On Feb 9, 12:58 pm, "elaine" > wrote:
>
> A year or so ago, I was boarding a plane with a friend. She had completely
> forgotten that she had a couple of cooking knifes in her carry on. Say
> goodbye to $200 worth.

A very sad story, especially since those knives must also have had
emotional value.

> elaine
> wonder what they do with all that confiscated stuff?

Heh. In the early '60s, I got a job doing biological field work
overseas with the Smithsonian's U.S. National Museum of Natural
History. Before leaving, I spent some time in Washington learning what
I could about the mammals I might come across in the country I was
headed for. In a trip through the cold room, where large pelts were
stored, I saw a long fur coat hanging among the scientific specimens.

One of the curators told me that the coat had been confiscated some
years before from someone on an international flight who was trying to
smuggle it into the US.

The Customs people didn't know what to do with it, so they turned it
over to the USNM, since it was, after all, from a mammal, and Customs
didn't know what else to do with it. The USNM had no use for it, since
it had no scientific value, so there it was in the cooler in 1963, and
may still be there.

I hope your friend's knives had a better fate.

David