Swiss army knife as hand luggage

Franglais69

5 years ago the security at Portsmouth ferry terminal, whilst I was leaving the UK, made a big fuss about a knife I was carrying in my car. It was a birthday present from friends in Sweden and still in it's presentation box.

I was nearly arrested for having an offensive weapon and made to feel like a real criminal. They went through my car with a fine toothed comb and found my Swiss army knife in the glove box. This too was deemed illegal but we had an argument over the length of the blade (3 inches or more) which I won when the guy reluctantly measured it.

All the time this was going on caravanners, who no doubt had a drawer full of breadknives, meat cleavers, scissors, etc., (and God knows what else!) were merrily driving past onto the ferry. A point I made to the officer!

The attitude of the security officer was unbelievable and was typical of the way that the police and others in a position of security in UK act when they can lord it over a member of the public.

It was obvious to me that, despite all my arguing, that officer had decided that he was having my Swedish knife, no matter what!

Doshwaster

slinga wrote: »

But it does surprise me about this not allowing blades etc. OK Economy has plastic cutlery but Business Class has the usual steel knives and forks.
Don't hijackers etc not travel in Business Class?

Not to mention allowing people wearing ties and belts (potential strangulation devices!) plus all of those glass bottles of duty free. Then again, there's plenty of damage you can do to another person with your bare hands.

vacheron

benjus wrote: »

....... The only time I got relieved of it was when I took my ex-tenant to court, and court security confiscated it. I had to write them a nice letter to ask them to post it to me... it's easy to forget you're carrying a knife on your keyring.

I fell foul of the same thing at the Durham Passport Office security desk. She spotted it straight away when we emptied our pockets. Fortunately she also gave it back when we were leaving.

It had been through a few security scans at airports in it's time though, despite usually remembering to take it off before flying. However one fateful day the missus asked if she could take it with her when she went mushroom picking and that solved that problem as it's not been seen since!