Human Skull, Morning Star Among TSA Confiscations in 2013

[Justin Boisvert]

Human Skull, Morning Star Among TSA Confiscations in 2013

The TSA's collection of confiscated items for 2013 includes replicas, oddities, and a plethora of bladed weapons.

On friday the Transporation Security Administration released selected pictures and stats of their massive haul of confiscated items for 2013. Along with the nearly 1,500 loaded firearms that people inexplicably thought it was a good idea to pack in their carry-on luggage, the TSA displays a smorgasbord of melee weapons, inert rounds and oddities. Some of these are worrisome, such as non-metallic knives and spikes designed to go through metal detectors, others are harmless (although foolish to try and take on a plane), and others are just plain fun, like the fully functional morning star, the human skull fragments in pottery (the owners claimed they didn't know about them), or the hot pink, takedown bow, perfect for any spandex wearing rooftop assassin.

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Other categories of interest include: An array of bladed weapons ranging from mundane knives, to shuriken, to all manner of disguised knives, including a surprising number of cane swords, and 136 inert, novelty, or replica grenades (plus a few live ones), along with inert items such as RPGs, artillery rounds, dummy land-mines, and a suicide vest. According to the TSA, "The problem with these types of items is that we don't know if they are real, toys or replicas until we call out the explosive experts." At any rate, if you didn't know that the TSA wasn't going to have a sense of humor about this sort of thing Dear Reader, now you do.

Source: TSA [http://blog.tsa.gov/2014/01/tsa-blog-year-in-review-2013.html]

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[Headsprouter]

When I was a kid, customs took from me an rather large black quartz that I had brought in hand luggage, for whatever reason. When I returned home, I hoped to get it back, but predictably, it was nowhere to be seen in their large collection of confiscated stones, which were all the dull type. The staff obviously keep the nice-looking ones for themselves. I haven't seen an uncut one of that size since. I got it in a pharmacy, would you believe.

But I got to bring home a sweet fossil, though, which I still have. It's some deep-sea anemone type of thing. Sorta like a fat goose barnacle if it was a rock. However, now that I look at it, it looks kind of like a log...

But yeah, ever since, I never carry hand luggage I care about.

 

[Barbas]

You reeeeeally have to worry about the mental health of the people who think it's a good idea to try and get a medieval weapon or a sword-stick through airport security. Why would anyone of sane mind be anywhere near an airport with something like that on their person?

I guess the majority of them were impulse-bought souvenirs carried by people trying to see what they could get away with bringing home. Still...in their hand luggage or on them? Weird people. Weird.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

You reeeeeally have to worry about the mental health of the people who think it's a good idea to try and get a medieval weapon or a sword-stick through airport security. Why would anyone of sane mind be anywhere near an airport with something like that on their person?

No you don't have to worry about their mental health. It's well known that TSA guys are a bunch of assholes. Most of those items are things that people would just hang on a wall or keep in their ninja collection or whatever. Harmless. But TSA just loves getting into other people's shit. They need to justify their miserable existence to themselves somehow. Just Google "TSA assholes" and you'll see what I mean.

 

[AdagioBoognish]

First thing I thought of when I read about the morning star. Hopefully TSA found the holy hand grenade as well.

 

[schrodinger]

First thing I thought of when I read about the morning star. Hopefully TSA found the holy hand grenade as well.

Alas, I looked through the grenade picture and did not see a holy hand grenade. Sad day...

Sure the TSA takes all the illegal things, but what about the legal items they steal? Come on TSA, publish how much shit you steal each year.

 

[Shocksplicer]

So THAT'S what happened to my morning star! Fucking TSA...

 

[FalloutJack]

"No, really. I found it at an archaeological dig. It's priceless. It's history."

"Damn right it is. Come along!"

A skull as a carry-on. *Shakes head*

 

[thiosk]

"No, really. I found it at an archaeological dig. It's priceless. It's history."

"Damn right it is. Come along!"

A skull as a carry-on. *Shakes head*

I cannot fathom why it was confiscated, though.

 

[FalloutJack]

I CAN!


But that's just down to customs people not having much of a sense of humor.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

According to the TSA, "The problem with these types of items is that we don't know if they are real, toys or replicas until we call out the explosive experts."

Does it bother anyone else besides me, that after 12 years they still can't tell the difference between a fake and the real thing?

 

[Meestor Pickle]

I will admit, at first I thought it was a human skull morning star...

 

[Therumancer]

According to the TSA, "The problem with these types of items is that we don't know if they are real, toys or replicas until we call out the explosive experts."

Does it bother anyone else besides me, that after 12 years they still can't tell the difference between a fake and the real thing?

The reason being that they make realistic replicas, intended to fool casual examination, as well as the simple fact that people wanting to conceal weapons and such will try and make them look harmless.

The key thing here is that safety comes first, and the idea is that you have the experts do their thing so someone who isn't an expert doesn't make a mistake.

See, it's easy to go off about people being arseholes in security, but as someone who actually did so called "anti-terrorist training" and even got a certificate from Homeland Security for it (long story) I can tell you that it's really not something you want to mess around with. One of the "fun" things they made us do was watch videos of people getting blown up by things that should have been harmless, or being "smart" and deciding to go and check out something to clear it when they shouldn't have thinking it was harmless or another false alarm, and "boom".

In short, I'd rather be the idiot all the patrons (and perhaps my employers) hate, than the next guy in one of those videos, or worse yet the guy who gets a bunch of people killed because I didn't do my job.

There is also another flip side to this, you look at stuff and go "OMG, what was security thinking when they confiscated that or had experts check it out", there are other collections of crap found after the fact that makes you go "OMG, how the heck did those idiots in security let that past". Once you know something is safe or dangerous for sure it's VERY easy to pass judgement retroactively.

 

[Strazdas]

reminds me when tukey airport security confiscated my stones (around 1-2 CM in diameter, so very small) because it was a "Weapon" i was bringing on board. sigh. yes im surely going to kill somone with 1 cm stones.

i actually heard of a story of somone stealing a skull in France and bringing it back to US via airplane. so i guess that doesnt always work now does it.

 

[Mortuorum]

But yeah, ever since, I never carry hand luggage I care about.

Just because it's in checked luggage doesn't mean the TSA won't steal or break it. Both have happened to me and members of my family.

OT, I really like the revolver with the clock in the handle. Classy.