The stuff that can’t go through TSA security gets left at the airport. It’s up for auction online.
PHOENIX — What happens to the items people leave behind when they find out they can’t travel with them at security? Those items wind up being sold by the Arizona Department of Administration.
For example, someone came through TSA security at Sky Harbor, wanting to fly on a plane while carrying a circular power saw. That saw ended up in a warehouse in downtown Phoenix, waiting to be bought at auction.
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“A little bit of everything and anything,” Deputy Director Kim Fiumara said.
There are the standard things that people just forget about: multitools, corkscrews, pocket knives. In fact, there are hundreds, if not thousands of Swiss army knives in bags just waiting to be sold. The plastic bags fill three shelves in the warehouse.
But then there are the things you wouldn’t expect to be left behind.
“One of the odd things you wouldn’t think about is the amount of souvenir bats,” Fiumara said.
They’re left from Spring Training. The mini bats are popular souvenirs but, TSA says you can’t take a bat on the plane, no matter what size it is. They fill multiple shelves too.
And snow globes. They’re not allowed through TSA, not because of the weight or the ability to throw them, but because they have too much liquid in them.
Then there are the things left behind that you wouldn’t believe anyone ever tried to get past security.
When 12News visited, there were pallets of power tools. Everything from power drills to the aforementioned circular saw and a Dremel tool.
“We get six to 12 tubs a month, depending on the time of year,” Fiumara said.
Of course, there are the things that are confiscated that will never even end up at the warehouse. Because, the TSA says, they’re illegal regardless of whether you’re in an airport.
“A couple of weeks ago we had someone who brought tarantulas on their body,” Patricia Mancha, a spokesperson for the TSA said.
“That was more of a smuggling issue,” she said, “trying to sell them.”
All of these things are voluntarily given up, Mancha said, not confiscated. And at Sky Harbor, they give it all back to the state of Arizona to sell at auction.
The auction site, run through the Department of Administration, acts as a sort of government eBay. The money goes to the Arizona general fund, not the TSA, Mancha said.
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