Dangerous Items Find Their Way Home From Airport
A number of businesses are emerging to support airline travelers who forget to leave sharp objects at home. The enterprising companies offer to pack security-offending items up and mail them to your home address.
ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.
If you've had a Swiss Army Knife or a pair of scissors or a lighter taken away at an airport checkpoint, then take heart. You've given some enterprising people a business opportunity. A number of companies are trying to cash in, reuniting passengers with their confiscated items. The largest of these emerging companies, Checkpoint Mailers, is run by two former airline and TSA employees. From member station KQED in San Francisco, Sarah Varney reports.
SARAH VARNEY reporting:
If, like me, you forgot to leave your meat cleaver, spear gun and hand-forged antique pocketknife at home, there is an alternative to turning your possessions over to the TSA black hole. At San Francisco International Airport, spokesman Mike McLarron stands in front of a shiny drop box.
Mr. MIKE McLARRON (Spokesman, Checkpoint Mailers): ...kiosks where, if you have to mail something that can't be carried onto a plane, you just pull out an envelope and fill out the information on it here with your mailing address, drop it in the slot.
VARNEY: And then a few days later it shows up right back at your house. It costs $11 to mail yourself that monogrammed lighter that you forgot is now illegal to carry on airplanes. Two pairs of your favorite cuticle scissors, that's $18. The drop box is the brain child of former TSA employee Heather Lowry.
Ms. HEATHER LOWRY (Checkpoint Mailers): We've seen anything from ninja stars to cake and knife servers. We get a lot of military shell casings from the gun salutes from funerals.
VARNEY: Lowry's employees repackage items left behind, draining lighters, if need be, and sorting out items that can't be mailed, like handguns and cricket bats. And the strangest item they've seen?
Ms. LOWRY: We've even gotten blender blades, where people are traveling on vacation with their blender.
VARNEY: Blender blades? Hmm. The company ships about 10,000 items a month, blender blades included. With service in 29 airports, Lowry says Las Vegas, Boston and San Francisco have the highest volume of mailed items, though what that says about the denizens of those cities Lowry won't say. For NPR News, I'm Sarah Varney in San Francisco.
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