TORONTO: An electric saw, a retractable billy club, a phone case in the shape of brass knuckles, pepper spray and hundreds of knives of all shapes and sizes are among the objects seized recently at Montreal’s Trudeau airport.
Roughly six per cent of travellers arrive at airport security with an object that’s not allowed, according to estimates by the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA).
Most of the items are less exciting, like a bottle of water, said Mathieu Larocque, a spokesman for CATSA.
“In 99 per cent of cases, these are people who have forgotten [they are carrying the item],” he said.
Larocque said everything retrieved by the federal agency is sorted by volunteers, and once dangerous items are removed, they are put up for sale.
The sold items yield about $50,000 a year.
