Airport Security threw item away without permission at security checkpoint.

Location: MCI airport in Kansas City, MO.

I’m making this post for my brother. He is an HVAC technician in Utah. He drove to Kansas with other family members and brought a couple of his tools to work on our parent’s furnace while he was here.

He was supposed to fly back to Utah this morning. While going through security he was pulled aside and told that they would need to go through his bag. He waited for about 30 minutes before someone came over to go through his bag. At this point he probably wasn’t going to make his flight and was expecting to have to find a new one.

The security person pulled my brother’s impact driver (worth about $250) out of his bag and told him he needs to leave the lithium ion battery in his carry on but needed to have the impact driver in a checked bag. My brother stated that at this point he didn’t have time to go back and check a bag and was going to miss his flight all together. The security person told him they would need to escort him back through security if he wanted to leave. My brother asked them to hold on one second while he checked times on his phone. O his confusion, they then dropped his impact driver into a big locked box.

He asked why they did that, as he did not want to abandon his property. They basically told him, “Oops,” and that it was too late now as they couldn’t get it back out of the box because they didn’t have a key. He asked to speak to their supervisor who told him that they’re just a third party security company and that only TSA has access to the box and that they empty it once a week. He asked how he can get into contact with TSA in regard to this issues and they told him they don’t know and he probably won’t be able to.

At this point he is confused, frustrated and has already missed his flight. He leaves the airport to go back to my parent’s house as he won’t be able to catch another flight until tomorrow. When he gets to their house, he reaches out to TSA via a number he finds online and they tell him that because he has now left the airport, his property is considered abandoned and they can’t help him.

Is there anything he can do to potentially recover his impact drill or some compensation for it? Or is he SOL? Can he do anything besides file a complaint with TSA at this point?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!