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TSA: Know Rules Before Trying To Bring Questionable Items Onto Flights

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The Transportation Security Administration displayed thousands of items Tuesday that were confiscated from carry-on bags over three months at Kennedy Airport. As the chaotic holiday travel season approaches, the agency wanted to remind the public what carry-on items were no-no's.

The takeaway: knitting needles and ice skates are welcome on board, but not sparklers, nunchakus and fake chain saws.

Four tons of prohibited items are collected every year at Kennedy alone.

TSA: Know Rules Before Trying To Bring Questionable Items On Flights

Toy weapons of any kind, including grenades, are out. So are real knives, handcuffs and bullets.

Paul Leyh, federal security director at the airport, showed WCBS 880's Peter Haskell a confiscated replica grenade that is actually a bottle of cologne.

"You take a look at this, you don't know if this is a real grenade or not," Leyh said.

Other items that were confiscated include common household products such as Liquid-Plumr, bathroom cleaner and insect spray.

"I think one of the things that you have to recognize about JFK is people go to all parts of the world," Leyh said. "So there's many parts of the world that don't have a lot of what we have in the U.S."

JFK Confiscate
Household products confiscated by TSA agents at Kennedy Airport (credit: Peter Haskell/WCBS 880)

Some items can go into checked bags, but not carry-ons; the details are on an app and the TSA website.

"Say you've got a knife; this is something that you like to carry with you, as this person did," TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said, holding up the aforementioned knife at a news conference.

"We are going to spot that in the X-ray machine or it's going to set off one of the detectors, the body scanners, and you are going to be given a choice: You can either put that in your checked baggage, you can go back and put it in your car, throw it in your trunk, put it in your glove compartment, put it under your seat.''

Some airports also have mailing centers so you can send the item to your destination or your home. Otherwise, you can hand it off to the person who's dropping you off at the airport, or you can surrender it.

States get to take the surrendered items. New York and New Jersey "don't want to deal with that," but Pennsylvania takes the items and sells them, Farbstein said.

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(TM and © Copyright 2014 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2014 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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