Banned items collecting at Lambert

ST. LOUIS -- Shrinking volumes of nail clippers, scissors, corkscrews and other junk-drawer stuff collected at Lambert Airport shows the flying public is getting the message that such items are no longer acceptable at airports, officials say.

"The word has gotten out," said Craig Koboldt, the Lambert police officer in charge of the site's property room where boxes of otherwise benign household items -- banned as potential weapons since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks -- have made their way. The fate of the contraband is sealed once it's tossed into a white, plastic "amnesty bucket" at security checkpoints at Lambert, where signs warn travelers not to bother going farther if they're carrying scissors, straight razors, metal nail files, pocketknives, pool cues or ice picks.

The items -- by Koboldt's estimate, a couple hundred pounds worth in recent months -- are turned over to airport police, locked away and later destroyed.

Last month, Koboldt turned over 12 full boxes to the St. Louis County police.