Story Archive

Trashing Souvenirs Agency

Levi Zilka, 5, had just been to Disney World for the first time. It was his first time going anywhere by plane. And he really liked the Buzz Lightyear “Flip Grip” his uncle had given him. But the toy caught the TSA’s attention when the Zilkas tried to fly home from Florida: agents judged it a “realistic replica of a firearm” and said it could only travel in checked luggage, which the Zilkas weren’t using. “Once he realized what was happening,” said his father, David Zilka, “that they weren’t giving his toy back, he immediately starts bawling, just tears streaming down his face, crying.” Levi complained that “They threw it in the trash.” David filed an official complaint, and when the story made the news, the Zilkas, of Cumberland County, Pa., the TSA responded by shipping them what it claimed was the toy it had taken from Levi, along with a new one of the same model in case the agency had damaged the first. (AC/WHP Harrisburg) ...If this is what the TSA thinks a gun looks like, no wonder it misses real ones.