TSA Week in Review: Comb Dagger Discovered With Body Scanner, 28 Loaded Guns, and More

Non-metallic Comb Dagger Discovered With Body Scanner – A passenger at Portland (PDX) alarmed the body scanner and during the pat-down, a simple everyday ordinary black plastic comb was found in his pocket. No big deal, right? People forget to take things out of their pocket all the time… Wrong. After closer inspection, it was learned that the comb pulled apart to reveal a dagger. (See picture)

Items in the Strangest Places – It’s one thing to forget you had a prohibited item in your bag, but when you intentionally try to sneak it past us, you could be cited or even arrested by law enforcement. Here are a few examples from this week where passengers tried to sneak items past our Officers.

• Three-7” throwing knives were discovered concealed in the lining of a bag under the handle at Lihue-Honolulu (LIH).
• A pocket knife was found concealed inside a pill bottle at Huntsville (HSV).
• An 18” sword was discovered concealed in a walking cane at Las Vegas (LAS).
• Four belt buckle knives were discovered this week at Portland (PDX), San Jose (SJC), Seattle (SEA), and Las Vegas (LAS).

Inert Grenades Etc. – In addition to a spike in the number of guns found each day at checkpoints, we continue to find hand grenades and other weaponry on weekly basis.  Please keep in mind that if something looks like a bomb, grenade, mine, etc., it is prohibited - real or not. When these items are found at a checkpoint, they can cause significant delays to you and other passengers. I know they are cool novelty items, but again, please do not take them on planes!  Read here and here on why inert items cause problems.

• An inert grenade was discovered at Huntsville (HSV) in a passenger’s carry-on bag. The grenade belonged to a minor who had packed the grenade without his parent’s knowledge. It might be a good plan to check your children’s luggage before getting to the airport.
• An inert M60 grenade was turned over to an Officer prior to screening at Las Vegas (LAS).
• A hollowed out detonator was discovered at Denver (DEN).

 

Ammo! – If properly packed, ammunition can be placed in your checked luggage, but it’s always a no-go in your carry on. 258 rounds of .22 caliber ammunition were detected in a carry-on bag at Long Beach (LGB), and 50 rounds of .25 caliber ammunition were discovered in a carry-on bag at LaGuardia (LGA). From TSA.gov – “Travelers must securely pack any ammunition in fiber (such as cardboard), wood or metal boxes or other packaging specifically designed to carry small amounts of ammunition. Firearm magazines and ammunition clips must be securely boxed or included within a hard-sided case containing an unloaded firearm. Small arms ammunition, including ammunition not exceeding .75 caliber for a rifle or pistol and shotgun shells of any gauge, may be carried in the same hard-sided case as the firearm, as long as it follows the packing guidelines described above. TSA prohibits black powder or percussion caps used with black-powder.”

Stun Guns – Zzzzzzap! 13 stun guns were discovered in carry-on bags at checkpoints around the nation at: 2 at  Jacksonville (JAX), 2 at Sacramento (SMF), Akron (CAK), Atlanta (ATL), Baltimore (BWI), Denver (DEN), Lubbock (LBB) , San Diego (SAN), New York Kennedy (JFK), Nashville (BNA), and Fort Lauderdale (FLL).

Miscellaneous Prohibited Items - In addition to all of the other prohibited items we find weekly, our Officers also regularly find firearm components, realistic replica firearms, brass knuckles, ammunition, batons, and a lot of sharp pointy things. Just to mention a few…

Firearms - Here are the firearms our Officers found in carry-on baggage since I posted last Friday.

You can travel with your firearms in checked baggage, but they must first be declared to the airline. You can go here for more details on how to properly travel with your firearms. Firearm possession laws vary by state and locality. Travelers should familiarize themselves with state and local firearm laws for each point of travel prior to departure.

 

Bob Burns

TSA Blog Team

If you have a travel related issue or question that needs an immediate answer, you can contact us by clicking here.

TSA Year to Date Report: A Look at the Year So Far

It’s been a busy year so far with 375,432,402 passengers traveling through TSA checkpoints since January! That is approximately 1.8 million passengers screened per day!

It has also been a busy seven months beyond the checkpoint for TSA. Teams of experts have been working hard to expand the rollout of risk-based security initiatives that are aimed at enhancing security while improving the passenger experience. In that short amount of time we have changed the travel experience for all passengers 12 and younger, all passengers 75 and older, flight crews, military members and the millions of passengers who have opt into the TSA Pre✓™ expedited screening program.

TSA Pre✓™ has expanded to 5 airlines and 20 airports, and has processed more than 2 million passengers. By the end of year we plan to have TSA Pre✓™ available at 35 of the busiest U.S. airports.

Out of the 375,432,402 passengers who have traveled through our checkpoints so far this year, 30,204 have submitted a complaint. While that might sound like a lot on the surface, that equates to 0.008% of the total number of passengers. By the way, did you see the latest Gallup poll that American’s views of TSA are more positive than negative? Check it out!

We have also taken steps to expand the availability of our award winning My TSA mobile application. As of last month it is now available at the Google play store. It’s also available on iTunes and the mobile web. The My TSA App provides passengers with 24/7 access to the most commonly requested TSA information.

We kicked off the year on the blog talking about cupcakes, and moved on to other things like otters, getting to the gate early, the Federal Air Marshal Service’s 50th Anniversary, traveling with wedding dresses, traveling with scuba gear, why laptops have to be removed from bags, and many, many more posts you can find in our archives at blog.tsa.gov.

There were several high profile stories about alleged checkpoint experiences that turned out to be false. Yes, nail clipper confiscation was one of them. Also, there were claims that our Officers mistreated a passenger who was deaf and also mistreated a passenger with a feeding tube. There were other claims such as a woman who said there were no female Officers to screen her, parents who said we accused her four year old child of having a firearm, a woman who claimed she was screened because of her looks, and lastly, a parent accused TSA of having their child on the no fly list when in fact it was an airline travel glitch that caused the problem. If you read our TSA Week in Review posts, you are no stranger to some of the frightening items our officers have found this year. Some travelers may forget a small knife in their bag, but others bring some rather shocking items with them to the airport.

From January to July, there have been 821 firearms discovered in carry-on bags at checkpoints across the country. That’s almost four firearms per day! Of those, 691 were loaded, and 210 were locked and loaded with a round chambered. The most popular caliber so far has been the compact .380 with 197 found this year. Firearms have been found at a total of 160 airports with Atlanta (ATL) TSO’s finding the most firearms – 56 found so far this year. A couple of the more notable incidents this year were when a Portland passenger put a pistol in potted plant in an effort to sneak it past us,  and also  when another passenger had a disassembled gun and ammo concealed in three stuffed animals. Follow the links to read more about these incidents, and you can check out our TSA Week in Review posts to see pictures and spreadsheets of firearms found.

If the number of firearms we’ve discovered so far this year didn’t shock you, these examples might: a live 40mm high explosive grenade; a bottle wrapped in black electrical tape and filled with flash powder, and three M-80 fireworks; a black powder flask filled with 5oz. of black powder; even an explosively-viable cannonball; and last but not least, a live blasting cap.  

In addition to the live explosives items mentioned above, we also find a lot of inert items that look like the real deal. The problem with these types of items is that we don’t know if they are the real deal until we call out the bomb experts, and sometimes even they have a hard time figuring it out. Inert items can lead to closed terminals and checkpoints, which usually result in canceled or delayed flights. Here are some of the more interesting  inert items we’ve found so far this year: simulated detonating cord with simulated sheet explosives, M147 firing device with blasting cap taped to it, inert detonator, simulated Semtex-H, training claymore mines, IED training aids, two replica Claymore mines, warheads, 60mm mortar round, a bazooka round, and more grenades than we’ve seen in years past.

If you’re new to the blog and want to see more of the things we’ve caught this year, check out all of our TSA Week in Review posts. There you can review photos of the items and read about all of the other items we’ve found such as: bear mace in a sock, a knife mounted on a walker, a spear gun, a gun in a hollowed out book, eels, dead venomous snakes, a gassed up chainsaw, a grenade launcher, a chastity belt, and much more!

We hope you have a great remainder of 2012. For more TSA news and info, be sure to read blog.tsa.gov and tsa.gov! 

Bob Burns

TSA Blog Team

If you have a travel related issue or question that needs an immediate answer, you can contact us by clicking here.

TSA Week in Review: Passengers Continue to Pack Guns & Grenades

Inert Grenades – In addition to a spike in the number of guns found each day at checkpoints recently, we continue to find hand grenades and other ordnance on weekly basis.  Please keep in mind that if something looks like a bomb, grenade, mine, etc., it is prohibited - real or not. And when these items are found at the checkpoint, they can cause significant delays to you and other passengers. I know they are cool novelty items; I use to own a few. But again, please don’t take them on planes!  Read here and here on why inert items cause problems.

• An inert grenade was discovered in a checked bag at Seattle (SEA) which resulted in a baggage screening room evacuation.
• An inert grenade was discovered at Seattle (STL).
• An inert grenade was discovered in a carry-on bag at LaGuardia (LGA) which resulted in a checkpoint closure.
• An inert grenade was discovered in a carry-on bag at Milwaukee (MKE).
• An Airsoft grenade (used by war game enthusiasts) was discovered in a checked bag at Phoenix (PHX) which resulted in an evacuation of the checked baggage area.

Gallup Survey Gives TSA Good Grades - Did you see the latest Gallup poll that Americans’ views of TSA are more positive than negative? Check it out!

Firearm Parts –I want to point out that firearm parts are prohibited from being carried in your carry-on bags. Why, you might ask? Because while one passenger may have just the barrel, another passenger may have the rest of the parts to assemble a fully functioning firearm.

Items in the Strangest Places – It’s one thing to forget you had a prohibited item in your bag, but when you intentionally try to sneak it past us, you could be cited or even arrested by law enforcement. Here are a few examples from this week where passengers tried to sneak items past our Officers.

• A dagger concealed in the handle of a hairbrush was discovered at Minneapolis (MSP).
• A knife was found concealed in a shoe at Bethel (BET).
• Officers in Philadelphia (PHL) found a toiletry kit with undeclared liquids over 3.4 concealed under the clothing of a passenger in a wheelchair during the screening process.
• A knife was discovered taped to the underside of a bag handle under the lining at St. Louis (STL).
• A knife was found concealed in a binder at Rapid City (RAP).
• A bottle of lotion was discovered in a passenger’s slacks at Phoenix (PHX). The first time she brought it through, it was in her bag.
• A pocketknife was discovered sewn into the lining of a carry-on bag at Albuquerque (ABQ).

Stun Guns – 5 stun guns were discovered in carry-on bags at checkpoints around the nation at: Lynchburg (LYH), Reno (RNO), Denver (DEN), Detroit (DTW), Burbank (BUR)

Miscellaneous Prohibited Items - In addition to all of the other prohibited items we find weekly, our Officers also regularly find firearm components, realistic replica firearms, brass knuckles, ammunition, batons, and a lot of sharp pointy things. Just to mention a few…

Firearms - Here are the firearms our Officers found in carry-on baggage since I posted last Friday.

You can travel with your firearms in checked baggage, but they must first be declared to the airline. You can go here for more details on how to properly travel with your firearms. Firearm possession laws vary by state and locality. Travelers should familiarize themselves with state and local firearm laws for each point of travel prior to departure. 

Unfortunately these sorts of occurrences are all too frequent which is why we talk about these finds. Sure, it’s great to share the things that our officers are finding, but at the same time, each time we find a dangerous item, the throughput is slowed down and a passenger that likely had no ill intent ends up with a citation or in some cases is even arrested. This is a friendly reminder to please leave these items at home. Just because we find a prohibited item on an individual does not mean they had bad intentions, that's for the law enforcement officer to decide. In many cases, people simply forgot they had these items.

Bob Burns

TSA Blog Team

If you have a travel related issue or question that needs an immediate answer, you can contact us by clicking here.

TSA Week in Review: Miami Behavior Detection Officers Thwart Kidnapping

Behavior Detection Officers (BDO) Help Thwart Kidnapping – Two BDOs at Miami (MIA) alerted on a woman with several other passengers whose behavior seemed out of the ordinary. When the BDOs approached her and asked if she needed help, she rejected their offer. During the conversation, they noticed that she was attempting to disguise that she was badly bruised. The BDOs approached her again to ask if she was harmed by the people she was traveling with, and when she said yes, the BDOs immediately escorted her out of the checkpoint and contacted the police. After an investigation, it was learned that the woman had been badly beaten and was being kidnapped. Watch this video to learn more and hear from the BDOs who thwarted this crime. 

 Inert Ordnance – In addition to a spike in the number of guns found each day at checkpoints recently, we continue to find hand grenades and other ordnance on weekly basis.  Please keep in mind that if something looks like a bomb, grenade, mine, etc., it is prohibited - real or not. And when these items are found at the checkpoint, they can cause significant delays to you and other passengers. I know they are cool novelty items;  I used to own a few. But again, please don’t take them on planes!  Read here and here on why inert items cause problems.

• Five inert grenades were found this week at 5 different airports: St. Louis (STL), San Diego (SAN), Dothan (DHN), Minneapolis (MSP), Gainesville (GNV). A replica grenade lighter was also discovered at Rochester (ROC).
• A realistic replica of an artillery round was discovered at Tucson (TUS).
• An inert warhead was discovered at Providence (PVD).

Items in the Strangest Places – It’s one thing to forget you had a prohibited item in your bag, but when you intentionally try to sneak it past us, you could wind up being cited or even arrested by law enforcement. Here are a few examples from this week where passengers tried to sneak items past our Officers.

• A credit card with a concealed 2½-inch knife was detected in a carry-on bag at Albuquerque (ABQ).
• An artfully concealed belt buckle knife was found at Rochester (ROC).
• A 3-inch Swiss Army knife was discovered artfully concealed in a lead-lined film bag at Tampa (TPA).

Stun Guns – 7 stun guns were discovered in carry-on bags at checkpoints around the nation at: Richmond (RIC), La Crosse (LSE), 2 at Denver (DEN), Dickinson (DIK), and 2 at Baltimore (BWI).

People Say the Darndest Things – Here is an example of what not to say at the airport. Statements like these not only delay the people who said them but can also inconvenience lots of other passengers if the checkpoint or terminal has to be evacuated:

• After having their bag searched, a passenger at Bradley (BDL) stated:  “Hope they get a bomb and blow you *expletive* up.”
• After a bag search was called on a passenger’s bag at Orlando (MCO), they stated: “I have two bombs in my carry-on bag.”
• A family member escorting a passenger at Phoenix (PHX) approached and Officer and stated “I am a former Al Qaeda individual escorting a family member to her flight.”

Miscellaneous Prohibited Items - In addition to all of the other prohibited items we find weekly, our Officers also found firearm components, realistic replica firearms, stun guns, brass knuckles, ammunition, batons, and a lot of sharp pointy things.

Firearms - Here are the firearms our Officers found in carry-on baggage since I posted last Friday.

Prohibited Bling

You can travel with your firearms in checked baggage, but they must first be declared to the airline. You can go here for more details on how to properly travel with your firearms. Firearm possession laws vary by state and locality. Travelers should familiarize themselves with state and local firearm laws for each point of travel prior to departure. 

Unfortunately these sorts of occurrences are all too frequent which is why we talk about these finds. Sure, it’s great to share the things that our officers are finding, but at the same time, each time we find a dangerous item, the throughput is slowed down and a passenger that likely had no ill intent ends up with a citation or in some cases is even arrested. This is a friendly reminder to please leave these items at home. Just because we find a prohibited item on an individual does not mean they had bad intentions, that's for the law enforcement officer to decide. In many cases, people simply forgot they had these items.

Bob Burns

TSA Blog Team

If you have a travel related issue or question that needs an immediate answer, you can contact us by clicking here.

TSA Week in Review: Cornucopia of Grenades

Cornucopia of Grenades – Please, please, please, leave your grenades at home. Like milk and cola, grenades and airports do not mix, yet some still keep mixing them together. Please leave them at home or ship them via your preferred shipper. A grenade belt buckle was found at Northwest Florida (ECP). A novelty grenade designed to be screwed onto a gearshift was discovered at Des Moines (DSM). And two inert grenades were discovered in Orange County (SNA), and another at Denver (DEN) and yet another at Chicago O’Hare (ORD). Read here and here on why inert items cause problems at checkpoints.

Items in the Strangest Places – It’s one thing to forget you had a prohibited item in your bag, but when you intentionally try to sneak it past us, you could wind up being cited or even arrested by law enforcement. Here are a few examples from this week where passengers tried to sneak items past our Officers.

• A pocketknife was found concealed in the side lining of the carry-on bag at San Juan (SJU).
• A 3-inch knife was found concealed in the belt buckle of a passenger at Houston Hobby (HOU).
• Yet again, a passenger tried to conceal marijuana in a jar of peanut butter. Marijuana stuffed in a jar of peanut butter looks odd on the monitor. We’re not looking for marijuana, but we have to report it when we come across it. This time it was at Seattle (SEA).
• Multiple razor blades were detected concealed in the shoes and wallet of a passenger at Burbank (BUR).
• A 6” knife concealed in a metal tube was discovered in Guam (GUM).

Certain Water Filtration Systems Look Like Pipe Bombs – I’ve read about this 3 or 4 times now where a water filtration system looks like a pipe bomb on the X-ray monitor and the checkpoints/terminals have to be evacuated while the bomb experts do their thing. So… if you have a water filtration system that is similar to this one, you might want to consider shipping it or coordinating with TSA or your airline prior to travel. This time it was discovered in checked bags at Phoenix (PHX).

Stun Guns –9 stun guns were discovered in carry-on bags at checkpoints around the nation at: Tallahassee (TLH), Atlanta (ATL), Raleigh-Durham (RDU), Lubbock (LBB), Knoxville (TYS), Washington Dulles (IAD), 2 at San Diego (SAN), and New York LaGuardia (LGA).

People Say the Darndest Things – Here is an example of what not to say at the airport. Statements like these not only delay the people who said them but can also inconvenience lots of other passengers if the checkpoint or terminal has to be evacuated:

• A passenger approached an Officer at Los Angeles (LAX) and asked: “Would you help me get a bomb on a plane?”
• A passenger at New Orleans (MSY) told another passenger: “I have explosives in my bag.”

Miscellaneous Prohibited Items - In addition to all of the other prohibited items we find weekly, our Officers also found firearm components, realistic replica firearms, stun guns, brass knuckles, ammunition, batons, and a lot of sharp pointy things.

Firearms - Here are the firearms our Officers found in carry-on baggage since I posted last Friday.

You can travel with your firearms in checked baggage, but they must first be declared to the airline. You can go here for more details on how to properly travel with your firearms. Firearm possession laws vary by state and locality. Travelers should familiarize themselves with state and local firearm laws for each point of travel prior to departure. 

Unfortunately these sorts of occurrences are all too frequent which is why we talk about these finds. Sure, it’s great to share the things that our officers are finding, but at the same time, each time we find a dangerous item, the throughput is slowed down and a passenger that likely had no ill intent ends up with a citation or in some cases is even arrested. This is a friendly reminder to please leave these items at home. Just because we find a prohibited item on an individual does not mean they had bad intentions, that's for the law enforcement officer to decide. In many cases, people simply forgot they had these items.

Bob Burns

TSA Blog Team

If you have a travel related issue or question that needs an immediate answer, you can contact us by clicking here.

TSA Pre✓™ Hits 2 Million Mark

As of today, TSA has screened more than 2 million travelers through the TSA Pre✓™ prescreening initiative! Interested? Go here to read all about it!

Long story short, it's an initiative that allows passengers to expedite their screening experience if they opt in. How do you opt in to TSA Pre✓™? Funny you should ask. Just go here. 

Here are some other TSA Pre✓™ posts that might interest you:

• TSA Pre✓™ participants who qualify via their membership in a CBP Trusted Traveler program should enter their full name exactly as it appears on their Global Entry card or in their GOES account.
• TSA Pre✓™ Through Global Entry: One Sweet Deal!
• The Scoop on TSA Pre✓™
• More Than 1 Million Passengers Screened by TSA Pre✓™
• TSA Pre✓™ Pilot to Expand to 28 of the Busiest US Airports         

Bob Burns

TSA Blog Team

If you have a travel related issue or question that needs an immediate answer, you can contact us by clicking here.