Strict TSA (Transportation Security Administration) policies are essential to avoid illegal activities. But those checkings usually annoy people.
A user asked the forum, “What’s the stupidest reason the TSA gave you a hard time?” Here are the top responses.
HUMIRA
“My humira. I have a bag with an ice pack since I’m on Humira to treat an autoimmune disease.
They take the caps off and prime the injection. Each pen costs 500$ each. They uncapped all 8 of them.
I made a fuss because I couldn’t travel without this. My doctor raised a stink when I called him for an emergency script. They were even in a unique bag made with TSA in mind with all the drug information.”
MISUNDERSTOOD SHIRT FOR A JACKET
“They said my shirt was a jacket. I kept telling them it was a blouse, and all I had was the underwear underneath, and I wasn’t going to take it off. After this exchange four times, she finally let me through.”
ORGANIC MATERIAL
“Got flagged for organic material. It was an urn. TSA securities asked me to open it. I refused. The only time I have ever made a fuss in my life, the supervisor finally let me go.”
SMALL PAIR OF SCISSORS
“A small pair of scissors/hair trimmers, still in factory packaging, clearly marked TSA approved.”
WHEELCHAIR CUSHION
“Wheelchair cushion (on which I was sitting because I am paraplegic).
The TSA agent said, ‘That could be anything! We need to open it up!’
I replied, ‘Sure. Put that in writing and also give me a letter guaranteeing that a replacement cushion (custom, costs $6k) will be waiting at the gate.’
The TSA agent said, ‘Oh, yes, well, go on then.’
CPAP
“My CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) is often chosen for extended testing. It was Chicago where two separate TSA agents were alternately yelling at me, one that I had to stay there while they tested my CPAP, and one that I couldn’t stay there and had to leave the security area.
TWO LAPTOPS
“I had two laptops. It took almost 3 hours before they could find anyone to tell them, ‘I need a Windows machine and a Mac because of my work,’ is a valid reason. By then, I had missed my flight.”
SAMPLING SOIL
“Not a stupid reason. But right after 9/11, I went through security at midway after sampling soil at a fertilizer facility. I had a bag with all my sampling stuff. I triggered all the explosives and got taken to a weird room and interrogated a bit. Missed my flight.”
INHALER
“My wife had her inhaler in her medical bag. It was ‘suspicious.'”
JUICE BOXES
“I was traveling alone as a 10-year-old with my 6-year-old sister in tow. My grandmother had packed us some juice boxes for the flight. They were in my sister’s bag, so a TSA agent did what any sane and rational adult would do. He berated a little girl to the point of tears and then refused to let her go until an adult arrived. We nearly missed our plane.”
CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS
“Pre TSA, maybe 1994 or so (Reagan years and Star Wars programs). I was working on classified programs in AF and had to fly to Washington, District of Columbia, with a classified document and transparency slides for a status briefing.
It was double-wrapped per regulation. Inside the manila envelope with security markings and stickers. The outside envelope was clean.
X-ray security flagged it. I open the outside envelope and reveal markings, stickers, and my documentation. The security guard insisted I open the second envelope, and I refused. I went through 2 levels of management and made phone calls (at pay phone) to the Colonel. I was finally allowed to board and keep America’s secrets safe.
It makes me smile because it was documents related to GPS (Global Positioning System). Not so secret now.”
UMBRELLA
“I had an umbrella in my bag.”
STUFFED ANIMAL
“Mine’s not that stupid, but I was flying out of El Paso, Texas, and was pulled off to the side to search my bag. I had a stuffed animal in there, and they couldn’t tell what it was, then when they took it out, they scanned it separately. There were no drugs in the bunny.”
POTATOES
“They got weird about a potato I had in my bag once. I had bought a few groceries at the Airbnb on my trip and had a potato left over. I didn’t want to waste it, so I decided to take it home and eat it there.
The TSA agents were very concerned and escalated the matter to their supervisor, who came over, saw the potato, and laughed. He returned it to me and said, ‘We’ll let you get away with it this time.'”
WALKING BOOT
“In Salt Lake City airport, my partner had broken her ankle and was wearing a walking boot, and I was pushing her in a wheelchair. They made her get up and walk through the live body scanner, and of course, the boot set off the scanner.
Then they used a wand on the boot, and finally, they had her take the boot off and send it through the x-ray. They had to get a supervisor over for the whole process, which took forever.
We almost missed our flight. I had to run pushing her through multiple terminals and barely made it as they were closing the gate.”
TITANIUM PLATE IN LEG
“I have a titanium plate holding my arm together after an accident. It shows up on metal detectors. I was pulled to the side. I had an X-ray.
The officer insisted on squeezing my arm very hard so he could feel the plate, which involved tearing healing muscle tissue over my gnarly surgical scar. I was in more pain than usual for a couple of weeks thanks to that sadistic idiot.”
COLORED PENCIL
“I had a full set of 120 Prismacolor colored pencils, all too sharp. Little did they know that those leads were too soft to do any damage and would crumble to dust just by looking at them too roughly.”
BLOOD THINNING INJECTIONS
“Blood thinning injections with an original prescription and diagnostic letter. They still wouldn’t let me bring them on board on a long haul leg of 26 hours of travel where DVTs (Deep Vein Thrombosis) are known to happen. Make it make sense!”
PACEMAKER
“I have a pacemaker and can’t go through a metal detector. I always get put in timeout till TSA securities fire up the body scanner or pat down.”
GUITAR
“I’m a professional musician. Years ago, I was touring and flew with my guitar 5-6 times a month.
One idiot said I had to ‘Remove the strings because they could be used to strangle someone.’ So I said, ‘I could stab someone in the neck with a pencil. Are those allowed?’ Had to call a supervisor and argue for 10 min.”
WANTED ME TO PUT A BABY ON THE FLOOR
“I was flying with my one-year-old, flying as a baby in arms, from Florida to Maryland. I got selected for additional search procedures. They wanted me to put him on the airport floor so I could go through a pat-down. I told them that was not going to happen.
So, they brought an open-sided chair to put my wobbly baby on and wanted me more than an arms-length away from him. I told them that was not going to happen either.
Seriously, people, how hard is it to have common sense? Your random pat-down is not more important to me than the health and safety of my baby.”
GUMMY WORMS
“I had a bag of gummy worms in my carry-on, and they thought it looked like bomb wires. They even wiped down the candy bag to check for chemicals.”
BOOK
“I had my bag checked because they said they couldn’t tell what was in my backpack. It was a book.”
PASSPORT PICTURE
“Told me that my passport picture wasn’t me. It was very obviously me. I showed those securities my other photo identifications, and they claimed those didn’t look like me either.
The supervisor came over and said he agreed with the agent. I was like, ‘Okay,’ and just stood there. I had flown across the world using this same identification, but I was finally getting caught in Philadelphia, of all places.
Then they just let me go through security anyway! So, if they were convinced I was using a fake passport, I guess they just let on a potential terrorist because they couldn’t prove it either way. TSA is a huge waste of funding.”
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This article was originally published on Mrs. Daaku Studio.