All these people complaining about airport security...

Let me tell you a story - When I came to canada, I forgot to empty out my purse before boarding the plane. I don't know why, but this totally skipped my mind. I cleaned everything else, but my purse never got the full sweep. It went through the machines and I had forgotten I had a lighter in it. The lighter had no fuel in it, it was just a shell. I kept it because my dad gave it to me as a gift because it was shaped like a penguin and had a baby penguin engraved in it (so it looked like a penguin baby and mother). It's my favourite animal so he bought me this empty lighter. And they took it, and threw it in the trash.

Whatever, I said. My own fault, I guess.

I get home, to my new home, and unpack. My boyfriend knocks my purse to the floor, what falls out?
A BOXCUTTER.
I worked in produce at a grocery store and used boxcutters to cut the plastic to unload trucks and open boxes of fruit and veggies. I kept it in my purse because we always had our boxcutters stolen by the other departments.

I had to throw away an empty lighter shaped like an adorable little penguin mother sheltering her penguin baby, but my boxcutter made it through, somehow. We were stunned and I've never understood this.

Once again, TSA saving us from terrorists

They took a bottle of lotion away from me once.

In the SAME makeup case with the lotion.. there were 2 pairs of scissors lol

I flew to and from Orlando with a pocket knife in my purse. I always have one on me, so I never thought about it. Made it through both times without an issue

ETA: although a month or so later, I took the BUS to Peterborough, and for some weird reason they had security there, and they stopped me wih the knife LOL (luckily I just passed it to my Parents)

A friend of mine has made it through without realizing her taser was in her purse... TWICE. Its a hot pink taser. Seriously???

They tried to confiscate sheet silver from my mother (that's solid sterling silver sheet) because it had "sharp edges."

Because 64 year old women hold up airplanes with precious metals all the time.

Then there's this:

http://dailybail.com/home/adam-savage-from-mythbusters-tv-tsa-x-rayed-my-junk-but-they.html

I got surrounded by 3 National Guardsmen and their semiautomatic weapons all because of blunt tweezers (that I has totally forgotten). You know, as a 5 ft. tall, 110 lb., blonde girl, blunt-tipped tweezers were definitely my weapon of choice.

/bangs head into table

Ok, that one wins.

One of my brother's friends got multiple pocket knives through multiple times.

My dad was stopped once because he he had a swiss army knife keychain on his keyring. He had to run and put in his bags that were about to be checked.

Another time my parents almost missed their flight because my mom had a bullet in her wallet. She had it in there because she had been looking for a certain type of ammo for one of my dad's guns that he had acquired from my late uncle, and forgotten to take it out. We joked that she was going to use it by throwing it at somebody real hard and hoping it worked.

I have always been amused/disgusted by this story:

http://boingboing.net/2006/10/10/tsa-confiscates-geol.html

I have a seven plus pound laptop that I used in law school . . . I have no doubt I could beat someone to death with it if I really tried . . . yet oddly, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't even blink at it if I took it on a plane.

Last time I flew I crawled out of my hotel bed in the middle of the night and scurried off to the airport. Heading through security they pull me aside after the scanners for an extra check...solely to check my hair. Because it was in a french braid. Because apparently people hide guns in their hair and the scanners and metal detectors cannot sense them through the impenetrable shield of human cells.

It was just odd.

It's not the bumped up security that gets me. It's the absolute lack of regularity, it's like each airport has it's own set of rules that is then interpreted by the guards who may or may not change their minds every 5 minutes. That and the insane lack of sense.

When this was all brand new I flew home with my betta fish in a Gatorade bottle. Yes it was a liquid, I didn't really know about the new rules at that time, but there is a living animal swimming about. What in the hell kind of explosive/poison is kind to fish. They wanted me to put my fish, my living fish in the trash can...I honestly thought it had to be a practical joke.

They took my uncle's nail clippers but let him keep the nail scissors.

What. the. eff.

I have always heard that scissors, according to official rules, should be fine to carry on. And I know without a doubt that knitting needles, be they metal or wood, are absolutely allowed. Anyone who says otherwise isn't following the rules.

We fly a few times a year and have been lucky to never have a hassle with security. They've always been speedy and polite. The last time, we were traveling with Clive, so had to go through the area where they test bottles and such. They were speedy, entertained Clive, and did their best to get us on our way quickly.

You should hear what the TSA officers find on occasion. :rofl1: An astonishing amount of people take sex toys on board for example.


Anyway, I always felt that our TSAs were stricter here in Germany - or rather they payed more attention to whats inside your bag. I should try getting nail scissors or something past them this summer. In the US they were always kind of easy going. When I flew from Boston to Germany a while ago there was NO ONE even at the security check point. I could have just walked right through. And when someone did come, he didn't even look at the monitor while my bag went through.

That's part of the problem, Gypsy. We have lots and lots of rules, many of which are ill-defined and left up to the individual TSA person to interpret (and many of which are stupid), but the staff is poorly trained, poorly paid and all too often incompetent and on a power trip because for the first time in their lives they can tell people what do to.

So they try to confiscate fish, rocks, sheet silver, empty lighters . . . and miss boxcutters (!), razor blades, knives, guns . . . its totally arbitrary and completely ineffective.

When I still smoked, I knew perfectly well that I could get lighters through security. Not once did they confiscate one . . . not because they were nice, but because they didn't see them . . . because they weren't paying attention.

When they chose to pay attention . . . who knows what stupid thing they will fixate on.

So . .. to sum up . . . leaving aside issues of whether half these rules are necessary or make us safer . . . they arbitrarily enforce rules that no one understands in ways that honestly make no sense, and miss very obvious, well know threats while they are at it.

And oh, for the sheet silver carrying people of the world, they steal things from your checked luggage, making it really hard to transport your sheet silver (and lord help you if you work in it, gold) because you can't check it, and you can't--evidently--carry it on. What are you supposed to do, FedEx?

True :rofl1: One of my friends works at the sex shop in Hollywood and thats the number 1 question she always get asked, can I carry my toy in my carry on baggage or do I put in my suitcase? Obviously, its a very important question and peeps are very serious about it

So ridiculous how many things get through, compared to what's taken away.

I was worried they wouldn't let me take the cookies on that my mom gave me, too. HA