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Courtesy Camille Kohler
Camille Kohler bought this replacement snow globe for her daughter online after the original souvenir was confiscated by the Transportation Security Administration.
During a recent trip to Disneyland, Camille Kohler’s 5-year-old daughter searched for the one souvenir she would buy and bring home with her to Anchorage, Alaska. After three days of consideration, she decided on a small snow globe from the popular It’s a Small World ride.
For the flight home, Kohler put the snow globe in her carry-on bag. But the water-filled souvenir never made it past the security checkpoint at Los Angeles International Airport.
“To their credit, the TSA agents were trying to keep the confiscation on the down-low so my daughter wouldn't see they were taking the snow globe,” said Kohler. “They even looked for a way to empty it. But at that point in the day, I didn't even want to bring it to my girl’s attention, causing a potential melt-down at the security gates.”
Now Kohler wants to know: “Does the TSA have a rule specifically prohibiting snow globes?”
The answer is yes.
“Snow globes of any size are not permitted in carry-on baggage because there is no way for our officers to accurately determine the volume of liquid,” said Transportation Security Administration spokesperson Greg Soule.
If you do want to travel with a souvenir snow globe that, like Kohler’s daughter, you have carefully picked out, the TSA recommends that you put it in your checked luggage or ship it home. Another option is to shop for a souvenir snow globe at a post-security shop in the airport.
Wondering if your vacation souvenir will make it through the security checkpoint? The TSA has a tool on its website to help travelers like Kohler figure out what will and won’t fly. Overhead Bin plugged in “snow globes” and was sent to a “Check only” page that discusses liquids but does not specifically mention snow globes. A holiday-related section of the TSA website, however, does specifically state that snow globes are not permitted in carry-on bags.
And don’t worry too much about that lost It’s a Small World souvenir. Like all Disney movies, this tale has a storybook ending: “I'm happy to report that I was able to find a replacement snow globe on the Disney web site,” said Kohler.
Do you have a travel-related question? Send it to Overhead Bin.
More on Overhead Bin
- Q&A: TSA's new kid-friendly checkpoints
- Q&A: How to get your duty-free purchase home
- Q&A: How to avoid an airport security pat-down
Find more by Harriet Baskas on Stuck at The Airport.com and follow her on Twitter.
Leave a Comment:
More reasons not to fly! I wonder who will be the recipient of this little girl's dream. TSA, masters of 'regifting'...sad.
What happens to all those duty free stores that sell souvenirs and liquor and everything else after you go through security. Who checks that some idiots have switched the contents of those bottles and marked them so that a terrorist doesn't purchase one of those bottles. I remember that the alcohol content is so high that if you spill some of those alcoholic beverages, you can light them with a match.
Snow globes - another casualty of the war on liquids.
What if the liqiud wasn't water but some explosive chemical or flammable liquid . Wrap the globe in cloth lite the cloth and toss. ie molotov cocktail. They have FED EX in California?, yes. Alaska? yes. Problem NO. It has been a while since I've flown but I would and will checkout the TSA website before I do.
You can make that argument about almost anything. You can make an effective weapon out of just about anything. Watch a prison show sometime, inmates make shanks and other such weapons all the time out of the most interesting things and they are in PRISON. The kinds of things you can take onto an airplane far exceed the things you can take into a prison. You aren't safe, it is just an illusion. Don't believe me? How exactly do you think the shoe bomber and underwear bomber got on board the planes they targeted... oh yeah... they walked through the TSA Security checkpoint...
Terrorists are masters of improvisation and I would bet that most of the stuff they try even they know there isn't much chance of it working and actually killing anyone. What it does do though is make the government over react and clamp down on the people. They destroy our way of life one little airport screening at a time, kind of like water eroding a mountainside. And I bet that whenever one of them hears a story like this it makes them laugh their a$$es off.
You're quite right. A suitcase alone is a danger that could have weapons or explosives built in to it. Heck, just the items found ON a plane, in the hands of the wrong person, can be a threat to crew and passengers!
As pointed out elsewhere, snow globes are on the TSA list and the parents should have seen signs up in Disney stores that warned of such a thing.
I still agree that taking a little girl's snow globe is essentially unwarranted bullying by a government agency, however.
Heck, I once got on a plane with a 3" pocket knife, for crying out loud.
Claiming they don't know how MUCH the globe holds is just silly. That's simply a simple geometric problem... 4*(pi*r squared) = Volume of the sphere.
The problem is in knowing the Contents of the sphere, not its Volume.
Go to the TSA website. I can and do carry my 14 in. knitting needles when I fly. Just perfect for stabbing with. Yet my husband cannot carry his little nail clippers. The needles are approved by TSA. Weird.
4/3 *Pi*Radius cubed = volume of a sphere
Redwizard000
You are absolutly right.
Next time you cannot have laces in your shoes because it might be primer cord.
I'm all for it the make the TSA obsolete by forcing everybody to fly NAKED.
LOL AND being sarcastic to boot
Darkwolf-2329305, your equation is for the... area of four circles? I hope S16949 is on the job that day, not you.
This just seems like a big DUH to me. The TSA makes you put all your 3.4 oz liquids in a clear bag, including mascara and lip gloss. Why in the world would you even think you could get a snow globe through in the first place?
The TSAs explaination is irrational. Typical double-speak, putting mindless adherence to poorly thought out rules ahead of true safety.
The snow globe restriction has been on TSA's website for ages - it's not new. And they have a very valid point - unlike other types of containers (like bottles or tubes) you can't open a snow globe to check the liquid contents.
There are do-it-yourself globe kits out there - wouldn't that be a great terrorist bonding experience if snow globes became an exemption!
Of course, even after all of this time, I was in a security line earlier this month behind someone who didn't understand that a BOTTLE OF WATER was, indeed, a liquid...
Actually, the TSA don't have a valid point, and a return to basic physics and chemistry principles is in order.
You don't need access to the liquid itself to determine its volume.
Warm regards from someone who actually has degrees in both fields.
You have two degrees and you post "TSA don't have", I guess neither were in English.
I'm actually an avid Snowglobe collector. I have over 65 and counting. For several years now you have not been able to bring a Snowglobe in your carry on luggage, which I can understand. Beside the liquid, the thing is made of glass. All someone has to do is smash it open and they have a pretty good weapon. All you need to do is wrap the Snowglobe in some bubble wrap, and then wrap that in some of your packed clothes. I've never had one break yet.
"there is no way for our officers to accurately determine the volume of liquid." Well, it does require a little math and if you can't look at a four ounce bottle that is less than half full and deduce that it is not over 3.4 ounces, I shouldn't expect ANY math.
For a true sphere, a 2 1/4 inch diameter will hold just a little less than 3.4 ounces. Since the glass globe consumes part of the volume the liquid it will hole will be even less.
Glass globe thickness is about 1/8 inch so the globe diameter for to hold just less than 3.4 ounces is two and a half inches. This is a pretty small snow globe. So using a 2 1/2 inch pass/fail criteria would seem easy to be an easy rule to apply, but i bet we will never see it.
Maybe the snow globe makers could put a little label on it that give the liquid volume. That seems to be all TSA checks.
I wish it wasn't so easy to bash TSA, but they make it so easy.
Yes, the TSA is too stupid to do simple junior high school geometry.
Taken from a CHILD - shame on them!
The last time I was in Disney, there were signs EVERYWHERE saying that if you flew, TSA would not allow you to carry a snowglobe on board. Samantha Brown pointed that fact out in one of the Travel Channel's Disney-centric shows. In this case, I would have to blame the parents for not reading!
We had the same experience when our grandson purchased a snow globe in Anchorage, Alaska. When we got to the security checkpoint we discovered snow globes were on the no-no list, so my daughter quickly ran the carry on bag containing the globe to the luggage check-in counter. The clerk let her check it for no additional charge, and the other passengers let her run up to the front of the line. Disaster averted!
Common-water-globe-sense aside, it's just one more reason I'll never board another plane. If I can't drive there, I'm not going.
I bought two Snow Globes in Dubai, I travelled through London with them in my carry on. The TSA agents stopped me, had a conversation amongst themselves over them and decided to let me continue on with them since I had not been stopped in Dubai. Once I landed in Detroit, they were taken away from me by the TSA. I complained to my flight attendant at British airways about having my souvenirs confiscated and she called down to security and I was told they would be mailed to me. I really didn't believe them but two weeks later I got my snow globes in the mail from British Airways! I never buy them anymore :0(
A bar of soap in a sock makes a pretty weapon too. Should they also restrict them. Jeeze Louise......what a bunch of paranoid clowns.
A mechanical pencil, especially with the lead sharpened by rubbing it against any surface, is also razor-sharp.
And I'm sure a creative person can find a way to use things already on the airplane as weapons.
Just don't use ivory soap. It powders with the first blow and may not hurt the person.
that is why i rarely fly if i can not drive or ride a bus or train i do not go. i am not going to be groped by a bunch of idiots most of whom english is their second language. if enough people opt out of flying maybe the tsa would get the idea,ohh i forgot tsa is just another goverment employment bureau for semi illiterate people.
The TSA is all about security theater, not security. All of you people who say "it's ok so long as it makes us safer" need to ask yourselves, who exactly thinks anything the TSA has ever done, has ever made anyone a tiny bit safer?
You won't find anyone who knows what they're talking about that thinks the TSA is good for anything.
Snow globes should be illegal anyway. A tiny little world whose existence is characterized by violent earthquakes and blizzards - the horror! :)
oh! The Humannity!!
BS! Just flew home from NYC - on 9/11, no less - with a small snow globe we bought for my niece. It was carried through security and onto the plane by my boyfriend... who they let on with no ID after his wallet was stolen during our trip. I didn't even think about the snow globe since it was in a bag with a bunch of other souvenirs and TSA never called it out. However, I was very shocked they actually let him on the plane w/out ID. I was glad he got to fly home with me but really disturbed that it wasn't a bit more difficult to get through security... on 9/11 in NYC, for Pete's sake. WTF? He could have been an evil, snow globe-carrying terrorist for all they knew!
Kinda like auto inspections during days of ole'. They fail a car at one place, then pass it in another.
One of the things that really bothers me about TSA procedures is that they KEEP what they confiscate. Just because they have a rule saying you can't fly with certain things within your grasp, should that automatically make the item no longer your property? This is outright theivery.
They should arrange something with UPS or FedEx that confiscated items can be shipped to a traveler's destination (or back home) at their own expense rather than losing an item that may be precious.
Disney stuff is not cheap and what if this parent had not been able to find a replacement? I personally carry with me a pocket knife that has great sentimental value and hopefully I would remember to leave it behind should I ever consent to fly again, but if I made the mistake of having it on my person when I went to the airport, I would pay for such a service to have it shipped somewhere.
So I guess it doesn't take too much intelligence to be a TSA agent huh?
Just calculate the volume using the formula Volume = 4/3 pie r3 (the cube of r). Is that so hard?
Even easier is to simply put the globe upside down into a flask of water and measure the displaced water and you have the volume with no calculations necessary that even a dummy TSA agent could do!
Or better yet just estimate it jeeze what a crock is the TSA.
I'm surprised at the number of grade school dropouts that actually believe the menace of anti-American terrorism has somehow completely been eliminated from the entire planet.
A dedicated terrorist would like nothing more than an innocent and unassuming way to transport a couple liters of chemical liquids onto a flight to send both you, your five year old daughter on a quick ticket to heaven.
If I applaud the TSA for anything it is that they completely ignore these imbeciles and continue to do the best they are allowed to do to keep my family safe on their flights.
I am glad that I do not fly!
oops! Mr. Darkwolf: (4/3)*pi*Radius^3 = volume of the sphere.
BUT, I do agree with the essence your point.
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Darkwolf-2329305
Claiming they don't know how MUCH the globe holds is just silly. That's simply a simple geometric problem... 4*(pi*r squared) = Volume of the sphere.
The problem is in knowing the Contents of the sphere, not its Volume.
#2.4 - Sat Sep 24, 2011 6:20 PM EDT
Good point. But remember, TSA agents are not allowed to think or use their very limited intelligence.
It is not illegal to fly without photo ID. Last I remembered you did have to go through a secondary screening process though.
Yea--a snow globe from a Disney resort might bring down a plane! It's time for TSA to get real. But that may be near impossible, considering the imbeciles that manage TSA. As Tom Brokow says, it's "the fleecing of America." Common sense is out. Black or white. You are a suspected terrorist until you prove otherwise. The real terrorists are jumping up and down with glee!
The TSA is another example of how the terrorist have won the war… When you consider all the time, money, and resources we have wasted since 9/11, all for the
illusion of securitty... We really are a very pampered population...
Take a good look at the quality of people that are hired by TSA. Hell here at Midway Airport some of the TSA officers look like terrorists. One point here that made even the Chicago PD laugh was while on duty on day (20 Veteran of CFD) I had to pick up my 11yr old from the gate at SW airlines. In uniform going through security 1 TSA officer waved me through when I said my Lt's rank name tag shoes were going to set off the alarm. He says dont worry and points me to the glassed in area. Where I get patted down and damn near stripped search buy this 400lb black guy wanting to know why I was at the airport in a firefighters uniform and not flying. After many attempts to explain I was only there to pick up a minor child and delaying me to the point that SW airlines was announcing my name over the intercomm to get my son, this f^%king moron asks me , while reading my work ID and name tag if that was me they were calling for over the intercomm!!! Sorry so long but had to explain the whole scenario there LMAO TSA=BULLSH*T