You'd pay to send it home because you CAN'T take metal forks and knives with you on the plane -- but them claiming they were weapons to prevent her from reclaiming them is BS. Problem here is she has no documentation anymore and I'm sure the fsckers will claim they threw it out. If this happened recently, she MAY be able to get a supervisor to check security tapes but she needs to call immediately. I'd contact both the local head of TSA in Newark AND the IG (and make sure Newark knows you're complaining to the IG). Better yet, since her family is presumably local to Newark, have her father go pitch a fit to them in person -- much harder for them to ignore irate taxpayer loudly proclaiming "theft" in person than Jane Q. Public calling over a phone, especially if it just so happens the local news is present and filming while he's making his complaints. ;-)