Wednesday, March 10, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Boulder City gets confiscated items

Online sales include airport screeners' booty

That pocket knife you surrendered to security at McCarran International Airport could mean some extra cash for Boulder City under a plan approved Tuesday night by the City Council.

Using the online auction house eBay, the city plans to sell 17 boxes of scissors, nail clippers, Leatherman tools and pocket knives confiscated from passengers at McCarran.

Mayor Bob Ferraro said airport officials have agreed to give the items to the city.

"Anything the city makes is profit," said Mike Plott, a part-time city employee who has volunteered to sort and sell the items in his spare time.

Plott said he could get started as early as Thursday.

Plott first approached Ferraro with the idea a few months ago after reading a story in the Review-Journal about items confiscated at McCarran. "It mentioned that some other state but Nevada was getting the stuff from McCarran," Plott said.

The Transportation Security Administration confiscates more than 10,000 prohibited items at airport security every month. Until recently, those items were turned over to a TSA contractor and destroyed.

But in December, state officials in Arkansas asked if they could have the items collected at McCarran, and the request was granted.

Plott has not seen what is in the boxes, so he has no idea how much Boulder City stands to make. The best he could offer was a "wild, speculative hope" for $40,000 to $50,000.

"Theoretically, even junk sells. It just doesn't sell for as much," he said.

Ferraro said each box weighs 60 pounds or more, roughly half a ton of Homeland Security swag. "I may be overwhelmed," Plott said.

He suspects some confiscated items such as nail files and clippers will have to be sold by the pound.

Plott works part time as manager of the Boulder City Fitness Center in ABC Park and part time as a supervisor for Wackenhut security at Hoover Dam. Before he got his job with the city, he dabbled in Web site design and the sale of antiques on -- you guessed it -- eBay.

Plott said he would "carve out" the time it takes to sort through the boxes, package the items and photograph them for auction. He intends to keep a detailed inventory along the way.

Ferraro said he has a verbal agreement from security officials at McCarran. "They said anything that comes up, we're the ones. We're locked up. I need to see if we can put that in writing."

Plott hopes so, because he thinks the idea soon will catch on in other cities. "People are going to start snapping this stuff up like water rights," he said.