.... Slammer, I figure ^^ just being rewarded for good clean livin' .  

[I think all we've had confiscated so far was a jar of blueberry jam at an airport.... a smallish jar, but apparently not small enough.  This thread had me discussing such matters with my lovely and talented assistant. I came up with the suggestion (?) that I should have opened it up and eaten enough to get it down to the 100ml. limit. She said/scoffed: "Who'd want to do that?"  I figured she was asking a rhetorical question.]

quote:

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Originally posted by Texasbanjo

Are there signs at the entrance that warn you not to bring anything that might be used as a weapon such as knives, guns, hammers, etc.? If not, then you might have a right to have your item returned. I'd report it to the police and if they wouldn't do anything, I'd call a lawyer and ask him his thoughts and see if he could give the hospital a call or a letter or something. Might not work, but is worth a try.

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One could more damage with a ink pen than a 1" knife.  Just sayin,   Im sure the whomever conficated it has already properly "destroyed" it. 

I think it would be well worthwhile to call the hospital and ask to speak to the director regarding a theft of personal property by a hospital staff member. Tell them to explain what right they have to confiscate personal property. They are not the police dept. or the U.S. customs dept.  If you don't get a straight answer tell you are reporting them to the local police and the state hospital authority. 

The people who do the searches usually lack more than high school educations. The bureaucrats who write the regulations don’t want them making judgments and don’t want to spend the money for those who could. So every knife is a “weapon.” If they really wanted to keep potential weapons out, no one would be allowed to carry in pens, pencils or lighters. But keeping out all knives is easy and avoids having to think, make judgments and accept responsibility. Bureaucrats (not only their underling gatekeepers)simply don’t want to, and often can’t, handle those things. The rest if us are victims of their shortcomings.

... or victims of our own apathy??

The bigger question is "why do hospitals in your country think it necessary to search all visitors ?".
I once had a small adjustable spanner (monkey wrench) that I carried on transatlantic trips to assemble/disassemble my travel banjo confiscated at Heathrow airport. Not sure what they thought I could do with it on a 747. My take was that the searchers were poorly paid, cheaply trained, very bored, and not necessarily the sharpest tools in the box. So expecting a rational system was a bit optimistic.

Hmm...
If you had a metal plate in your head, would they confiscate that, too?

I checked a few websites .... none mentioned confiscating ^^ metal plates in their protocol, but ..........  "never say never" ??

.... or, otoh, like the Scout's motto, "Be prepared." ??