I am about to board a flight....armed as a federal LEO. I have already made all notifications and am anticipating pre-boarding when I heard my named called. I was summoned by TSA for secondary searching. I go to their table and they ask for my rucksack. As I put it on the table, I ask them what they are looking for. Surprised that I would talk directly to them, she says "prohibited items".
I tell her that she will find plenty of those in there and place my LEO paperwork on the table in front of her. I have zero doubt that she had never seen that paperwork, or knew what it was. She conducts her search and finds a Busse AD, and extra magazines. When I point out to her that I am an armed passenger on the flight, she says well you cannot bring aboard the knife. It is a "prohibited item". I ask her if Glock pistols are prohibited and she curiously looks at me and says "yes, but you can carry that because of your occupation". I give her my most aggressive whisper, saying I am carrying a Glock pistol and my knife stays with me. After minutes of private meetings with her associates, I was alowed to proceed.
That is a good story displaying a total lack of common sense!.
I made a trip to Bulgaria ( I lived there for two years). I had a shaving bag with all my bathroom stuff in it on my carry on. (this was Pre 9-11). I flew from Salt Lake City, New York, Vienna, Bulgaria, then two years later, back from Bulgaria, to Frankfurt, to Vienna. In Vienna on the return trip, after coming back to the air port in the morning, I had to go back through security with my carry on bag. In that shaving kit, was something that the security lady running the x-ray machine did not like. In the shaving kit on the side pocket were two .30-30 bullets. They had been there for two years, and multiple flights, with security checks. When I emptied the bag out before the trip I must have missed them (it used to be my range bag).
Of course, by the time she found them, everyone was gathered around to see what the prohibited item would be. She held them up for everyone to see that I was carrying bullets. Then to the delight of the crowd she started banging them together. This dumb lady actually started smacking the tip of one bullet against the primer of the other. I quickly stated "I would not do that, those are real and might go off". Which elicited may gasps and shock from the crowd of people watching.
This was the day before Thanksgiving, and my friend who was traveling with me told me that he would call my family and explain what had happened if they decided to arrest me. He said this as the guys with machine guns were surrounding me and asking me to come with them.
The guys with machine guns were quick to escort me into a security room, where I was held for about 15 minutes until the head of security came in, looked at the bullets, turned to all the security officers and said "whats the big deal, you called me all the way down for that?" He took the bullets, put them in a bubble wrap envelope and put a baggage claim sticker on them and gave me the stub. He told me that he would just give them to the pilots, and in New York they would give them back to me. He apologized for the reaction of his employees.
In New York, sure enough, they just handed me the manila envelope with the bullets in it. I had to go back through security there for another flight. I asked a security officer there if there was a place for me to dispose of them, or if they just wanted me to check them. She told me to just throw them in the nearest trash can. I told her that might not be a great idea, and explained that if the trash can caught fire it might have a bad result.
So long story short, when my family came to pick me up at the air port, I had all my bags, but was waiting for something else. Finally, a small bin came around, with my bullets.
It was a good ending, but in Vienna, I was sure I was going to get arrested when the dudes with the machine guns took me into the security room.
If that same thing happened post 9-11 I am sure I would have had a harder time of it.
somebody let a round or two go out with the confidential trash. The company that came in to conduct the burn stated that when the rounds went off, they damaged the inside of their incinerator. Well, fed. govt. being what it is decided to "pay up" without really questioning it, at least as far as I could see. A co-worker told me that he did not believe it the rounds going off damaged anything. He said that bullets do not go flying when they explode in a fire. Sure, the casing "explodes" (sort of), and I would not want to be holding onto it when it happens, but he said there basically is not enough direct confinement that would allow the pressures to build and cause the bullet to become a deadly projectile. I don't know which is right. Maybe Myth Busters could tackle that one. I'd be interested to know for sure.
