made it through the metal detector!

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Betty

New member
I had to go to court the other day, and was careful to make sure I left my pistol, knives, and baton in my pickup before I went in.

Anyways, I have a nickel-plated rod up my back from an old surgery, and I told that to the lady cop before I passed through. I figured it would go off, so I thought I'd warn her beforehand. I went through and the detector didn't go off! Not only that, but when I got back into my truck and retrieved my pistol and baton, I realized I had my knife (MOD Ladyhawk) on me the whole time, and that didn't set the detector off either. I felt like an idiot because I carried it in with me (it's small and light, and with my belly band on I couldn't feel it clipped to my pants).

Considering my metal body parts is like having a shotgun strapped to my back, what's the deal with the detector? Are there different sensitivity settings for these things, and this one was so high up it didn't pick up my back or knife? I'm wondering what else has passed through without setting off the detector!
 
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Robert Teesdale

New member
Metal detector settings

Runt_of_the_Litter:

Metal detectors do indeed have sensitivity settings. Imagine my embarrassment upon de-planing at my destination, unpacking, and realizing that I'd worn my Spyderco through both airports and on the plane....

Best regards,

Robert Teesdale
robert@teesdale.com
http://www.teesdale.com
 
4

4V50 Gary

Staff
And they can be adjusted to be so sensitive that it'll pick up a small coin (the U.S. Mint adjusts theirs like that). General practice is for anyone setting it off to be pulled aside, remove the object, and hand scanned. Some folks with metal plates, pins, what-not have carried a reduced and laminated version of their Doctor's letter as well as a small copy of their x-ray.
 
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Monkeyleg

New member
At the airport in Atlanta some time back, I emptied and emptied everything possible but the alarm kept going off. Turned out to be the zipper on my jacket.

Dick
 
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Tamara

Moderator Emeritus
What kind of girl...

...would tote a pistol, a baton, and a knife? ;) ;)

(I just had to see what it felt like to be asking instead of answering that question... :D )

PS It sounds like I need to go out and try some local metal detectors m'self; see if my 'bionic' right shin sets 'em off. It's why I didn't meet my roommate at the gate last time I picked him up at the airport, but rather at the baggage pickup: fear of setting off the detector with my leg (well, that, and I try and avoid willingly straying into victim-disarmament areas unless absolutely necessary ;) )
 
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pax

New member
I watched a friend of mine set off the metal detector at a courthouse with his steel-toed boots. They pulled him aside and waved a wand over him: "yep, it's your shoes, go on in..."

They did not pat him down, nor did they ask him to lift his cuffs or remove his shoes. He easily could have taken at least a knife and maybe a gun in an ankle rig into the courthouse like that.

This was at a courthouse in California and it was grimly amusing to read the posted list of forbidden items. Guns, knives, tear gas -- ok, I can see that. But fingernail files? Please.

pax

Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live in the real world. -- Mary Shafer
 
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EricM

New member
wonderful. If they're going to disarm you in the name of safety, it had better damn well work. I would complain, big time.
 
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MBG

New member
Not only do they have sensitivity settings, but they are also affected by how close you pass to the portal, and if someone else is standing too close.

I have set them off with no discernable metal on me. (Then again, I grew up next to Three Mile Island.)

I also remember trying to get through Logan airport to catch a flight, and being caught in the line at the check point. Everyone was getting hand scanned. Turns out the guard kept setting off the detector with the handcuffs on his belt.

Marty
 
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EricM

New member
The shoestring eyelets on my hiking boots used to set off the metal detector in airports. Now even my keys and watch don't set it off.
 
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EricM

New member
PS It sounds like I need to go out and try some local metal detectors m'self; see if my 'bionic' right shin sets 'em off. It's why I didn't meet my roommate at the gate last time I picked him up at the airport, but rather at the baggage pickup: fear of setting off the detector with my leg

Tamara, just lay down on the x-ray machine conveyor belt and see if it gets picked up :).
 
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Betty

New member
I had a small Spyderco on my keychain that I had to chuck in their bin. They didn't look twice. Come to think of it, I could've attached my NAA Mini on it too, and they would've never noticed. I probably could've walked through the detector with it, and it wouldn't have gone off.
 
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slabsides

Member In Memoriam
I don't fly much any more, but after Christmas, accompanied my son into the departure lounge of an east coast Intl. port, passing through the detector.
I'd purposely left the Kahr, Brend folder and even my keychain Solo knife in the car boot, so I waltzed through the gate without a care, both ways.
Later found a pair of four-inch lag bolts in my jacket pocket. For fun, I weighed them on my loading scale. Over 550 grains each, anyway....
Wonder what they would have done to me trying to smuggle two 'ninja weapons' like that into a prohibited space? I think I would have been screwed...:D
 
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Longshot

New member
Anyone remember the movie "This is Spinal Tap"? I love that scene with the drummer at the airport.

If you haven't seen this movie, it is a MUST rent.
 
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Don Gwinn

Staff Emeritus
Don't start, Tamara--Runt's heard it all. Oleg told the Ms. Board of all people how many different weapons she was wearing in one of his photos so they could see how un-scary she looked. They said, essentially, "nothing personal, but you're a paranoid freak and should be locked up for the safety of The Children."
:D
TFLers make friends wherever we go.
 
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Pilate

New member
I've also noticed that the attendants don't always pay attention to what you put in their little basket... But then, I have also had one ask me to turn on a Mini-Mag light I had on a keychain (guess to see if it was a REAL flashlight)... So I pointed it right at her and said "Are you sure you want me to turn on this flashlight?" They frown on that.
 
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Dangus

New member
My Dad's boss literally sets these things off with his body. There's something really odd about his magnetic fields(no doctors seem to be able to explain it), but he's spent a lot of time in airport security booths. He proved it one time by taking his rings off and literally just putting his hand in the field and setting it off. Weirdest damn thing I've ever seen(well actually that's not true, look around on the internet and you'll find plent of things more strange, but it's odd to say the least...).

I had the fillings in my teeth set one off one time, and they were having a fit about it because aparently it'd been doing that all day. That was at the local courthouse.

Victim disarmament is a very inprecise science, and one that inevitably leads to more risk to the people it's trying to protect in many cases. I can understand disarming people entering a court, and on to planes, but if they are gonna disarm people they better be sure that they not only disarm everyone properly and equally, but also offer gaurantees of your protection in the form of trained security. Too often both courts and airports are gaurded by guys who are sorta low-end of the rent-a-cop(or real cop) spectrum. Sometimes though, like the airport 60 miles south of here, the security is top notch. Our local airport doesn't even have a metal detector, x-ray, or even security gaurds....
 
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sarge83

New member
My father-in-law was taking his daughter to the airport in Knoxville TN a few years back to catch a plane and forgot about his Browing .25 in his pants pocket. Walked through the detector going in and coming out without a peep.
 
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