Had Any Blades Conficated Lately?

Not recently. I have been a knife nut for a long time and lost a couple when I was a teenager. I was even at the site of a mass confiscation where my friends and I lost most of the razors, switchblades, gravity knives and daggers we were carrying (they missed about half of what we were carrying). The wonder is that I never got arrested.

Most recently I had to surrender a totally bladeless keychain tool to airport security last fall. This thing had no points and no edges, but it was a menace to airport security. I had a plane to catch so I let it go. I had picked that tool to carry on my travels because it was totally harmless.
 
I've never had the least bit of trouble with knives being confiscated. Can't say it's cuz I aint intimidating looking to most cops. I'm about six feet tall, 250 pounds, and still benchpress about 360. my hair is usually pretty wild, I spend alot of time doing manual labor and thusly wearing quite a bit of grease and dirt and driving my a$$ ugly 3/4 ton Chevy work truck. I have a real bad tendency to fit the stereotypical look of a small town brawler/wife beater. I've used my MT autos around cops (working security at the time) and openly carry knives of a less than PC persuasion.

One reason I seem to do awright is that irregardless of how I appear, I'm always soft spoken, polite, and I never carry a knife as a weapon. Even my REKAT Hobbit Warrior is just for knock around construction use. I'm also real good about turning my engine off, keeping my hands in plain site, and talking and moving very slowly when I'm pulled over. if I have a gun in the car (which I most often do) I'm quick to say, "hey, I really don't wanna surprise ya' or anything, but there's a revolver over on the passenger seat. Figured I'd rather tell ya' than have you find it for yourself..." Revolver is AlWAYS just there cuz I'm thinkin' 'bout headin' to the range in a bit... really never had a problem, so...I think the key to keeping knives from confiscation is simple discretion and demeanor, and has very darn little to do with looks once contacted.

Well...on the other hand, in the town I live in it's still not unheard of for someone to pull up to the grocery store on a snowmachine or fourwheeler with a .44 mag on thier hip to pick up some bread, milk, and coffee, so perhaps my being left alone isn't such a great achievement.

Actually, I did have an Anchorage cop by the name of OFFICER FOCKING APPELLO!!!! give me a horrible time over a revolver once.

in the middle of July (years ago) a buddy of mine bought a truck up in the Eagle River Valley just on the outskirts of Anchorage, and he needed a ride to go pick up his truck. So I agreed, and we hopped in my Bronco, went an' picked up his truck. Since my Bronco had a busted fuel gauge and I'd forgotten my fuel calculations I wound up running outta gas on the way home with him a ways ahead of me.

So, I pulled my truck over, hopped out and started to wait for him to notice my lack of presence in his rearview mirror and come back to get me.

So there I am, wearing a T-shirt, cut off jeans, and a pair of low cut hiking boots waiting for my buddy to come back when an APD cruiser comes by, pulls up behind me, and hits the lights. SO here's how the conversation went:

Me: (standing slowly, smiling tentatively and givin' a small wave) "uh..hey there, how you doin'?"

Officer: (jumping back into a modified Weaver shooting stance with his hand hovering over his Glock) "WHAT?? WHAT'D YOU SAY TO ME??!!"

Me: (speaking like he just walked out of his flying saucer and took of his space helmet) "errrr...uhmmm...I said hello...."

Officer (ignoring any attempt at courtesy) "what's going on here??"

Me:(feeling very askeered now) "a friend of mine just bought a truck up the road a ways, I was following him home and ran outta gas. Still waiting for him to notice I'm not following him..."

Officer: (assuming all the command presence crap with all of his five foot eight pretty boy height)
"lemme see your drivers license!"

Me: (tentatively) m'kay...it would probably be a good time to let you know it's in a fanny pack, on my front seat. Thing is that I also have a revolver there, and I'd hate to surprise you.."

Officer: "Why do you have a gun in your car??!!"

Me: "My friend and I were planning on going shooting when we got back to the Valley"

Officer: (glaring at me like I just spit on his boyfriend) "reach into your truck real slowly, and get the bag out. No! not from that side! from over here! it's for your safety and mine!"

So's I get the bag out, hand it to him as slowly as possible, cuz this guy was DEFINITELY overdue for a switch to decaf... He opens the bag up and pulls out my loaded S&W 625 .45 ACP Revolver and flips the cylinder open in a perfect imitation of Dick Tracy. (Us bettter educated gun folks knowing that's one of the highest levels of abuse to a revolver outside of perhaps using it as a framing hammer) and then he pulls out my loaded full moon clip from the revolver. it is now empty. But oh no! not good enough for him! he starts bending the sh!t outta my moonclip trying to pry the bullets out one by one, after the revolver has been cleared.

I finally got a bit more assertive after witnessing this atrocity to my favorite gun and told him "hey , look.. the gun is empty, you're bending up my moonclip and the cartridges don't come out that way anyways, would you PLEASE leave it alone?"

so, he grudgingly does so (miracle of miracles) Primarily cause that complex moonclip was proving way too much of a challenge for his level of cognitive reasoning. Then he FLINGS my cylinder shut again. and continues waiting eagerly for my name to come up as the FBI's most wanted or something.

In the meantime, my buddy has turned around and come back for me. He's pretty good about not sending off the wrong signs to cops himself. So, he parks off a ways and starts walking up to us. Just as he was starting to say "hello" the cop screams over to him "DO YOU HAVE ANY WEAPONS!!???"
so my friend (assuming the same "welcome to Earth" tone I had) "errr...no...." and he kept walking towards up, very slowly, hands fully visible. and then..the police officer spotted danger! groping at his Glock with the same steadfast speed as if his crabs were acting up and started screaming to my friend "WHAT'S THAT ON YOUR HIP! FREEZE!! WHAT'S ON YOUR HIP??!!"

So, my friend told him...errr..."it's called a cell phone, officer..."

So..in the meantime he found out I wasn't even wanted for any parking tickets and started to dismiss me (miraculously in an unventilated condition) and told me to drop the back window to my Bronco so he could put the bag all the way in the back "for his safety and mine" well..problem is the switch had gone out for my rear window and I couldn't lower it. I told the officer this and unhindered by any rational forethought he THREW my bag with my gun, ammunition, a folding knife, etc. OVER both my seats into the toolbox, handyman jack, and other miscellaneous metal tools I keep back there.

the sonuvabitch bent my crane and scratched the gun. Also bent my moon clip. I suspect that APD was experiencing some budget cuts at the time and sending thier officers to the city zoo for firearms training.

So, anyhoo, I tried calling to file a complaint half a dozen times, never got a call back, constantly got pushed off, etc. In the meantime I'd told my sad tale to a gunsmith in town here who took pity on me and fixed my gun for free.

that incident excluded though, I've really never had problems with cops and my weapons...errr..tools... and that one wasn't really confiscated, it was abused and broken.

In retrospect I definitely shoulda been more assertive when filing my complaint, but at the time I'd figured it best to just let it slide. In some corner of my mind I was quite honestly afraid of pissing off or going against a cop...

finally in closing, I'd like to say...

If any of the other involved parties should read this...

Appelo, you're an ass.

dispatchers, and anyone else who shoved me off...you suck too.



:D
 
I have had allot of knives and things of that nature taken over the years.

The last episode was about 2 months ago. Do you know how when you pass by a car accident, you can't help but look. Or if you see a fight while driving down the road, you might even turn around or drive slower to see it. Well that’s how I am. I even traveled very far to be in Las Vegas in New Years 2000, Because Terrorist were supposed to strike and I wanted to see it first hand.


Well The World Church Of the Creator, A White Supremist Group, Came to my area a few months ago and were having a public meeting. There were supposed to be thousands of protestors there to start a conflict and the N.A.A.C.P. was having a rally right down the road. So me being the adrenaline junky I am decided to go and see what happens.


The meeting was in a public building and when I parked and got out of my car I was informed by the closest police officer to me that Guns were not allowed in the building. I guess my 45 was sticking out of my shirt. I have a permit and wasn't worried, So I stowed my weapon and walked to the first of many check points to get access to the building. After about 1/2 an hour of waiting I was escorted to a metal detector and patted down. Of course the Police wanted to hold on to my Benchmade. They even would not let me into the building with a Toner; (Used to tone out electrical lines) I was told they would be returned after the event was over. To make a long story short, Once the event was over, I returned to the same cop that took the items and was told he didn't know what I was talking about. I think he must have thought I was affiliated with the group. Nothing cool even happened there and I was out about $200 bucks in all.


Unfortunately, this sort of thing happens to me allot, even though I am a law abiding citizen, I am a usual suspect due to tattoos all over my arms, Mistakes from my childhood.

I can't be that mad about it, I guess I should have known better putting myself in potentially violent situations often.

But I can't help but wonder if that cop now carries my Benchmade!!
 
I never had any blades taken away and I even unknowingly taken in my swisstech key knife into the courtroom for 2 days while on jury dudy. The only thing I recall being confiscated was my maglight police baton handle which was totaly my fault since I carried the baton maglight in the car to take to school. I park infront of the campus security everyday and somehow the campus cop saw it in there and waited for me to return back to my car which was about 10 pm and as soon as I start the engine and back out, about 3 security guys and 1 police officer came running out of the building all flashing flashlights in my face and the officer was on the bull horn saying hes officer bla bla bla..... so I go back, turn engine off, roll all windows down....basically the officer took away the baton handle off my maglight and thats it. He said it was a major felony and I could have been arrested but he said I was a "nice guy" so he let me go
 
My short 2 cents on ref. to the guy waving knives at the Police Officers, If you wave and point knives at me you most likely won't be on a forum talking about it afterwards..and I would forsee this being the case with most any Police Officer.

Police Officers are like any other profession, you have good ones you have bad ones, you have honest ones you have dishonest ones, The higher ups are suppossed to weed out the bad ones before they hire them by means of all the testing they require at most police depts now days and backgrounds checks etc., but theres going to be the bad one make through now and again. When you are unfortunate to meet a bad one, just do what your told to do and don't make things worse then go through the proper channels and make formal complaints, and no calling the police dept. and complaining is not the proper way, writing down what happned and going down or making a appointment with the people in charge is the right way, and I'm sorry but if you do things the right way it will be taken care of. Let me also point out..just because you got a ticket doesnt mean the officer did something wrong, sometimes we all just mess up and do things and get caught, when you get caught take your ticket or whatever like a man and go on. I have a freind that recently got caught drunk driving, he came to me and said" can you help me out, I think these other Cops are just picking on me". I asked "Where you drunk?" and answered yes, So at this point does it matter if they are picking on him? not really, since they can't catch him drunk driving if he doesn't drink and drive. Guess the point I'm trying to make is just because "you" dont like what happnes to you doesnt mean something wrong was done to you and if YOU know the laws in your area and follow the laws in your area then you most likely are not going to get into any trouble.

In 13 years of Law Enforcement I have known more Police Officer then I can truly remember, but I do know that out of the 100 or so I work with on a regular basis I can only think of one through the years that was a piss poor example of a Cop, and we rooted him out on our own, and he now works at Wal-Mart. The rest of the Police Officers I have worked with are generaly the best people I have ever known for being given and willing to help people out even total strangers, and they wouldnt steal something from someone no matter what. but of course most of you will think I'm just biased. and thats just fair since I think most people are all guilty (j/k).

Oh and I carried a Stainless Steel Spyderco Police from Virginia to Florida to the Bahamas and back last year and never got stopped and checked once or even paid the smallest mind of it and according to my boss i'm the sneakiest, Smirking-iest looking bastid that ever walked.
 
I never had anything taken from me by the police. The reason is
probably on most occasions they knew what I was doing any way. I spent 30 years as a gun dealer and 3rd class machine gun dealer.

I always had a gun and a knife. with me. The only time police took anything was to put it in a lock box when I visited squad rooms. That lock box was only for certain departments. In other places they did nothing at all.

I did the right thing when i started and that was to make sure the shift supervisors knew who I was and what I was doing.. I basically removed any threat that they might have about me. That was a graet experience. Now retired I can sit here and read Blade Forums.

My best
Sweet
 
>"... sometimes we all just mess up and do things and get caught, when you get caught take your ticket or whatever like a man and go on."

=================================

Amen. In my youth, I gave Mario Andretti a run for his money, chalking up about a dozen speeding tickets within the first few years of having my license. I always kept the attitude, however, that once those blue lights come on, game over. Despite all the tickets, I got pulled over a lot more than that - about half the time, I'd get away with a warning, I believe, because I maintained an air of respect and didn't give the officer any attitude. I also had a few minor run-ins of another nature (dumb college-boy drunk and disorderly type BS that I'm not too proud of). Still, once the cops made my dumb behavior their business, game over. Like now, I always carried a knife ... but I never had one confiscated. Sometimes they'd "hold" it for me until they turned me loose (and returned my pocketkife, every time), other times they never even asked about a weapon, just read me the riot act, ran my license to see if I'd killed JFK or something, then sent my on my way. I guess I'm too naive, but I don't pay attention at all to knife laws, etc., I just carry what I'm going to carry (which, I might add, is nothing extravagent) and go about my business, which at the ripe old age of 33, is pretty mild.
 
I have the opposite problem. I live in a small town and know most of the LEOs. I get stopped, on the street, in the grocery store, once in a rented car and they all ask to see the 'knife of the week.' We laugh, they hand the knife back and I ask about their kids.

I was also the first in my neighborhood to have a titanium Smith & Wesson, a .40 SW, a 10mm Bren Ten and a flat-top AR-15.

I don't mind, I've never gotten a speeding ticket within city limits in the 17 years we've lived here.
 
It's amazing how an old thread comes around and becomes topical again.:)

Hey, Runs With Scissors I see your from Anchorage or there abouts, been to any Jammin' Sammin' shows lately? my brother lives in Eagle River and played with the band, his name is Animal, and he collects knives too.:D
 
The worlds alot safer now,the NY Yankees took a s.a.k off a fireman:rolleyes: . See a guy from my firehouse up here in Rochester is from the NYC area and returns a few times a year.Of course he goes to see the Yankees,like all good New Yorkers.Well he carries his sak all the time although he's not a "knife guy".So he goes through a security check no problem,then comes upon a second where they pat him down and pull out his sak,"whats this" they ask as they toss it in the trash can!!

Now I know they would not be throwing mine away either,but he's caught by total surprise,and he thinks that he must have missed a sign at the first check point and that maybe he could be in trouble and does not want to get into a n argument with his young kids along to see the game.

Well he returns home pissed and has e-mailed them with no reply

Yes sir were alot safer now.:barf:
 
Pre 9-11 I took a endura through the metal detectors and to the gate on two different occations. The first time I was allowed by the security lady because she didn't want to have to hold it to her hand to check the lengh... The second time I set it in the dish walked through and grabed it back, no one even saw me do it. I thought nothing of it at the time. But NOW:eek:
 
A couple of years ago (long before 9/11) I was flying with my usual travel EDC (a Spyderco Mouse) when a security guard in Switzerland decided I couldn't take that knife onto the plane and promptly confiscated it. I was upset (the knife had already flown with me from the U.S. and through 3 countries in Europe and was now being taken from me as I left Europe for home) but I knew better than to argue, at least more than pointing out that the knife had already been through 2 other European airports...

To my suprise, one of the aircraft crew had an envelope with my name on it which they handed to me when I left the plane, and inside was my little Spydie, so in the end I was lucky and didn't loose it after all!
 
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