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Child's Toy Sent To 'Infinity And Beyond' After Trip To Disney

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – It's not the king of "toy story" a Pennsylvania family had hoped for.

They say TSA officials sent their five-year-old son's Buzz Lightyear toy to 'infinity and beyond.'

The Zilka family was returning home from a trip to Disney World, where the boy's uncle bought him a Buzz Lightyear "flip grip."

However, security officials at Fort Lauderdale airport said it looked too much like a gun.

"Once he realized what was happening and they weren't giving his toy back, he immediately starts bawling, just tears streaming down his face. It was all I could to not to break down with him in that moment," the boy's father said.

The agents said the toy could be checked, but the family only packed carry-on luggage.

The TSA released the following statement regarding the incident:

"TSA officers are charged with protecting passengers and making final judgments on which items are permitted on aircraft. In our review of this situation, the officer's decision complied with approved procedures. We recently reinforced that training on the procedures with every front line TSA officer. TSA officers have the discretion to deny passage of an item if they cannot definitively rule out that the item could be used as a weapon, or perceived to be a weapon, including replica weapons.

When passengers are informed that an item is prohibited from being carried into the cabin of an airplane, they are given options by TSA. One of those options is that passengers may place the item in a checked bag. Other options given to passengers who arrive at checkpoints with a prohibited item include handing off the item to a non-traveling companion, returning it to their car, and mailing it to their destination if that airport has a mailing center.

Those options are available to passengers and, in this case, were explained to the passenger by TSA. The passenger chose instead to voluntarily surrender the item to TSA, where it was placed in a locked bin along with other prohibited items and will ultimately be turned over to the state."

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