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November 19, 2014
Ted Shaffrey, The Associated Press, November 19, 2014
NEW YORK (AP) — The Transportation Security Administration displayed thousands of items on Tuesday that were confiscated from carry-on bags over three months at New York’s Kennedy Airport. As the chaotic holiday travel season approaches, the agency wanted to remind the public what carry-on items were no-no’s.
The takeaway: knitting needles and ice skates are welcome on board, but not sparklers, nun chucks and fake chain saws.
Four tons of prohibited items are collected every year at Kennedy alone.
Toy weapons of any kind, including grenades, are out. So are real knives, handcuffs and bullets.
Some items can go into checked bags, but not carry-ons; the details are on an app and the TSA website.
“Say you’ve got a knife; this is something that you like to carry with you, as this person did,” TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said, holding up the aforementioned knife at a press conference.
“We are going to spot that in the X-ray machine or it’s going to set off one of the detectors, the body scanners, and you are going to be given a choice. You can either put that in your checked baggage, you can go back and put it in your car, throw it in your trunk, put it in your glove compartment, put it under your seat.”
Some airports also have mailing centers so you can send the item to your destination or your home. Otherwise, you can hand it off to the person who’s dropping you off at the airport, or you can surrender it.
States get to take the surrendered items. New York and New Jersey “don’t want to deal with that,” but Pennsylvania takes the items and sells them, Farbstein said.
