If anyone knows where the TSA auctions off confiscated items, I just had an RSK Mk.2 confiscated out of my bag at JFK airport. I didn't realize it was in my carry-on when I got to security, and I knew there was a problem as soon as I saw the look on the x-ray machine operator's face..

Agents were firm but respectful, and when they saw how pissed off my wife was they actually took some pity on me and started cracking jokes.

They would have allowed me to take it back to my car, but I would have missed my flight, so into the confiscation bin it went.

Expensive mistake learned - check my bags VERY CAREFULLY before heading to the airport. Not the first time this has happened, but first time I've had to abandon the knife.

(At least it was not one of the out-of-production Ritters. I should have a new one waiting for me upon my return!)

I always COMPLETELY empty my carry ons before I leave for the airport. I have learned the same lesson the hard way. I will empty it, turn it upside down and shake it out. I put my hands in all of the cracks, corners and pockets. A good knife is a terrible thing to lose.

Govdeals.com has a TSA and other sources of confiscated items

https://www.govdeals.com/index.cfm?fa=Ma...amp;category=30

I had the same problem once at the Harrisburg, PA airport when I forgot to check my Swiss Army Knife when deploying to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.
A helpful police officer at the TSA checkpoint asked me for $5, went to the nearest airport shop, bought me a mailer, and on the spot I dropped my knife into the mailbox. It was home when I arrived back home.
Makes me wonder if being really prepared is keeping a stamped padded mailing envelope in our carry-ons at all times is what being really prepared requires.
8^)

Maybe you said that half in jest, half seriously, ... but I'm going to do exactly that. Great idea!

I'm a pretty anally-retentive personality, so the prospects of me accidentally ending up with contraband at a TSA checkpoint are about 1 in 27.3 trillion. But the REST of my family, ... not so much!

Noted a lot of approx "seven pounds of Leatherman multitools." that is an assemblage to which I have contributed in the past - c'est la vie!

Happened to me, too, in Boston. Fallkniven F1 that lived in my EDC daypack that became my carryon. I had a good outcome, however.

The X-ray tech pointed to the image and asked, "What's this?" I said, "Oh gosh darn it to heck" (something like that) immediately when I realized what it was. The tech walked me out of the inspection area to a kiosk which had shipping envelopes. The knife went into the envelope with credit card info.

I thought the odds were no better than even that I would ever see it again. But it arrived home about three weeks later. What surprised me was that it came from North Carolina. Apparently there is a company there that gathers and returns such stuff.

With all the (often deserved) bad press that the TSA gets it is nice to be able to report extra effort good treatment.