Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe RESTON, Va., Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Nail files, cigarette lighters and other items banned from U.S. airliners are being sold by state and local officials, generating income for tight budgets. While the U.S. Transportation Security Administration says it gives passengers options -- such as returning items to their car or mailing them to themselves -- it still ends up with thousands of banned items. Advertisement Rather than throw the stuff away, TSA offers state surplus offices the goodies that then end up at public sales or Internet auctions, USA Today reports. The newspaper figured the sales generate hundreds of thousands of dollars. In December, for example, the take on about 5,000 pounds of items was about $17,000. While items such as pocket knives -- one man bought a box of 500 Swiss Army knives -- lighters and files are the most common, TSA has turned over more esoteric items -- such as a sausage grinder, a car transmission and cast-iron skillets -- kept off the planes in the name of security and sent off to agencies for sale, the newspaper said.
