The TSA is still hard at work ensuring that no weapons make it on board flights. Barely a day passes that we don't get a press release with photos of their latest confiscated loot. But while the TSA is catching the transgressors, they're frequently allowed to continue on their merry way once the weapon is confiscated!
A Far Rockaway man was caught with a knife (with a 4.5-inch blade) in his shoe in the x-ray machine at JFK International Airport last Tuesday. The knife was hidden beneath the leather layer on the bottom interior sole of the shoe—the man's foot would have been standing on the flat knife. The weapon was confiscated, he was cited on a state weapons charge...and then he was permitted to fly to Buffalo. Sometimes it seems like you have to be a rapper with brass knuckles to get arrested in airports these days.
But Kew Garden Hills man who was caught with a knuckle-knife in his carry-on bag at LaGuardia Airport last Friday wasn't so lucky—police confiscated the knuckle-knife and arrested the man on a state weapons charge. So why was a knuckle-knife deemed more arrest-worthy than the shoe-knife? We're guessing it's because it looks scarier.
But at least we've picked up one great gift idea from these TSA emails: a replica hand grenade screwdriver set, perfect for the those times when you want to scare the bejeesus out of airport security without any of the messiness of actually breaking the law.
Replica hand grenade screwdriver set
Asked about why some travelers are charged and why some are allowed to travel, a Port Authority spokesman tells us, "It all comes down to what's covered by the law. Officers go by the specific statutes—for example switchblades are absolutely illegal, brass knuckles are illegal. And the length of the blade is a factor; if it's over a certain number of inches, you're going to get arrested."
Update: Port Authority spokesman Al DellaFave says that the Far Rockaway man who was caught with an 8-inch knife in his shoe was issued a summons. Mark Daniels, 18, was given a criminal court summons for possession of knife with over a 4-inch blade.
