globes gone? To the state surplus store




Need a Texas-themed snow globe? Try the state surplus store. But don't bring them on a flight: That's how a lot of the globes got their new home. Travelers have had to surrender these and many other items to get through the security line and on their way.

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Because it's filled with liquid, you can't carry a snow globe onto an airplane. But some travelers haven't gotten the message, or maybe it slips their minds during their harried packing for summer vacation. Thus, rows and rows of snow globes sit at the surplus store, which gets its inventory not only from state surplus but also from items that were left behind or confiscated — "We say willfully surrendered," said cashier Roberta Siller — at airport security checkpoints in Austin, San Antonio, Dallas-Fort Worth, Waco, El Paso and other small airports.

In the five years this store has been open, its plane-related inventory has soared because of heightened security, according to director James Barrington. The airport stuff takes up most of one small room at the store. In 2010, the state's general fund was enriched $300,000 by the storefront's sales.

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There are more knives at the store than anything else — everything from little 1-inch pocket knives selling for a dollar to more ornate hunting knives marked at prices up to $150. All things sharp — screwdrivers, scissors, pizza cutters — find their way to this store, which sits in the flight path of the very planes that carry the formerly knife-toting passengers to distant destinations.

http://www.statesman.com/life/where-have-all-the-snow-globes-gone-to-1549784.html

[trumad]

1. Next wave of attack

are from the Snow Globe terrorists.

[MineralMan]

7. Sounds far-fetched, doesn't it?

Well, consider this: It would be a matter of just a few minute's work to replace the water in a snowglobe with a highly-flammable liquid like acetone, or alcohol. You couldn't tell the difference by looking. Now, smash your globe on the floor of the plane, or work with a few buddies to smash several and drop a lit match on them.

And there you have it. It's a potential threat, and one easily conceived of by even a dull-witted person.

Sorry, but there are real concerns that make sense.

[woo me with science]

10. So they might be filled with acetone or alcohol,

but they're going to sell them for people to put on their mantles above the Christmas fire!

:evilgrin:

[MineralMan]

13. You're not getting my point. Someone else would fill them with

those things, after buying them.

[woo me with science]

19. Yes, filled after purchase and before getting on a plane, right?

Then they are confiscated from the person getting on the plane, because TSA thinks they might have something flammable in them.

Then the airport sells them to people who will take them home and put them above a fireplace.

What am I missing?

[MineralMan]

20. Hmm...how many people around that fireplace, do you suppose?

Then, how many on a full 747?

Here's the deal. I fly from time to time - a few times a year. I never worry a minute about the flight. Part of the reason is that I just went through a reasonably thorough security screening. So did everyone around me. Do you fly very often?

[woo me with science]

26. I don't fly anymore since TSA

instituted their naked scans and intimate patdowns.

But my post actually didn't have anything to do with taking sides on the policy of confiscating snowglobes.

It just struck me as strange that they would resell them if the justification for taking them is that they might have been tampered with and filled with something toxic and flammable. People might buy them and give them to little kids, for example.

[MineralMan]

30. That's what I figured.

Well, I still fly. I'm going to continue to fly. My parents, who live 2500 miles from me are turning 87 this year. Both have health problems. I fly to see them whenever I can. One day, I'll fly for the last time to see them. I'd like to get there safely. You don't fly? OK. You don't have a horse in the race or a dog in the hunt. You're irrelevant to the argument. I'll wave at you on the way to the airport.

[woo me with science]

32. MineralMan,

My post wasn't meant to be belligerent toward you. It was an irony I noted when I heard they were selling snowglobes...and it still seems strange to me that they would resell them.

[MineralMan]

33. Well, from the number of them in that photo, it doesn't look like

they're selling many. Seriously.

[A Simple Game]

42. You are missing nothing.

First thing I Thought of too. If they are suspect, how can you sell them to the general public, unless each one has been tested first?

[petronius]

12. And yet, you and your buddies could carry that flammable liquid in a bunch of 3 oz bottles

Pop into the lavatory to dump all the little bottles into the 1 quart bag, and you've got an arsonous water balloon that's just as effective as the snowglobe (minus Frosty or the little Alamo, of course)...

[MineralMan]

14. No. I couldn't do that, because I never would do that.

I know that about me. Nobody else does, though. I don't know anything about you, either. Only you know. That's the problem. You know you're OK. I know I'm OK. Who else knows that?

[petronius]

21. TSA thinks it knows that about both of us, right?

Otherwise, they'd confiscate those little 3 oz containers along with the snow globes...

[MineralMan]

23. There would be nothing to confiscate in my case.

I never carry liquids on the plane. If I have anything like that, which I almost never do, it's in my checked bag. Generally, though I rely on things like shampoo, etc., being available at my destination. I haven't flown to someplace that didn't have things like drugstores and the like for a very long time. When I visit my parents, I find that they have that stuff on hand. If I stay in a hotel, I usually find shampoo in the bathroom. If I need toothpaste, they have that available, too. In the very worst case, assuming that I'll be staying miles from somewhere I could buy little tubes of stuff, I'd buy it at the store in the airport.

Why would I carry that crap with me on the plane? That's just silly. I always check a bag, so, I could pack it in there, I suppose, but I don't. I travel light. It simplifies everything.

[eilen]

15. Heck, my dh's farts are more deadly than that. And easier to deploy... nt

[MineralMan]

17. TMFI n/t

[WinkyDink]

16. Right. And I could light the on-board vodka bottle, too.

[provis99]

2. Imagine if you tried this on the streets.

"Give me what you're carrying, because you might be a terrorist. I will then sell what you are carrying at a pawn shop."

[Riftaxe]

8. Well if it was a private street and the rules

were commonly available...

I suppose i could choose to walk down it or not.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

25. Airports and TSA are private?

[GoneOffShore]

29. Ah, the "Air travel is a choice' canard.

No it's not a choice. Some people are obliged to fly, either for compassionate reasons or for their work. And the government has no business treating EVERYONE as a potential terrorist.

Shades of the Stasi.

Of course the original name for Homeland Security is Heimatsicherheitsministerium.

No one should surrender their First and Fourth Amendment rights by purchasing a ticket.

[pacalo]

3. This is no different than someone "willingly" entrusting that their catalog orders will be handled

honestly by every faction that processes it, then having it stolen along the way. It's theft, pure & simple.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. How reprehensible!

Fucking snow globes?

Give me a break.

[kenny blankenship]

5. SO that's what they mean about "running gummint like a business."

[AndyTiedye]

6. Confiscated Swiss Army Knives Have Been Sold on eBay for Years

[cbdo2007]

11. Don't know if they still do that.....

but I use to be able to buy BOXES of them off of Ebay for like $50, just full of swiss army knives and leathermans and stuff. I would then sort them out and resell them individually for a profit.

[IADEMO2004]

9. Why can't banned things be put in a bag and loaded in with checked baggage...

and pick up your bag when you arrive? Texas made $300,000 a year from TSA Pirate Booty? If any of my stuff gets pinched by the TSA I will reduce its value to $0.00. Uh oh if TSA said I can't fly with something and I destroy it, is it government property?

[MineralMan]

24. Well, lots of people don't check bags. Instead, they bring an

overstuffed carryon to jam into the overhead compartment, taking five minutes to get it stuffed in there. Me? I check a back, and put my laptop case, with all the little goodies I might need in the next four or five hours, under the seat in front of me. That way, when I want a bag of mixed nuts, it's right there where I can reach it easily. My clothes will magically appear on the luggage carousel about the time I get to the baggage claim area. It's amazing...

[Hassin Bin Sober]

27. Wait till they start charging a disposal fee to enhance revenue.

[Liberal_in_LA]

31. they can be. But you have to get out of line, and check it in baggage you still have with you.

I did it with expensive maple syrup from canada. stood there considering throwing it out but the TSA agent said "go head, check your bag and come back" so I did. If I didn't have a bag with me to put the syrup in and check, I would have been screwd.

[MineralMan]

34. You didn't know you couldn't carry a bottle of maple syrup

on the plane? Truly? I can't even imagine that.

[Liberal_in_LA]

36. It was a few years ago, when the liquid ban was first implemented. I wasn't thinking straight

I wasn't equating syrup with liquid. lol.

[MineralMan]

37. Yeah, I guess that can happen. Funny thing is, you could probably

have bought that syrup in a shop inside the secure area and taken it on the plane. I see that a lot at airports. Same with those snow globes. I'd be willing to bet that every airport shop in that airport sold those. There are odd things about all this. I suppose the stuff in the shop in the secure area is treated differently somehow.

You can't bring a big bottle of water through security, but you can sure buy one inside the secure area and take it on the plane. I guess it's the point of origin that matters. The stuff sold in the airport didn't have time to be opened, dumped, and refilled with something else.

It's all pretty complicated. I solve the whole thing by never carrying anything through security that will disturb any rules. I don't have time to be annoyed in the checkpoint. So far, so good. I've not been scanned or patted down so far. I'll choose the scanner. That's faster and easier. There'll be no reason to pat me down, because I won't be carrying anything, just like I haven't beeped the metal detector or had a carryon searched for years. I learn. I'm a clever guy.

I go through security and go to my gate. It's that simple. I'm going somewhere. Nothing is going to slow me down by my own error.

[Liberal_in_LA]

38. I hope you get a good, long, slow intimate patdown one day.

Just so you know how it is for the masses.

[MineralMan]

39. Why would that happen?

I've been frisked dozens of times. I used to work in a very high security area while I was in the USAF. At the airport? Why on earth would I get patted down?

I'd happily go through the scanner. I know for an absolute certainty that nothing would show up that would cause a patdown. I make certain of that before I get to the place where you go through the metal detector or the scanner. I'm very thorough about it. So, the chances of me being patted down are almost nil. If that did occur, it wouldn't be any more intrusive than those old Air Force patdowns. :shrug:

[Shagbark Hickory]

18. How are those rail lines coming along, mr president?

[Lone_Star_Dem]

22. So do the other US states and even Canada sells the items they confiscate.

I believe the UK does as well, excluding alcohol. They used to give you a chance to jump through a bunch of hoops to get it back if it qualified to be returned. I'm not sure they still do with their new regulations.

It's pretty common really.

Now we know where all the snow globes go to die. :(

[Liberal_in_LA]

40. Someone should start a business providing mailing boxes just before security

For a price, taking the item and mailing it to owner

[tkmorris]

41. Most do, yeah

Every state I've lived in I always check for these sales, and there have always been some. Some use auctions now, like Ebay style, but they do sell off the goods.

[xphile]

28. Let me fix that for you

Texas sells the stuff "willfully surrendered" by stolen from passengers at airport security.

That's more like it.

[GoneOffShore]

35. Good fix - TSA or Thieves Standing Around.

Complete with shiny black boots and 'brown' blue shirts.