Texas sells the stuff "willfully surrendered" by passengers at airport security

[Liberal_in_LA]

Where have all the snow globes gone? To the state surplus store




Need a Texas-themed snow globe? Try the state surplus store. But don't bring them on a flight: That's how a lot of the globes got their new home. Travelers have had to surrender these and many other items to get through the security line and on their way.

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Because it's filled with liquid, you can't carry a snow globe onto an airplane. But some travelers haven't gotten the message, or maybe it slips their minds during their harried packing for summer vacation. Thus, rows and rows of snow globes sit at the surplus store, which gets its inventory not only from state surplus but also from items that were left behind or confiscated — "We say willfully surrendered," said cashier Roberta Siller — at airport security checkpoints in Austin, San Antonio, Dallas-Fort Worth, Waco, El Paso and other small airports.

In the five years this store has been open, its plane-related inventory has soared because of heightened security, according to director James Barrington. The airport stuff takes up most of one small room at the store. In 2010, the state's general fund was enriched $300,000 by the storefront's sales.

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There are more knives at the store than anything else — everything from little 1-inch pocket knives selling for a dollar to more ornate hunting knives marked at prices up to $150. All things sharp — screwdrivers, scissors, pizza cutters — find their way to this store, which sits in the flight path of the very planes that carry the formerly knife-toting passengers to distant destinations.

http://www.statesman.com/life/where-have-all-the-snow-globes-gone-to-1549784.html