Byline: Dan Kelly
Jun. 22--If what happens in Pennsylvania stays in Pennsylvania, it may be because it was surrendered at an airport.
And, unlike in Las Vegas, whose tourism slogan is 'What happens here, stays here,' if you try to take your secret on the flight home from Pennsylvania, it might end up posted on eBay, the Internet auction site, for the whole world to see.
Everything from fur-lined handcuffs and a cat-o'-nine-tails to machetes and switchblades has been surrendered by people caught trying to take the items onto airplanes as carry-on luggage, said Edward L. Myslewicz, a spokesman for the state Department of General Services.
'There certainly is an element of surprise at what folks think they can get onto an airplane,' he said.
Myslewicz said most of the items are not considered confiscated in the legal sense because their owners typically surrendered them voluntarily, although under threat of arrest, which might make some people challenge the notion of volunteerism being involved.
Whether dangerous or just kinky, the abandoned materials have brought in more than $250,000 to the state's general fund since the state started selling them on eBay in June 2004, Myslewicz said.
That year, the federal Transportation Security Administration began offering surrendered items at airports to the states in which they were taken.
If those states didn't want the materials they were offered to other states or were kept and auctioned by TSA.
Pennsylvania accepts surrendered items from airports in Harrisburg, Allentown and Philadelphia, as well as from airports in New York City; Syracuse, N.Y.; Newark, N.J.; and Cleveland.
Oddly enough, Pittsburgh's airport sends its abandoned items to the state of Maryland, Myslewicz said. He said it is unclear how Maryland trumped Pennsylvania for Pittsburgh's business, but added that General Services still hopes to win over the Steel City.
Additionally, the department is working with other airports in Pennsylvania to begin accepting surrendered items at those locations.
Every month truckloads of surrendered, found or abandoned materials are trucked to a warehouse in suburban Harrisburg to be sorted and prepared for sale on the Internet, Myslewicz said.
'I think the machete was the biggest surprise, but then there also are the fur-lined handcuffs and other personal items,' he said. 'There are cap guns and nunchucks.
'There was a 6-foot artificial palm tree, but that was sold on eBay. You really have to see this stuff for yourself.'
General Services has conducted auctions at its warehouse on occasion, but the department has found it is more profitable to offer items such as toenail clippers, scissors, Swiss Army knives and Leatherman tools in large lots over the Internet, he said.
'We might be able to get 50 cents for a toenail clipper sold individually but $30 to $50 for a large batch of them,' Myslewicz said.
General Services employees also have begun creating packages of hunting, gardening and sports gear by sorting through 55-gallon drums of surrendered goods and grouping similar items together.
Another plus of the state's Internet business venture: It's staffed by state employees who had been injured on other state jobs and would otherwise be at home collecting workers' compensation.
'Every day we have three to six people working in the warehouse sorting, packaging and photographing these items for sale on eBay,' Myslewicz said. He credited Gov. Ed Rendell for coming up with the program and with using injured workers to staff it.
'Gov. Rendell wants us to look at all ways within our
means to save taxpayers money,' Myslewicz said.
Copyright (c) 2006, Reading Eagle, Pa.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business
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