Surge in Credit Card Knives at Airports

  • By Ginger Hill
  • Jul 22, 2014

About a week ago, Matt Holden of Security Today enlightened us with a list of items that the TSA had recently confiscated, most humors, perhaps, was bear repellent spray. Included in Holden’s list was also credit card knives, in which the TSA is currently seeing a surge in this new, harder-to-detect weapon.

Surge in Credit Card Knives at AirportsIt looks like a thick credit card, but once the blade is folded out, it transforms into a knife with the remaining section of the card snapping together to form the shape of a handle. According to the L.A. Times and Ross Feinstein, spokesman for the TSA, this year, the TSA has discovered 491 credit card knives on passengers, averaging about 20 per week.

Where are people getting these little weapons? Apparently, they are sold online from various retailers ranging in price from $4 to $15. Taken from Iain Sinclair’s website, a British manufacturer of credit card knives detailing one of its products, “Cardsharp was originally designed as a lightweight surgical knife that can be easily transported and safely disposed of by hospitals and medical centers together with paramedics and aid workers without needing expensive and wasteful sharps containers.”

This use case makes sense. Isn’t it crazy how people can turn products created for good uses into weapons?

About the Author

Ginger Hill is Group Social Media Manager.

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