35 ‘Suspicious’ Items Found By Airport Security Workers That Turned Out To Be Legal

I had a bottled snake confiscated from me when arriving in NZ from Vietnam. I understood completely and didn't argue with them as it only cost me about $4. The biggest surprise was receiving it in the mail 2 weeks later with a letter justifying it by saying the snake wasn't endangered.

I once bought a pack of barbicans from UAE and i was travelling back to india. The pack was in my hand luggage. The security guys stopped me and they were arabs and didn't understand english that much. They got hold of it and i enquired why. They show actions of cans exploding and one of them was like cans - *splooosshh, bphrrrooom, booom* i will never forget it.

So my mother is into healthy lifestyles so imagine the look on the TSA’s faces when they had to leave a note saying they had to inspect her luggage further because she thought it was a great idea to pack PROTEIN POWDER in ziplock bags lol *taste tests* hm...good choice.

I bought a bottle of maple syrup at the duty free when I was flying back from Canada. I had to make my connection in DC but had to switch terminals and go back through security.

TSA took the sealed bottle out of the duty free bag and would not let me pass with it. He asked me what I wanted to do with it. I said "Well, I'm not going to f*****g drink it."

They threw it away :(.

From the passenger side - the missus got me a Jerry-can bag thing - essentially a 20l jerry can, cut in half with a hinge and wheels added. I checked everywhere i could to make sure it was allowed to go on the plane.

The only problem was every time i went through security, the agent pulled it out and made me unpack it because the scanning machine couldn't resolve the contents clearly enough.

So, unpacked, and re-packed three times on the way there, and three times on the way back.

Without fail they all said it was a cool bag though.

I take 100+ flights a year on business, and have carried the same basic content in my same toiletry bag for 8+ years of doing this. Never had an issue -- until the time flying back from Cancun to Atlanta, the Mexican version of the TSA confiscated my tiny fingernail clippers. The reason (she says) is the one-inch file attached "could be a weapon". Tired and frustrated, I raised my voice to argue a little bit, and am immediately ringed by three armed guards -- one even pointing his rifle at me! I somehow managed to get up the gall to bend the file back and forth a few times until it snapped off, handed it to her, and put the rest of the clippers back into my bag, smiling. I still carry around that file-less clipper.

Last week I went to Tokyo with my girlfriend. When I was going through security when I was heading back to Okinawa (I'm an American, but I'm working in Japan for the moment), I got stopped for having the handcuffs with me. The security guards didn't speak any English, so when a flight attendant came through, she had to ask me why I would want to bring handcuffs to Japan.

Needless to say, it was funny to see the reaction on the faces of the security guards when she translated "I bought them in Tokyo because I like it when my girlfriend restrains me during s*x.".

The guy in front of me when I was going to fly to Milwaukee had a tuba strapped to his back, and refused to take it off.

A tuba.

Once when I was traveling out of Thailand, the boarding desk had told my family to deflate our basketball because it might burst due to high pressure. We stated we would gladly deflate the ball but we couldn't without tools. The man promptly grabbed the ball out of my hands and I started crying. (I was 7 at the time) He walked to the side, grabbed a pair of scissors from the desk and stabbed my basketball multiple times.

My wife and I were leaving for our honeymoon. One of our friends thought it would be funny to put a large bottle of lube in my carryon. TSA guy checking bags for explosives, etc, pulls it out, tries not to smile, checks its for explosives and puts it back in our bag. Wife was mortified. I thought it was hilarious.

Not a worker but probably my bag. My friends kids decided to pack me part of their rock collection and several small crafts. Apparently not wanted to have them broken they padded out the pouch they were in with maxi pads. Security was not impressed that I had no idea what was in my bag and couldn't explain it.

When my parents were visiting me in Uganda, my dad accidentally brought a half-size machete through the security check. He had bought it before they went to the airport as a souvenir for my uncle. They found it in his carry on. They asked him what he was doing with it. When he told them, they put it back in the carry on and said make sure you check it when you get to Brussels. Have a good flight!

I had a can of tobacco confiscated under the premises that it looked dangerous. I think the. TSA guy just didn't want to buy his own tin.

I traveled through the states a few years back. Bought one of those 4 inch long pieces of the golden gate bridges (old strands of the cables: [LINK] - I'm a bridge engineer, so it fits).

Anyway, given it's a solid lump of metal I knew that it'd get pinged in the X-ray, so I purposely packed it into my carry on so I could explain it.

Sure enough, lots of action when my bag goes through the machine. Questions of "what's in your bag". Looks of disbelief when I say "a piece of the golden gate bridge". They pull it out - SWIPE IT FOR EXPLOSIVE MATERIAL (seriously?) - before saying (once it had come back as a negative test), "this is heavy, you might attack someone with it. Go put it in your checked luggage".

FFS.

Not a security guard, but once my jacket was flagged because they had seen a ton of loose pills in my pocket. I got paranoid that someone had put them there only to remember that I had been putting my tiny crafted paper rolls in my pocket. I explained I made them out of anxiety and showed them the slip of paper from which I made them. They laughed, unrolled the “pills” and kept some.