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If it's sharp, the airport will keep it Security agents will no longer let passengers wrap up items to be claimed later By JOHN DARLING Airport security here has a growing collection - "more than a grown man could carry" - of nail clippers, knitting needles, scissors, corkscrews, pocket knives, nail files and other metal objects that can cut or puncture. If you have these items with you when you try to board a plane, be prepared to say goodbye to them for good. Starting Friday, the items were being confiscated without the possibility of being returned. "If it has sharp edges or is a long, pointy item, you'd better leave it at home or put it in check-on baggage," said Bern Case, airport manager. "We've been at this (heightened security since Sept. 11) for almost six months and people should know." Airport security has amassed more than 100 pounds of sharp or pointy items of daily life and will treat them like lost-and-found goods, eventually donating them to charity, Case said. With the new federal Transportation Security Administration taking over security this week at the nation's 429 commercial airports, including Medford's airport, regulations are only expected to get tighter. As part of the new regime, Medford and all airports now have a full-time TSA agent on the job. Private security workers are being shifted to federal worker status. Security infractions are now treated as violations of federal codes, Case said. However, everyday items such as nail clippers (only the ones with fold-out nail files) are simply surrendered - not considered violations. Actual weapons, such as hunting knives, that enter the magnetometer screening will trigger the filing of a federal report and an interview with the TSA agent, said Case. "You'd better check yourself before you get in the magnetometer, because once you're in it, you're committed. You can't turn around. And the hassle is just not worth it." Until Friday, security agents have been allowing passengers to put valuable metal objects in envelopes for reclaiming, but because this takes their attention away from the more critical aspects of security, they won't allow the practice anymore. Put metallic valuables in checked baggage, he said. "When its confiscated, it's confiscated," Case said. "If someone walks up there with this stuff, that's the last they'll see of it." John Darling is a free-lance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.