My God- won't this thread every die!!!

Dealing with airport security and metal detectors in general is a very important issue to those who belong to a culture of tools.

I for one am very appreciative of the stories shared here. Try handling the post 9-11 security with six inches of surgical steel and several screws and staples inside your body. It's nerve wracking. At least they know me well enough at the courthouse to not give me a hard time when I need to do business down there (nice old guys. they like to tease me about it though).

I was on a trip to taiwan, and I had brought along my infinity-in-one (well, not THAT much, but that thing had like an endless set of tools!) screwdriver thing. was my favourite screwdriver (kinda silly, i know, but it was the only one i'd never lost...)

and they took it away!

:(

A couple years ago I was traveling somewhere leaving from LAX. I had taken a bag that I had used on a camping trip about 6 months earlier. My bag went throught the x-ray amchine and all the securitty guards got a funny look on their face. They asked if they could search my bag and I said sure because I didn't think their was any problem. My mom said that I had batteries for a flashlight and that ,might have caused some concern. Even greater concern was cuased when the security did not find any flashlight nor batteries. They searched my bag for quite a while and did not find anything. They were still sure they had seen something and asked me if there were any hidden compartments. I said "just the small zipper pocket on the inside." They hustled over to my bag, dug throught this compartment and pulled out this thing and said "WHAT, IS THIS???" I had this little credit card sized tool thing I had left in their from the camping trip. It was made of black plastic and only about 3/32 of an inch thick. Anyway, it had a large serrated knife concealed within it and that is what sparked their attention. I had been looking for that thing for months. Anyway, we were late for the flight and we did not have time to put it back in the car, or check the luggage. They wouldn't give it back. Darn, that thing was like 20 bucks too.

Real Fun...
 

Last year around christmas time i had a broken ankle (3 clear breaks, 1 chip) and they made me take off my half cast- that involves unwrapping 3 ace bandages and removing two halves of a cast- on the way home from Atlanta- now, tell me, does that make any sense?

If they're getting upset about cell phones, then don't even try buttons...

oh man yeah, last time I went to an airport I got stopped 3 times because I carried so much... so anyway, they ask me to empty my pockets into a bin:

I reach into my pockets and grab out:

3 packs of kleenex
1 cellphone
1 large set of keys
1 fat wallet
a few ticket thingies

then they decided I was suspicious because I had a flashlight on my keychain so they inspect my bags, and my shoes, and etc.

I hate it when they do that.

Yah I have a tale of my own stupidity.

I was over in London last February and I was about to go through the security checkpoint to get on the train to Paris. Wel the gaurd asks me if I had anything metal in my pockets. Well iI stupidly forgot about my 3 inhalers, 5-6 rolls of film and a bunch of other random stuff that I kept in all the pockets in my jacket. So of course the metal detectors go off and I get searched. It took a while and deffinitely wasn't fun. My cousin still won't let that die.

PUT DOWN THE CARABINER AND NO ONE GETS HURT!!!!

NO! Don't smile cause then they think you're a nut.
But don't frown, cause then they think you're a depressed maniac

Stay neutral- then they think you're just another disgruntled passenger

Yeah. security has definately gotten stricter and weirder since 9/11/01. I was at Denver International and my little 8 year old sister was stopped. She was using my backpack as a carryon and was stopped. They saw a clump of metal in the backpack and wanted to check it out. they swabbed her shoes, the zippers and totally emptied out the pack.( This is one of those big L.L. Bean backpacks were talking about here) it delayed us 20 minutes all because my idiot sister had forgotten to put her purse into her checked luggage. Turns out she had $10 in change in her purse. (stupid little sister).

oh, definately put your pins into checked luggage because how are you gonna get down into the baggage hold of an airplane when it's in the air.