Sad Story

[Leafy Cronmer]

Well last night went to a show with the Girlfriend. The show was her Christmas present and we ended up late due to Los Angeles traffic. We had to park far away and thus making us more late. When we got to the entrance they had airport type security (medal detector wands and gates, bag check the whole works) i just then remembered that I still had my Benchmade folder in my back pocket. After being denied entrance because of it, I decided to discard it for her so that we would not miss the show. I have had the knife for years and am now regretting my decision to part with it. I think a little piece of me died inside.

So i have two questions for you, one what sad stories about parting with any knives or firearms in the past can you share? And also if you are willing any suggestions for a replacement knife for me?

 

[renegade1alpha]

Personally I would have went out to the parking lot and put it in the car. You obviously had tickets so you know where she was sitting and you could have met up with her shortly afterwards. My luck would be a week after the show she would have dumped me and now Im not only out a girl friend, but a knife that I have had much longer than her.

 

[Bobarino]

sorry to hear about the knife. i know just how you feel.

i had a wonderful Benchmade AFCK in 154CM that i just loved. it had traveled with me everywhere for years and years. i used it a lot while fishing, which i do a lot of. whilst fishing in my favorite river for salmon, i was using roe as bait and thus my hands were slimy. i took my pocket knife out of the pocket in my waders that it resided in and went to open it with the thumb hole. upon trying to flick it open, i flicked it right out of my had and into the rushing river. i pulled up my sleeves and went rooting around on the river bottom until the icy waters numbed my hands and darkness fell.

the next day, i went to the hardware store and bought the strongest magnet i could find, tied it to a piece of rope and drug the bottom with it for hours. no luck.

i resigned myself to having to buy a new one only to find out that Benchmade had discontinued the AFCK and they were now selling for around $400 on ebay. i was crushed. i was pouted for a month. i reluctantly shopped around and picked up a Benchmade 550HG Griptilian to replace it. it's just not the same.

my girlfriend is still amazed, and not in a good way, at the strange attachment i had to that knife. she just doesn't understand the bond that forms between a guy and his tools. and i know i'm not the only one that gets that way. i still miss that knife.

 

[leadcounsel]

Any chance security would return it to you?

Not to sharpshoot you, but was there any option for stepping away and 'hiding it' under a piece of garbage, etc. or giving the security guy a $20 to return it to you?

 

[Zundfolge]

Wow, some mall ninja punk made out like a bandit!

 

[CountGlockula]

That's why whenever carrying legally, know if the venue will have a 30.06 sign, no guns/weapons sign or the laws regarding carrying in your state.

 

[wishin]

I always used to carry by SOG utility tool(knife, pliers, etc.) on my person until one day when I was stopped by TSA airport security when catching a flight from the Atl airport. I didn't have enough time to take it to my car, and had no one seeing me off that could take it. After a short period of indecision, I went back out to the terminal, found a large potted plant and buried the tool just below the surface. A week later on my return, I went straight to the plant and recovered it. I have to admit that I was surprised to find it still there.

 

[Cosmoline]

How did you "discard" it? Couldn't you have stashed it somewhere in the environment?

 

[Webbj0219]

Its funny pre 9/11 I remember ppl at the door would hold a woepon for you. I used to go to night clubs alot where they would pat you down on entrance. I carried a swiss army knife on my key chain, so the gaurd would tell me I couldnt go in with that. Id ask him to hold it for me and he would just take it and give it to the receptionist and she would put it behind the counter. I would just pick it up from her on my way out.

Then after 9/11 I remember getting on a plane with said knife to fly out to Reno. And I was told that I would have to throw it out. What?? So I parted with my knife and lesson learned, dont bring a knife to the security gate at the airport again. Then a few years later I was going to the same club with some friends with a new knife. Expecting to go through the same routine, But this time the refused to hold it for me. :banghead: So I had to go and put it in my car and lose my place in line, etc... Made me wonder if they were getting their cues from airport security or something?

 

[hso]

If you like the Benchmade Pardue why not replace it with another of the same make/model? They're readily available.

As to surrendering items, you've been given good advice about how to cache something like this, but in the absence of a handy hiding place or a sympathetic security officer who might hold it, destroy it. Lay it across the curb and break the blade so that no one get's it.

 

[Leafy Cronmer]

In hindsight i should have found a good hiding place for it, and believe me i wish had had done that. And to hso, I think I will go out today and buy another of the same, I just loved that knife.

Thanks for the stories and advice, it was a painful and expensive lesson but I have learned from it.

 

[rdrancher]

In all honesty, this is just one of the MANY reasons I left my home state of California. Sorry you no longer have the knife...it's a shame.

rd

 

[hso]

I "lost" my SAK to the final check point leaving Kuwait this last trip. It was a one hand opening Trecker model, but it was one that had come from Europe before they were available in the US and had some minor sentimental value. My fault for not having made sure it went into my check bags and no real practical way to get it into my luggage since I was within the inner sterile area within the larger general sterile area. There was also nowhere to cache it and no way I was going to get my hands on it to destroy it.

I made the best of the situation I could and made a gift of it to the head of the security team and asked that he accept it and use it in good health. He accepted and I know the knife will be well used. Luckily, they now make the model as a standard item I can purchase easily, and I also might see him again some day while I'm checking in for the flight home and wouldn't be surprised to find it returned to me.

 

[leadcounsel]

At the airport, one option would be to find a post office and mail it to yourself instead of losing it in the TSA screening.

I "lost" my SAK to the final check point leaving Kuwait this last trip. It was a one hand opening Trecker model, but it was one that had come from Europe before they were available in the US and had some minor sentimental value. My fault for not having made sure it went into my check bags and no real practical way to get it into my luggage since I was within the inner sterile area within the larger general sterile area. There was also nowhere to cache it and no way I was going to get my hands on it to destroy it.

I was the benefactor of two nice items in Kuwait. The first was a SOG sealpup style knife and sheath from a guy that was going on R&R. He wouldn't accept any money for it. The next was a nice Gerber multi-tool I found laying on top of the amnesty box. Someone was obviously in HSO's situation and just abandoned their Gerber before going through screening.

 

[Texas Gun Person]

One of those security people went home with your knife.

 

[azyogi]

here in AZ if such are banned the venue must provide a way of checking it. laws can be passed that hold your state to the same standard. we are working on a law here to allow ammo made here to be sold here. no ATF but that's best left for another thread

 

[Black Toe Knives]

If anyone is caught is this situation again. Walk back outside and hide the knife. It would be safe for a few hours. I play a game called Geocaching, we hide all sort of things including ammo boxes. Very few of our caches are ever messed with or found by Non gamers.

 

[conw]

hso wrote:

destroy it

Dude, that's crazy talk, I agree I don't wanna give it to the security goons...but destroy it?! Why not just give it to someone less undeserving than security if there is absolutely no other option?

 

[seeker_two]

TSA = Thieves Searching Actively....disgusting that they don't trust military personnel with knives on a flight...

 

[Joe Demko]

Back in the mid-90's I had an AG Russell Sting variant confiscated by airport badges in Philly. I was taking a commuter flight to Pittsburgh and they found it in my suitcase. They rubbed salt in the wound by saying my wife could come down to the airport security office and pick it up. Predictably, when she got there an inquired about it, the response was "what knife?" I hope whichever thief took it home cut himself with it the first time and every time he ever used it. Airport security is, and has been for years, like trying to clear customs in a banana republic. The badges take what they like out of your belongings and there is ****-all you can do about it in practical terms.

 

[dg12]

Time for a new knife right?

 

[Joe Demko]

WRT destroying a knife before turning it in, that is absolutely my policy. I'd rather snap the most expenisve, most sentimentally valuable knife I ever owned than have another thief-with-a-badge go home with it.

 

[bikerdoc]

All good advice above.

Me I dislike TSA so much I will drive 600 -700 miles to avoid flying.

As for venue's ( and the airport if I really have to fly) Double, triple, and quadruple check so I dont have to interact with them.

 

[Dimis]

i understand it was your GF and that this was "major" moment for you and all but my policy follows closely with HSO snap it but at the same time i WILL NOT go to a venue that wont allow me to check it in and have it returned or return to my car to secure it
if someone ANYONE asked me to hand my property over they had better be ready to get the riot act they dont own your knife anymore than they could ask for your wallet or keys

would you relinquish your car if the theater said they didnt allow parking?

how about if they wanted your wallet because they dont accept AMEX?

a knife is no more a weapon than the person useing it it is an inanimate object and more importantly MY property... i dare you to take my property

i guess bottom line i would have walked away from that theater and made it up to the GF some point later

 

[conw]

i guess bottom line i would have walked away from that theater and made it up to the GF some point later

The girl I'm seeing is really nervous with guns/knives for whatever reason...this would be a bad idea for me, would be "two steps back." Gestures can mean a lot and relationships are more important than weapons, BUT a part of me would die, just like the OP...