Counter point

The hand grenade in the carry-on bag was ... perfume.

The fragrance, called Arsenal, had been packaged to resemble a grenade, which made it fair game for security screeners at Los Angeles International Airport. It was added to the thousands of items that travelers turn over each day so they can make their planes on time.

In a storage room of an office building near the airport, the take for the last two weeks was piled high in large black plastic bins -- hundreds of knives and scissors and pocket tools taken as people passed through security.

There were butane lighters and wrench sets and dumbbell weights. There were toy swords and a fancy cake cutter that was almost surely a wedding memento.

Then there were unexpected items -- a million-candlepower spotlight, a Coleman lantern and stove and a tube of acrylic latex, all taken from the carry-on luggage of people leaving Los Angeles.

Farther down in the storage area were items that had been forgotten by passengers after they’d made it through the metal detectors. Belts were a big item. Boxes of unclaimed laptop computers will soon be shipped to Washington to see if experts can hack their way to names and addresses of the owners. And then there is the matter of money left behind -- on the order of $500 a month at LAX, almost all of it change scooped out of pockets before passing through the metal detector.

The same thing is happening at all of the country’s 445 commercial airports, which makes for a lot of loot. According to the Transportation Security Administration, which is in charge of airport safety, more than 11 million “prohibited items” have been taken from passengers in the last two years, with virtually no possibility that the owners will get them back -- except for those lucky few who might stumble across them on EBay (but more on that later).

Of those 11 million objects, 3.5 million are knives, while scissors are lumped in under the 5.7 million “cutting items” that have been collected. Also taken were more than 44,000 items that fit the security agency’s definition of clubs, which include baseball and cricket bats, pool cues, golf clubs and hockey sticks.

And now that the summer vacation season is near, security screeners await a flood of inexperienced air travelers. That will translate to even more angry encounters with people who don’t want to part with their Swiss Army knives or nail files.

“Some people get irate,” agency spokesman Nico Melendez said. “But the fact is that we’ve got to keep it off the plane for their security and the security of their fellow passengers.”

Those, however, are hardly soothing words for people who must give up a cherished keepsake because it has a sharp point. Take the case of 76-year-old Catherine Busch, who last year had a tiny pair of scissors confiscated from her makeup bag. They were a present from a favorite aunt.

“When they took them I said, ‘You’re not going to take my aunt’s scissors, are you?’ And they said, ‘Lady, didn’t you hear you have to leave everything in your bigger luggage that’s checked?’ Then they threw it in the basket. Someone got a beautiful little scissors and it was not dangerous.”

Such complaints are common. With the grenade-shaped perfume bottle, Melendez said, screeners had to think about the possibility that someone might hold it up during a flight and say, “I’ve got a grenade and I’m going to blow this plane up.” He said they are referred to as “dual use” items, which is why, for instance, sharp tent stakes are forbidden on board.

(Incidentally, Melendez said the word “confiscated” is not one the agency likes to hear; “surrendered” is the preferred term for something that’s taken away. He said a traveler has the option of trying to somehow get it into checked baggage or giving it to a friend or relative for safekeeping. But the practicality of that logic is demonstrated by the millions of items that have been left behind.)

Alan Kaufman thinks he has the answer and wonders why no one has come up with a solution before now. His brainchild is MailBack, a postage-paid bubble-lined envelope he’s trying to distribute to airport gift shops. He said he’s already testing his product in about 20 airports and that the going rate for the envelope is $6.95. Travelers can use the envelopes to mail their questionable items back home to themselves or forward to their destinations.

“It’s all about making traveling less frustrating,” he said. “Just because someone makes a small mistake doesn’t mean he has to give something up.”

But he concedes that airport design presents difficulties for MailBack. Before Sept. 11, 2001, passengers could stroll through the airport, shopping and eating in a mall environment before boarding. They can still do that, but only after passing through security. So at most airports, there are relatively few places where a passenger could buy the envelope before being searched.

“That creates a problem for me,” said Kaufman, who has received calls of thanks from people who were able to save valued items.

A major question, of course, is what happens to all the stuff that is confiscated? Some airports simply sell it off by the pound as scrap metal, while others distribute it to schools, Scout troops and law enforcement agencies. Other items are given to charities, such as Goodwill Industries. But there is a growing trend by some states, including California, to sell the items on EBay, the online auction house.

Robb Deignan, a spokesman for the California General Services Department, said that through April, the state has conducted 712 auctions and pulled in more than $133,000. That money, he said, goes back into the general services coffers.

The California seller site on EBay (go to EBay, click on “browse,” then on “seller search,” then search for CaliforniaGold2000) typically offers such things as knives and pocket tools in large lots. Deignan said putting the confiscated items on EBay was a state policy even before airport security became so tight.

“The program has been humming along. The nice thing about it is that there is an opportunity for reuse. Some of these things are highly crafted items.”

They also can be the basis for a new cottage industry. Throughout the country, small-time entrepreneurs are buying up the lots online and reselling them -- more often than not online.

Take John Morris of Springfield, Ill., who bought a box of confiscated scissors at a state auction. He found a few expensive pairs in the lot and put them up for auction online. They sold for more than he paid for the entire box, which gave him the bug.

“I kept buying and selling, and now I’ve got a whole house full of junk,” he said. During the holiday season, Morris said, he routinely mails 40 to 50 packages a day and in slow months eight or nine a day.

Michael Plott, who lives in Boulder City, Nev., about 25 miles south of Las Vegas, also deals in surrendered items. Plott read that the confiscated goods at Las Vegas’ McCarran International Airport were being shipped out of state for disposal. So he went to see Boulder City Mayor Bob Ferraro, which led to a meeting with transportation officials. In a handshake deal, the Transportation Safety Administration agreed to give all confiscated items to Boulder City, with Plott doing the work of separating and photographing them for a cut of the sales action.

“It’s amazing the quality of stuff that comes through,” Plott said. “I’ve got hand drills, circular-saw blades, golf clubs and pool cues. The volume is just outrageous.”

He said he’d come across a number of personalized items as well as things that defied logic.

“I’ve got a plastic sword that couldn’t beat a fly to death,” he said. “We’ve got some stuff that couldn’t hurt anybody.”

Kaufman, who started the MailBack service, said he has been working to make some sense of the rules so they will be less confusing for passengers. He said, for instance, that he doesn’t understand why matches are allowed (“You can’t smoke and you can’t light them, but they’re allowed,”) while fancy butane lighters are subject to confiscation.

But he also said the screeners are doing a better job now than during those confusing days just after Sept. 11, when a huge array of items were being taken.

“I’ve got to believe,” he said, “that time and experience will diminish the confiscations.”