News Story

Did they arrest this chap at the airport? :eek: :eek:

He should have kept his mouth shut. Why on earth would he want to call a radio station to let people know he had a knife on him while on a plane? He may not have had any criminal intent, but he sure was stupid!
 
This is disturbing on many levels.

Setting aside for the moment that you really should not admit, publicly, to having done something you know you weren't supposed to do (even by accident), consider the following:

1. In what sort of starkly terrifying, Big Brother totalitarian state do we live when calling a radio show to admit to a malum prohibitum offense in which no individuals were harmed, and of which no person would complain (or be aware) had you not mentioned it yourself, results in your arrest on felony charges?

2. What is more stupid: deliberately disobeying the law and admitting in a public forum that you did so -- or simply forgetting that you have a knife "in your belt" before you board a plane? At the Syracuse Airport, a woman with a pocket pistol in her purse was arrested for it -- whereupon she claimed she forgot she was carrying a firearm.

I'm left uncertain of whom to proclaim the bigger doofus, to be honest. Is it the State? Is it the knife guy with the big mouth? Is it terrorists? I just don't know.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A man who called a talk radio show and said he boarded an airplane with a knife concealed in his belt was arrested after his plane landed in Columbus.

Robert Hedrick, 37, of nearby Delaware, Ohio, was charged Wednesday with a third-degree felony of carrying a weapon aboard an aircraft, according to court documents.

Hedrick called a Columbus talk show and said he inadvertently boarded a US Airways flight in Greensboro, North Carolina, with a 3-inch knife hidden in his belt, said Angie Neal, a spokeswoman at Port Columbus International Airport. A listener notified authorities, she said.

Hedrick's flight had a layover in Pittsburgh, but he did not have to pass through security there, Neal said.

Hedrick called the show -- on Columbus radio station WTVN -- from the Pittsburgh airport and again from the plane after it touched down in Columbus, program director Steve Konrad said Thursday. He said there was nothing sinister about the call.

"We had no idea there was anything other than surprise and dismay on his part," Konrad said. "He wasn't bragging like all those bozos are saying."

Police at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro declined to comment.

Hedrik was held at the Franklin County jail and was scheduled to appear in court Thursday.

A woman who answered the phone at Hedrick's home Wednesday night identified herself as his wife and said she knew nothing of his arrest.

"Excuse me? Are you for real?" she told the Columbus Dispatch. "My husband called a radio station? That makes no sense."

She declined to say much more, but confirmed that he was on a flight Wednesday.

John Bronson, a spokesman for Arlington, Virginia-based US Airways, said the airline was aware of the arrest but any details would have to be obtained from police.

"We take such incidents very seriously and we are working with the local and federal authorities in their investigations to determine the motivation of this individual," Bronson said.
 
Razor:

I think there is stupidity at all levels.

Unless you are trying to make a case for civil disobedience, accidentally forgetting a weapon and getting away with it should be a good reason to keep your fool mouth shut.

Talk about it after, but give no details that could lead to prosecution. Use language like "I know a guy who...", maybe you're less believable but at least you won't be prosecuted.

The woman who forgot her pistol was stupid too. Personally I don't think as stupid as the radio call in guy, but still there's some. She knew she was going on a plane, she knew the security was tight, and still she didn't check her purse before she got to the airport.

The "regulations" however are the ultimate stupidity. The FAA has come up with a do nothing, fix nothing policy that provides somewhat of a warm fuzzy feeling but in reality provides no extra security whatsoever. If people are still getting on board with knives and guns by *accident*, just think what an organized group can do *on purpose*.

Pierre
 
Just an addition. Any fool who forgets they have a knife or a gun on them probably does not have the sense to really be carrying them especially a gun. If you do not know you have it and where it is, it will not be of much use as far as protection.
 
Good Gawd man, when is the madness going to end??
Granted the guy did something pretty damn stupid calling the radio show for whatever reason, But it seems like the common man keeps getting made an example of, while the real badguys are sitting on thier asses laughing about it all. Maybe it's a misguided attempt to reassure the public that they are cozy, warm, and secure?

Personally, I'd feel better seeing them lay off us common folks and spend more time investigating those with truly malicious intent.

And I can't resist adding my own airport story (another one besides the tired old Leatherman smuggling incident)

about 70% of my family, and friends of my family are in aviation flight or maintenance. My brother is an A&P mechanic at the airport here, and my father just retired in July of this year.

Anyways, alot of them are pretty annoyed right now with the regulations they are dealing with.

Now the MECHANICS are no longer allowed to have a pocket knife of any sort. If they want to carry a simple multi-tool they have to break or grind the blades off. If they go out to repair a plane, they have to take a wild guess at what tools they will need, bag them all up and have them inspected and TRANSPORTED to the plane by the cops. While they are working on the planes they either have all passengers leave the plane, or they have to be watched by the airport cops during the entire repair.

I'm not saying the cops are stupid or anything here, but they are COPS, not mechanics! The same mechanics that declare the plane safe for flight can't be trusted with a pocket knife?? Somehow I just don't think the cops undergo any training regarding whether or not a plane is mechanically sound.

It just seems like a prime example of the forementioned misdirected manpower. Incidentally, they say the cops aren't exactly thrilled with the arrangement either.

I've been at the forums for about two years now (spent ALOT of time lurking) And I've seen alot of the posts about the rights of knife carriers, and how we're losing those rights, soon we won't be able to carry one, etc. and quickly dismissed the posts. I pretty much thought to myself "wow...a nice buncha guys, but just a touch paranoid" I never thought politics could become so twisted as to deny the right to carry a common tool. Guess I know better now. Thinkin' it's time for me to write some more letters and join AKTI before things get any worse.

Sorry if I rambled!:o
 
Very good point, Bastid. It's one thing to miss a small blade in a large bag with multiple pockets, but a gun is really stretching it, and admitting (after going through security) that one has a "weapon" and CALLING A RADIO STATION ABOUT IT is pretty dumb.

With all the stories about accidentily carried-on knives and such, I would be extremely worried about getting on a plane right now. I can be quite absent minded, especially about such things as I personally consider INNOCENT, EVERYDAY TOOLS OF LIFE. If I were going to fly (yeah, right...) I would be checking, double checking, and having someone else check everything I'm carrying on. And probably looking quite worried that I missed something while going through security--alerting the guards to said nervousness and earning me a nice, more thorough, check.

Yet I know "the enemy" is out to try to destroy my life. No, not terrorists. I'm talking about the mindless FAA and other zero-tolerance quacks who just want to "look like they are doing something" to be "tuff on krime." I really can't state that strongly enough.

This guy in the news was probably pretty stupid, but I can still feel sorry for him. He should have kept his mouth shut, though, if only so the FAA can't spread more fear and loathing.

I better stop now... :mad:

Karl
 
That is the height of absurdity - the mechanic who is trusted to screw the wings on tight and attach the fuel lines to the engine cannot be trusted with a swiss army knife.
 
there is so much stupidity going on in this article it hurts me and makes me cry to even try to post. but I fought through the pain and posted anyway. here's to hoping the dumba** gets what's comin to him. just another way a guy turned a knife into a negative thing. He sunk to new levels proving that you don't even have to pull out your knife to make it evil. he verbally brandished his weapon to a whole city while he was on a plane God fobid this moron ever reproduces. May the STD's of a hundred inmates infest his buttocks.
 
Originally posted by Runs With Scissors
Good Gawd man, when is the madness going to end??
Granted the guy did something pretty damn stupid calling the radio show for whatever reason, But it seems like the common man keeps getting made an example of, while the real badguys are sitting on thier asses laughing about it all. Maybe it's a misguided attempt to reassure the public that they are cozy, warm, and secure?

Personally, I'd feel better seeing them lay off us common folks and spend more time investigating those with truly malicious intent.

And I can't resist adding my own airport story (another one besides the tired old Leatherman smuggling incident)

about 70% of my family, and friends of my family are in aviation flight or maintenance. My brother is an A&P mechanic at the airport here, and my father just retired in July of this year.

Anyways, alot of them are pretty annoyed right now with the regulations they are dealing with.

Now the MECHANICS are no longer allowed to have a pocket knife of any sort. If they want to carry a simple multi-tool they have to break or grind the blades off. If they go out to repair a plane, they have to take a wild guess at what tools they will need, bag them all up and have them inspected and TRANSPORTED to the plane by the cops. While they are working on the planes they either have all passengers leave the plane, or they have to be watched by the airport cops during the entire repair.

I'm not saying the cops are stupid or anything here, but they are COPS, not mechanics! The same mechanics that declare the plane safe for flight can't be trusted with a pocket knife?? Somehow I just don't think the cops undergo any training regarding whether or not a plane is mechanically sound.

It just seems like a prime example of the forementioned misdirected manpower. Incidentally, they say the cops aren't exactly thrilled with the arrangement either.

I've been at the forums for about two years now (spent ALOT of time lurking) And I've seen alot of the posts about the rights of knife carriers, and how we're losing those rights, soon we won't be able to carry one, etc. and quickly dismissed the posts. I pretty much thought to myself "wow...a nice buncha guys, but just a touch paranoid" I never thought politics could become so twisted as to deny the right to carry a common tool. Guess I know better now. Thinkin' it's time for me to write some more letters and join AKTI before things get any worse.

Sorry if I rambled!:o

Are we heading towards a totalitarian world, where a mechanic has to be supervised by police? This kind of rubbish infuriates me! :mad:

What next? Airline passengers will not be allowed to board if the fingenails are too long? Airport personnel will have the pins removed from their name badges so they can be attached with velcro? Pens and pencils will be banned, so you can only write with crayons? :rolleyes:
 
my wife inadvertantly carried crayons in her diaper bag on an airplane and my son found them but he didn't tell anyone until after we were home and even then he did it discretely by just showing us his blue teeth from when he chewed on them.
 
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