Love can blossom in the most unlikely places and in the most embarrassing situations. Like when a TSA employee accidentally groped a grown woman during a pat-down, thinking that she was a teenage boy because she had short hair and was wearing a hoodie and sweatpants.
Reddit user TifuthrowawayTSA4 told the r/tifu community about the awkward situation when he realized that the person he patted down was none other than an adult woman with her college hoodie and yoga pants. Several apologies were due.
Fortunately, the entire situation ended well. Very well, in fact. The employee and the passenger ended up dating and they recently celebrated their one-year anniversary! We spoke to the redditor about what happened and if he still feels embarrassed about the situation. Scroll down for Bored Panda’s interview.
A TSA employee told the internet a very embarrassing story about a day at work a year ago
Image credits: Louis.Roth (Not the actual photo)
Fortunately, the story had a happy ending
We wanted to know if TifuthrowawayTSA4 still felt embarrassed when he thinks about what happened that day. “Yes, I do. Some of my coworkers still give me sh*t about it. It's become kind of a running joke at my airport.”
He added that “accidental cross-gender touching is something that happens occasionally, and it's happening more and more as non-binary, genderfluid, and gender-nonconforming people become more common.”
“Usually, it doesn't result in anything more than mild embarrassment for everyone involved.”
Bored Panda was curious to find out how the couple celebrated their anniversary. “I took a day off work, and we went to a fancy dinner, then went home to watch some Netflix.”
Finally, the redditor had some spot-on advice for people who think they’ll never find love: “Don't go around groping people until you find one that's okay with it,” he joked. “That will probably not work, and you might get arrested.”
“Joking aside, the advice I have for people who think that they'll never find love is the same advice I have everyone,” he said.
“Be nice to everyone, all the time. Even when you're tired, even when you're sad, even when they're being mean to you. Your ability to be kind, patient, and empathetic is a gift. Don't give it up just because someone else did, and took it out on you.” Truly great advice and something we should all keep in mind, wouldn’t you say, dear Pandas?
“Most people aren't mean people. If they're mean to you, it's because they're tired, or worried, or frustrated, or upset, and you just happened to be there to take it out on. We've all been there, we've all done that.”
TifuthrowawayTSA4 continued: “And the next person who does that to you could be a great lover, or a great friend, or just a person whose day you make a little bit better if you choose to be nice to them anyway.”
He had one last thing to say on behalf of his colleagues: “Except, on behalf of TSOs everywhere, when we say take everything out of your pockets, we mean everything. IDs, napkins, gum wrappers, everything. The machine is very sensitive, and we're trying to save your time and ours.” And it’s what we should all keep in mind the next time we’re traveling.
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