O.K. so here's the story. Last Saturday (Sept 30th) my wife dropped me off at the Buffalo airport so I could fly to Monterey, Kalifornia for a conference. I checked my bag and proceeded to security with my two carry-on bags. I put my bags on the X-ray conveyer and since all the security people seemed busy, I grabbed a bin and put my change and keys in it. Instead of waiting for someone to hand it to, I put it on the belt and it went through the machine. I walk through the metal detector (I was clean) and this guy's holding up my keys by the keychain and asking if they're mine. My keychain is an uncharged .223 cartridge. It's a casing, a bullet crimped in and where the primer should be, there is a loop welded and sticking out so it can be strung on a key ring. Well they start making a big deal about this.
Security: "You can't bring this through here."
Me: "It's only a key chain, it's not loaded, look there's no primer"
S: "We can't allow anything like this through. Anything that can be converted into a real bullet"
M: "Do you know how many times I've come through here with that? I was just here two days ago to pick up my wife and I brought it through with me. I bought that in San Francisco in May and have been flying with it ever since. I've been through a half dozen airports including this one."
S: "Well then someone must have missed it. I'm sorry sir, you'll have to check it with the bags below."
M: "I already checked my bag"
S: "Come with me sir"
This guy escorts me back to the checkout counter of my airline, not letting me handle the "dangerous, evil keychain", and tells them to check this for me. The girls and guy at the counter thought it was ridiculous. They sealed it in an envelope then placed the envelope in this big cardboard box with a handle. The box was about 6" x 4" x 12" for a key chain a little over an inch long. I walked back through security, checked my bags again, etc... As I was walking towards my gate, shaking my head, I couldn't help but wonder if someone else had gotten something really dangerous through because they were so involved with my keychain.
This tells me a few things.
1) If you ever see a cheesy cardboard airline box with handwritted info at the baggage claim, it's probably somebodies pocket knife, bullet key chain or other dangerous implement of airline terrorism.
2) When you HAND them the little plastic box with your keys and pocket change, they don't look at it too closely.
3) Security can be a bunch of over-sensitive, zero-tolerance, no common sense morons.
------------------
The first step is registration, the second step is confiscation, the final step is subjugation.
Security: "You can't bring this through here."
Me: "It's only a key chain, it's not loaded, look there's no primer"
S: "We can't allow anything like this through. Anything that can be converted into a real bullet"
M: "Do you know how many times I've come through here with that? I was just here two days ago to pick up my wife and I brought it through with me. I bought that in San Francisco in May and have been flying with it ever since. I've been through a half dozen airports including this one."
S: "Well then someone must have missed it. I'm sorry sir, you'll have to check it with the bags below."
M: "I already checked my bag"
S: "Come with me sir"
This guy escorts me back to the checkout counter of my airline, not letting me handle the "dangerous, evil keychain", and tells them to check this for me. The girls and guy at the counter thought it was ridiculous. They sealed it in an envelope then placed the envelope in this big cardboard box with a handle. The box was about 6" x 4" x 12" for a key chain a little over an inch long. I walked back through security, checked my bags again, etc... As I was walking towards my gate, shaking my head, I couldn't help but wonder if someone else had gotten something really dangerous through because they were so involved with my keychain.
This tells me a few things.
1) If you ever see a cheesy cardboard airline box with handwritted info at the baggage claim, it's probably somebodies pocket knife, bullet key chain or other dangerous implement of airline terrorism.
2) When you HAND them the little plastic box with your keys and pocket change, they don't look at it too closely.
3) Security can be a bunch of over-sensitive, zero-tolerance, no common sense morons.
------------------
The first step is registration, the second step is confiscation, the final step is subjugation.
