If shampoo is taken by airport customs, what happens to it?

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Ole Markie

Airport Customs DID NOT take your shampoo - it was airport security, who are nothing to do with Customs. It makes no difference whether or not the bottle was sealed - and every airport is festooned with posters explaining this. You do not pass through Customs on the way out of the UK. This is a common misconception by the way.

However as to its disposal, it would be destroyed - different catagories of goods being disposed of in different ways as appropriate.

end is forever

Thrown in the trash. Once they took away a brand new & sealed bottle of tequila and walked me over to a sink and made me watch as they poured it down the drain. Jerks.

ethanrilely

They take it in for Questioning and take it to shampoo jail.

Luli

Binned - who would want to use someone elses shampoo...

Paul C

goes in the trash

manxbiker

I had exactly the same thing happen to me that was unopened hair shampoo as well

Sarcaztic Baztard

Retained as evidence.
If someone dies from a shampooing, they can look back in their files and come arrest you for hygienic terrorism.

rockdude tha second

They probably blow it up in an empty field because one on a milion bottles may contain explosives. Or they just don't have the money to buy their own shampoo.

Kayla

I had a new bottle of water (not opened). The customs person took it off me, opened it and started drinking my water in front of me. I wouldn't mind if he had asked "Can I have it?" but I thought that was a bit rude...

EDIT: leelee3 - I wish I had known that then...

cortniBABY

TRASH ; (

chad5871

It would be unsanitary for anyone else to use this product.

It is simply discarded.

sellatieeat

haha who knows. I would guess that they have to turn it in to the airport to show that they are actually doing their work by collecting illegal liquids at security. But they could also use the shampoo.. Honestly, i would.

KAR

They throw it away... Well, some of the goods end up in the households of the airport security personnel.

Elaine W

It will be binned or destroyed

jess

From what my son-in-law tells me, anything that customs take is all put in a big skip and giving to charity, they do sort the good stuff from the used, but if customs are found to take anything for themselves they would loose there job's.

Todd L

Shampoo/liquids are probably thrown away but, all other confiscated items are stored and sold in special "garage sale" type venues. I have seen this before but don't remember where it was.

ruby_alabar

thrown away... they won't let customs employees use what they have confiscated, otherwise the practice might be abused...they might end up confiscating whatever, especially if they want something in particular

leelee3

It's just thrown away. A lot of the rest (non-perishables, non-liquids), along with items that travelers have lost, are simply sold at an airline owned store.

Here's a link to a Newsweek article that tells you where you can buy some of that stuff:

http://current.newsweek.com/budgettravel/2007/11/since_911_transportation_secur.html

To the girl who got her water taken away:
Airline personnel are never ever allowed to consume or keep anything they confiscate. This no-tolerance policy is to ensure that you get as much of your possessions back to you as possible. If workers were allowed to keep things here and there, it would be a huge problem. I believe I was reading TIME magazine which said that an airline fired a member of the security team for pocketing "a nickel and two pennies".

KATEISGREAT

who cares

neilinpdx

Why in the world would CUSTOMS take your shampoo?? What's it made of? Ivory and Turtle shells??
Don't be silly...Customs won't take your shampoo...

TSA or airport screeners would take it away if it were in your carry on bag and it wasn't in a 3 oz bottle or less. The stuff confiscated by TSA or security, is generally thrown away.
You're confusing CUSTOMS with the Security screeners... NOT the same thing. Customs could care less how much shampoo you're carrying into the country!

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