Harrisburg , Pennsylvania ( CNN ) -- Somewhere , somehow , someone tried to carry a tribal spear onto a commercial aircraft . Troy Thompson knows that not because he is privy to the nation 's latest intelligence reports but because he works for Pennsylvania 's Department of General Services , where objects discovered and surrendered at airport checkpoints are stored , sorted and resold to the public . The non-descript government building in Harrisburg , Pennsylvania , could be called the world 's most unusual thrift store because of the odd assortment of stuff that ends up there . You 'll find piles of hockey sticks and golf clubs , dozens of snow globes , enough rolling pins to equip a culinary school and so many pocketknives that they are sold by the pound . All of the items are prohibited on planes because they could be used as weapons or , in the case of snow globes , could contain liquid explosives . Every year , passengers surrender about 750,000 prohibited items at airport checkpoints . The Transportation Security Administration cringes at the term `` confiscated '' because passengers have the option to return prohibited items to their cars , check them with their baggage , ship them home , or hand them off to someone on the public side of the checkpoint . But more often than not , rushed travelers surrender the items -- or `` voluntarily abandon '' them , in TSA parlance -- to screeners . TSA stands by knife decision . Illegal items -- guns , grenades , brass knuckles and such -- are handed over to local law enforcement . ( The TSA seizes on average four guns a day at checkpoints and took a total of 1,549 last year . ) But prohibited items -- knives , large tools and sporting equipment -- are considered excess government property and are sent to the nearest state willing to accept them . The TSA does not profit from abandoned property , it says . But Pennsylvania says the commonwealth can profit largely because it already has a facility devoted to selling government surplus . Using those resources , Thompson said , Pennsylvania has brought in almost $ 900,000 in the past nine years selling checkpoint items . Who 's who in opposition to TSA rule change . Knives are probably the most common items aside from liquids , which are thrown away . Travelers surrender about 35 knives at Baltimore-Washington International Airport on an average day and about 47 per day at Los Angeles International Airport . Pennsylvania employees research the market values of items and set prices , taking into consideration the items ' conditions . Some items are sold in a no-frills government surplus store in Harrisburg . Most are auctioned on GovDeals.com ( search for `` Pennsylvania Surplus '' ) . New batches of items are placed on the auction block three times a week . Oddities include a large box filled with bullet belts . Whether they came from punk rockers or Hopalong Cassidy fans , or perhaps both , is unknown . `` You ca n't physically go through each bullet to make sure it 's not a real bullet , '' Thompson said . In the inventory this week were Nunchaku , or nunchucks , toy guns and a horse whip . `` I do n't know who would want to take a horse whip onto a plane , '' Thompson said . Thompson said he does n't expect the TSA 's recent decision to permit small pocketknives to appreciably alter the flow of goods through his department . Many of the surrendered knives have longer blades and will remain prohibited . And there 's always someone trying to board an aircraft with bullet belts , nunchucks and spears , which , if nothing else , keeps jobs at the checkpoint and one Pennsylvania surplus store very interesting .
Passengers surrender 750,000 items annually at airport checkpoints , TSA says . Many items are sold at a Pennsylvania warehouse and online . Knives are the most common item surrendered ; a horse whip is rather unusual .