30 Harmless Things Which Nevertheless Caused People To Be Stopped By TSA Officers, As Shared In This Online Group

They thought my insulin pump was a bomb. I was tackled by TSA immediately. I was 14 at the time, still traumatized. Now any time I see any law enforcement I get anxious.

Not in the USA but in France, I got stopped on the way through customs by an agent who said something fast and aggressive-sounding in French. My French isn't great, so I just looked puzzled and said I didn't understand. The guy quickly beckoned another guy over and explained to him in rapid-fire French what was going on. The second guy turned to me and said "He says your T-shirt is really cool and can you tell him where you got it?". It was a Star Wars T-shirt that I got as a birthday present, so I couldn't even tell him where it came from. Luckily, he didn't arrest me.

"Crotch anomaly". I was wearing normal joggers, nothing in my pockets. The lady behind me loudly said "yeah it's called a d**k"

My mom passed away unexpectedly in California. I flew out to pick up her ashes and there was a terror alert at LAX. It was unreal; the military was in the airport with what looked like machine guns. I was out of my mind with grief and drugged to the gills. I was dealing with a bad back, and had to fly from
California to a small town in Virginia for the memorial service. Security was heightened and everyone was being searched. I only had a small carry on and my mom’s ashes. When I got to the TSA, the agent wanted me to open my mother’s box of ashes! I refused and insisted they x ray the box instead. It showed nothing inside ( duh- ashes) which convinced the TSA agent that it had some sort of cloaking device and was hiding a bomb. Again he insisted that I open the box that held my mom’s ashes. I was beginning to lose my s**t. I called my husband who works in nuclear power and explained what was going on. He told me to tell the TSA agent to place a coin under the box and send it through the X-ray again. He did and thank goodness he saw the coin. Otherwise I would have been arrested for assaulting a stupid TSA agent.

Glass jellyfish

Like those blown glass ones that are super cool at art galleries.

I got pulled aside into a small room because they thought I was smuggling sea life. Was an interesting time.

I have maintained a decent beard and have a darker skin complexion for a white dude. I am "randomly" selected for a search or shoe swab every single time I fly.

They searched me when I was 18 and flying alone and said it was because my ID was only a permit. When I went to my connection airport, I told a black TSA women "Do you need to pat me down again because i Have a permit like the last airport?" She looked at me and sighed "No honey. Thats not a thing".

My niece has a teddy bear. She has had this teddy bear essentially since she was born. The doggo has bitten a hole into its belly, so we sew onto it like a lion head sticker, to keep its guts inside. One time we were on holiday visiting family, and she left it there, luckily I was staying a bit longer so I could grab it on my way back.
An adult man with a teddy bear that had its guts torn open and fixed with a lion bandaid apparently looks pretty suspicious, so they shoved the poor guy into x-ray 3-4 times. She is still in ownership of the teddy bear and it is still in decent shape.

My son was too tall for his age

One time my dad had a few rocks of petrified wood in a bag, and had his phone charger right next to it.

They almost went DEFCON 1 and did radio people to show up and act if it went down. But they opened the bag and saw it was rocks and a charger. They told him that it looked absolutely identical to what they had been taught a bomb looked like.

I had a nutcracker in my carry-on. Like a legit, festive Christmas soldier nutcracker - it was a gift for my mom's birthday (she collects them). I was only flying in for 2 days for my grandmas funeral so didn't check any luggage. They stopped me and questioned me for 30 minutes. Kept insinuating I was going to use it as a weapon.

Not TSA but at a land border crossing once they pulled us aside because they thought my partner was Trafficking me?!?!? We were the same age, same race (so racism wasn’t a factor,) and we were both dressed fairly nice (coming back from a wedding) with no obvious signs of like… distress? [Illegal substances]? Gunpoint? Nothing. They pulled us aside and grilled him on all of our relationship things like where we met and how old I am and my mom’s middle name and…?!?!??? Trying to trio him up. Then the guard hit on me?!?!?! Weeeeirdest experience.

I had a sample size (0.1oz) bottle of perfume in my book bag. They confiscated it in Detroit without explanation.

I got to Germany and they discovered a full size pair of scissors in the front pocket of that same book bag. I wasn’t aware it was there. Both I, and American security, had missed the scissors.

German security was much more polite over confiscating the scissors than American was over the perfume.

Got pulled to the side at Fort Myers airport. One TSA guy with gloves, two TSA guys standing right behind me. Officer says, is there anything you want to tell me before I open this bag?

I am horribly confused. Wrapped right on top between a few t-shirts is an large Avocado.

TSA guy starts laughing. I love Avocados, my 76 yo father has a tree in his yard... he slipped one in my bag before leaving. Apparently it doesn't look the best going through the x-ray machine, they thought it may be a home-made bomb or grenade.

Tampon showed up on the body scan thingy and I had to have my crotch patted down

Arranging my two laptops and a tablet after taking them out of my bag for faster / easier scanning.

I got yelled at and detained because I have Pre-Check.

It took demanding for the scanning agent to join the conversation before I was allowed to leave.

Had I left them all in the bag, I would have gotten stopped for secondary screening.

The TSA is so damn frustrating. They serve no useful purpose except to provide security theater. They miss well over 90% of what they are tested against.

When I was a kid, I had a broken arm and they needed to inspect my cast… cut a piece off of it and put it in some sort of machine.

Also, my dad and oldest brother’s names popped up on the do not fly list because of men with the same name being a part of the IRA. For years when ever my dad and oldest brother went to fly they had to bring all sorts of ID with them to prove that they aren’t the same dudes.

When the Andrew Garfield Spiderman's first came out they did some amazing merch for them.

My Stepdad is a HUGE Spidey fan, so I picked him up the corniest Spiderman film merch when in the US, one of those being like a whirling cement truck thing? It was a big tonka sized thing and the only bag it would fit in was my carry-on. They stopped me and said "Is that a spiderman toy?" and I took it out and showed them. They said it was the best thing they'd seen all day.

My friend worked for the TSA. I was at my local airport and saw him while on line. I waved and he looked over. He says something to another agent and when I get to front of the line I get pulled over for extra searching. I never talked to that guy again

Not TSA but the land border, they detected nuclear material. It was because another passenger in my car had some heart surgery or something where they used radioactive material, and apparently it could still be detected. Border patrol pretty much knew what it was but had to check anyway.