Security
A friend of mine was recently traveling, and was in the airport about to return home. As he was approaching the security check line he realized that he had his nail clippers with a small pen knife with him in his carry-on bag. Not wanting to exit the line to throw them away, he decided to leave them in his bag to see what happened.
When the security agent running the bag scanner was looking at his bag, something caught his eye. He called out bag check, and another agent came over to give the bag a closer inspection. My buddy was now questioning his previous decision and was getting a little nervous. The agent was rummaging through the bag when he noticed something. As he’s pulling his hand out the agent says in a stern voice, “Sir, you are not allowed to have more than an ounce of any fluid with you on this flight. You have the option of mailing your toothpaste to yourself, or throwing it away.” My buddy opted to throw it away.
He made it safely onto the flight with a quality set of nail clippers. The second agent thought he had done his job when he found a new tube of toothpaste. It kind of makes you think, eh?
SkinnyT
Wednesday, 9th January 2008 at 4:48 pm
Last summer I was called to take a last minute trip to Boston on business. After returning home, I noticed that on the shoulder strap to my laptop bag I still had a large 4″ safety pin attached. When opened this large safety pin essentially becomes a 4″ steel nail with a handle. Being much more concerned with taking my belt and shoes off (and keeping my pants up), both security and I had missed the potential real threat going right through the X-ray machine.
Lenwood
Wednesday, 9th January 2008 at 4:55 pm
I’d be curious to see how much contraband makes it onto flights. I was shocked when my buddy told me this story. I just assumed that security would catch these things.
Ammar
Wednesday, 6th February 2008 at 5:02 pm
Over the holidays, I was flying home. I got this special screening thing, lucky me! They wiped off my backpack with some small pieces of cloths and put it in a machine to check for some chemicals. A minute or two later, the machines alarm went off, and the officer called in for an “alarm situation.” 30 seconds later, I was surrounded by a couple of extra officers and a few grouchy faces. “What’s up officer?” I asked calmly. He said,”are you carrying explosives, sir?” I laughed and said, “NAH.” The officer explained that these small of pieces caught some chemical that is found in explosives!!! They spent 15 mins searching my backpack that only had a teddy bear, a book, and my paperwork.
After a few minutes, and bunch of grouchy bad-cop kinna faces, I went to my plane, and they did not find explosives