NEWS //
Where to Buy Other Travelers’ Contraband
by Mike Richard
Last year, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration confiscated more than 13 million items from travelers either too uninformed or not sneaky enough to slip their contraband past the TSA’s crack team of government screeners.
If you’re savvy and tenacious enough to force the agency to track it down, they say they’ll gladly reunite you with your lost switchblade, collapsible rocket launcher, heroin balloons, and what have you.
But where does the rest of it wind up? According to Budget Travel, there are eight main locations around the United States that handle such contraband. Get the complete list here. I can’t imagine the joy these World’s Greatest Garage Sales must bring to the likes of people like my mother who’s never met a tag sale she could drive by.
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Related topics: News, Odds + Ends
About the Author
Vagabondish editor, Mike Richard, lives in Rhode Island - a spit of land in the northeastern U.S. He is a professional web designer and travel junkie with an unhealthy addiction to backpacking, camping, hiking and seeing the world. He enjoys knit hats, small, declarative sentences and speaking in the third person.














November 4th, 2007
Awesome! I shall bookmark this under my USA folder. I have to buy me a Sit’n Putt XD
November 5th, 2007
This reminded me of an article I read recently about lost luggage in the UK. If it doesn’t get reunited with its owner within 3 months then it goes to an auction house; they take shoes, appliances and valuables out of the suitcases, then seal in whatever’s left (dirty underwear included) and auction the cases off like a “lucky dip”. Experts head to the auctions hoping to luck out with a suitcase full of tuxedo or wedding dress. Weird …
November 6th, 2007
[...] of disgruntle TSA staff were nothing more than a Nostradamus like prediction, but upon reading the Vagabondish Blog I became a little concerned. Am I the only one that thinks this much contraband around TSA staff is [...]