It’s Lighten up Monday! Someday I might learn to keep my mouth shut, until then I will probably be in trouble all my life.
I do hope that I will always be willing to speak of for justice and common sense and those who can’t speak for themselves.
PLEASE comment on your TSA experiences. I want to add them to my collection. I will send a free copy of my Fully Alive DVD to the person who has the best TSA story.
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This clip is taken from the DVD Fully Alive. For more info or to purchase click here.
Comments
We were flying with my then 5 yr old daughter. In her carry-on backpack were things like a doll, children’s books and hand sanitizer. The (mean) TSA agent holds up the flowery, kiddie book bag and says “WHO’S IS THIS?!?!” (Take a guess – mine, my husband’s or the little kid with us).
And so I walk my daughter over to him. He pulls out the (too large for current regulations) hand santizer and says, “THIS IS NOT ALLOWED!” and I am not kidding, he threw it with a little too much “umph” into the trash can making what I am sure, to him, was a resounding thud.
To my 5 yr old, it simply made her lip quiver as she tried not to cry as the mean man threw away her hand sanitizer.
I, too, am for all for protecting the flight. But not from a blond haired, blue eyed 5 yr old girl who likes clean hands.
Flying home from Florida in 2007. To set this up, my husband was born in India, however he is not Indian, he is German From Russia, pure North Dakotan. TSA doesn’t like that, he doesn’t match what his pssport says he should look like. This day, he was in the middle of a bout with Norovirus. No explanation needed. Since he was unwell and rather dehydrated, he was carrying a McDonalds cup thru security. Of course, he knew he couldnt take water thru, just incase he had explosive water, so he emptied his cup. The guy tells him to throw away his cup, he says no, shows them it’s empty and tells, them he is sick and needs to drink. They tell him again to throw it away, he opens it shakes it upside down and says see, it’s empty. This goes on for a few minutes, then he just tells, them he is going thru anyway and walks away. I’m kind of looking over my sholder waiting for guns to be drawn, but they didn’t do anything. Next up, the xrays. Now to set this up, my husband is a proffessional photographer, he carries all his cameras on instead of checking them. TSA doesn’t like this. In his bag he had a mini table top tripod which, when folded up is loosley in the shape of a gun. I understand why they wanted to search his bag and was glad they were vigilant. However, the man was sick and weak and all that, so when they said they wanted to search the bag, I told my dearest one to go sit down and I would wait with the bag. The chair I pointed to was only about 10 feet away. TSA guy looks up and yells quite loudly, The owner of THIS bag needs to stay right here. Understandable, but by this time, I was not my cheerful self. So I kind of yelled back, I AM the owner of this bag. They searched the bag, found the gun shaped tripod and let us go on our way. 17 hours in the airports and on airplanes with two kids and a sweetheart who was not very well, made for a very long day.
Overall, I am glad they were vigialnt, but the water cup thing was just bullying. On the way to Florida, they didnt notice my daughter had a 7 inch sissors in her backpack, why and 11 year old thought she needed that on a cruise I will never know, but she did carry it on.
In 2004 my mother helped me move my son to Albuquerque N.M. along with my wife and I. when we were finished she drove on down to Alamogordo to visit my cousin. A week later I flew down to drive her the 14 hours home. Since my ticket was for one way and I only had Carry on Luggage I knew I would be searched, I expected this. At curbside check in the agent asked the purpose of my one way flight. I said I left something in New Mexico and needed to go get it. He said What did you leave, so I said My Mother. To which he yelled “You left your MAMA in New Mexico, What is wrong with you?” That would be bad enough but then I had to go through security where they would search my carry on. While standing there with my arms stretched out with the TSA agent passing that paddle thingy over my body I was asked did you pack your own bag? I said no my wife did, the agent quickly said “it would suck if she was really mad at you.” That’s when I got scared, because she was unhappy with me for booking an EARLY morning flight.
While our son was home on leave from the Marines the new regulations had gone into effect. At our little airport in Amarillo the line to have your luggage inspected was right beside the ticket counter so we were talking to our son as his luggage was searched. They opened his big huge duffel bag and swabbed it with a big swab and put it in some machine to check for explosives. It came back positive. They asked him why it had explosives on it. My husband stepped up and told them we lived across the road from a field that had just been fertilized and probably some of it had drifted over on the wind, into the windows and settled on his luggage. Believe it or not they actually believed this and let him on through. They never questioned the huge knife in the bottom of his bag that his brother had got him for Christmas.
I also want to mention our son was in the air on a flight back to San Diego for combat training when the twin towers were hit. We had a few anxious hours as we waited to hear if he was OK.
International flight to Haiti, just after the holidays… Considering where our mission group was going, I packed very little and I decided to wear a sweater that belonged to my deceased mother – a cloak of protection from an angel, so to speak.
Our entire group got a full body scan and guess who lit up like a Christmas tree?? Turns out the fine, shiny threads in my sweater were metallic. Yep, a full pat-down ensued. In front of my entire church going, mission friends! Good thing I packed at least one other shirt to wear on the flight home. 😉
Some cloak of protection, alright… Ha!
My mother was on the first flight out of Tampa after 9/11 occurred. I took her to the airport early in the morning before going into work. I was nursing on a pediatric floor at the hospital, so my scrubs were children themed usually. I was wearing a scrub top that had the “thank you God…” children’s cartoons all over them. We checked her in at the ticket counter where I requested an air side pass to take her to the gate due to her being handicap. We arrived at the TSA security area to a very meticulous screening area, since it was the first 9/11 flight. I pushed my mom in her wheelchair through all of the velvet rope lines to the scanner. Being that she is in a wheelchair, she can’t go through the metal detector because the chair will set off the alarms. So they tell me to take her off to the side so they can pat her down and check her over.
As I am pushing her to the special marked off area, a TSA agent comes over and approaches me very abruptly. He proceeded to ask for my boarding pass and ID, while I am pushing her. I handed him my air side pass and he looked confused. I tried to explain that I received it from the ticket counter agent so I could escort my mother to the gate and then leave….he wasn’t listening and became very suspicious.He looked sternly down at me and demanded, “You must come with me immediately and make no sudden movements because I am watching you” at which I became very confused. You see, I am’5’4, and about 108 lbs at the time, and had no idea what was causing his alarm. He took me off to the side and stated he would have a female agent come pat me down. When asked what the problem was he became very rude stating, “our country just went through a major ordeal, I don’t feel I should have to explain my motives to you!” When the female agent came over, he ask her to check me for weapons. Once I was obviously cleared, I again inquired why was I singled out…especially since I wasn’t even flying? He stated in a harsh tone, “You have red hair, and are wearing religious clothing (my “thank you God….” scrubs) so for fit the profile for the ‘Extreme Irish Religious Radicals!’ I was stunned to see the female agent bust out laughing to the point of tears and grab him by the arm. Once collecting herself she looked at him and said, “She is a nurse with red hair…that doesn’t meet any profile
!!! You are free to go ma’am!!!” It was certainly un interesting day.
Great story! LOL
I was traveling from Mississippi home to New York on a very crowded flight. People were jammed in together and it was an early afternoon flight. I didn’t eat, figuring I would grab something at the airport but I didn’t have time.
Unfortunately, we were stuck on the tarmac for quite some time when the man next to me opens up a plastic bag and takes out a huge po’boy sub. The flight crew wouldn’t let people leave their seats so there I am, sitting next to this man eating a monster of a sandwich, that every so often would shoot an olive or hot pepper out the side and land on me. After we were airborne, the flight attendant asked if we wanted a snack and as I said yes, the flight attendant looked down and said, “It looks like you already ate,” and there was a slice of tomato stuck on the side of my blazer like an ornamental pin. The man apologized, but by the time I got to New York, I was ready to eat the side of the seat and I smelled like a sub shop. I got into my brother’s car and after a few minutes he said, “Hey, you want to go to Subway? I have the biggest craving for a sandwich.” This taught me to always travel with something to snack on and wet naps!
Just last year I was visiting my parents in the mid-west. While there I purchased a jar of peanut butter at a local grocery store to take back home. What a rememberable souvenir, peanut butter. So why did I buy an ordinary jar of peanut butter to fly 1/2 way across the country instead of just purchasing it at home? I like peanut butter and it was on sale, deal with it! So I looked up the definition of liquid to make sure TSA isn’t going to confiscate my peanut butter going through security, “having a consistency like that of water or oil, i.e., flowing freely but of constant volume.” That didn’t sound like peanut butter to me, so I thought I was safe. But I overlooked one small flaw, my flight was over the lunch hour. The TSA agent scanning my bag must have missed lunch, or maybe the person before me tried to carry jelly through the line, because they confiscated that unopened jar of peanut butter! Congratulations TSA, I hope you are no longer hungry and that the person behind me was carrying bread!
Thankfully I had a nice TSA agent the time I asked why they were using what looked like wet wipes on my carry-on luggage after they discovered a roll of quarters in my purse which I had for all those stupid tolls in Florida. David was shushing me and saying don’t ask them that —- they were checking for explosives turns out. I say he was nice because he just ignored my question and let David shush me. LOL
I haven’t been able to fly to visit my aging parents, as I’m too traumatized by rape to risk a pat-down. I’m too terrified of the TSA. It only takes one arrogant person’s hands or attitude to re-traumatize those of us who have been assaulted.
I have never been violent in response; instead my mind, body, spirit shuts down into immobility.
In 1996, well before 9/11, I flew home to Michigan from Colorado to visit my family. It was right before Thanksgiving and I was busy making crafts for Christmas. In my carry on bag, I placed a tupperware container in the bottom with my craft supplies in it. In the bottom of the container I placed my pinking shears, with several items over it, including another divided compartment of supplies, and then had a sealed top to close it. Above that I had all my toiletries, medicines, nightgown, underwear, etc. in case of a layover. It was not a direct flight, so I went through security several times. Every time, the scanner would pick up on my pinking shears and they would pull everything out. How I would hurt anyone by digging through all that on a crowded plane, and attacking with pinking shears, which have blunt tips, I have no idea!
Items that made TSA nervous to-date in my travels since 9/11:
A jar of Nutella
2 rolls of quarters
1 small deodorant that was too “large”.
My pacemaker.
My laptop.
Absolutely zero, I repeat ZERO weapons.