Airport security woes and weirdness

[olgaandcoda]

Originally Posted by Beth_Disney

My cabin case was selected to be searched when I was connecting at Heathrow.
I presumed it was due to the six Bath and Body Works 3 wick candles I was carrying but no, the scanner showed up an item that looked like a banned ninja throwing star It was something rather less exciting (photo below) The security officer took it round to all his colleagues and they had a good laugh!

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Did they “let it go” 😎

[Holidaylover19]

As a kid, I decided to bring my cat I got from Build A Bear on holiday with me and I put it in my hand luggage. Trouble is, it had a meowing voice box in it that went off when you pressed its stomach. Security were a bit alarmed and thought I had a real cat in there.

[Twin mummy]

As a teen I went to Tunisia with my parents and some of their friends- the whole plane went through security- including my parents whilst I was kept back on my own, the officers had my passport and the document showing where we were staying and kept asking me questions. One of them was stroking my hand and telling me he would come to my hotel and look for me, I was terrified but thankfully my Dad realised and came back and they let me go.


My other weird and quite scary experience was leaving Israel. I'd been on an educational visit to Yad Vashem (the Holocaust museum) with a group of educators. We had been given lots of teaching materials and books and told we must say we'd bought them as they wouldn't let us get them through security if they knew they were gifts.

Somehow the officials decided I was the spokesperson for the group and bombarded me with questions. I stuck to what we'd been told and insisted I'd bought my books. One of the other teachers said they were gifts and I was then taken into a room and really questioned and my case thoroughly searched and the books tested for explosives.

One of the others in the group had bought a ceremonial sword as a teaching artifact and they were happy for that to be in the hold luggage but had a problem with my books!

[sam7]

Our issue is self inflicted. As a teen my son would travel in shorts, then put cargo trousers over the top, he didn't like bags, so his pockets would be full - book, mp3 player, sweets and snacks. Rather than empty all the pockets he would insist on just taking his trousers off. It always stopped everyone in their tracks seeing this teen undo his belt and drop his trousers. He got pulled over by security each and every time, but never put 2 and 2 together

[frances01]

In around 2008 we were in the arrivals Hall at Orlando International at the front of the queue when a whistle went off. All the staff just stopped what they were doing and sat or stood still. There was one security person with a gun standing on a platform. Every one waiting was just quiet wondering what was going on. Then after a few minutes they went down the line of passport control officers each one saying clear. Then they said thank you and returned to normal.

[Sparksy72]

We were travelling from Manchester to Dublin in 2009 and my DS was 18 months old. As we went through security they indicated that they wanted to pat him down and that I wasn’t allowed to stand with him. I didn’t want him to get upset so my DH and I stood as close as we were allowed to when this 6ft 5in security guard came over. He was asking DS to hold his arms out so he could pat down his torso, of course DS had no idea what to do, so DH and I were miming putting our arms out to the side in the hopes that he would copy us. This went on for several painful minutes until DS threw his arms around the Security Guards legs and hugged him - he thought that was what we were asking him to do! 😂 The Security Guard didn’t know what was going on and in the end just let us all go.

[levtweeney]

This is not a nice one i'm afraid

Not long after 9/11 we were in the line to get our passports checked. A woman wearing an open hijab style covering was just before us with her children.

Three armed officers were walking down the line just chatting to each other. They got to this lady, pulled her out of the line and all three were throwing question after question at her. They then started to laugh at her and were being incredibly rude. The lady looked so embarrassed and upset.

People all around her were beginning to murmur and look at what was going on. Eventually the three officers went on their way but the sneers and smirks they had on their face have stayed with me for a long time now.

[Sew109]

One of my friends is half ≈≈≈≈stani and half Scottish and looks very Arabic he flew home (solo) from JFK September 10 2001.

His next trip to the US was for our wedding in 2007 he flew solo via NYC sporting a rather splendid but incredibly scruffy beard. He was questioned at JFK for nearly 5 hours before allowed to continue

[Lola]

DD has a PG tips monkey who has a big Instagram following for his travels. As we went through security at the airport he was pulled out and frisked against the wall, made a great picture 😆