TSA loudspeakers threaten travelers with arrest for joking about security

[JetGirl]

I so hope this is a hint. If so, I'm lol'ing hard.

OK, here's the deal.
A connected somebody in the know says it won't matter now, so I'll just say it...(since apparently no official representative is going to hunt me down).

I flew a really quick trip to my dad's and back, just for Thanksgiving.
Among the father/daughter time we had, we went shooting.

It's the first time he had the Armalite M15 out to shoot and I showed him how to change the elevation of the A2 front sight by using the nose of a round to push in the pin that lets you lower/raise the post. I put that round in my pocket, intending to top the mag off and send it at the berm. I promptly forgot.

Since I don't travel like the Howells, when I got to the check point all my stuff was either in my carry-on bag or my pockets.
We were the first folks there and it wasn't busy. I sent the bag through the conveyor belt and walked through the metal detector.
It beeped. I realized my iPhone was in my back pocket, so I backed up through, stuck it in the dish that sends it through, and walked through the detector a second time. It didn't beep. I picked up my bag, shoes, phone, jacket...and one of the 6 or so TSA people behind the belt monitoring the screens said "Have a nice flight".

When I got home, I dumped our "trip laundry" in the washer. When I took stuff out, I thought I heard money in the basin...like a quarter rolling around or something.

Nerp.

 

[Lebowski]

TSA is a joke, and I'd love to see it dismantled but I never have issue with them. I fly several times a year for work / play and most of them are just lazy.


Though earlier this year I had a comical experience catching a flight BACK to the USA. I was in the Bahamas for a couple weeks and coming back, I was hungover and dead tired with 3 hours of sleep to catch an early flight. I forgot to take my watch off, my belt off, empty my pockets before going through the scanner. No worries, they didn't care. Didn't even have me go through it again or remove my items. It beeped and they didn't check me. I had a plastic bag, like, a grocery store bag that I had a bunch of cigars in and some other little souvenirs that went through the scanner with no issue. They passed me on. My boss was 4 or 5 people behind me in line at customs, and I was passed through to the secure area and waited 45 minutes for him... they had to dig through all his belongings and question his cigars he brought in his luggage.

They were just Domican cigars, but I never even got questions about mine. The only one who gave me guff was the border fella' who had to inspect my passport and bugged me about irrelevant past travels. "Yes sir" "No sir" and be on your way.





But TSA, I don't think, has ever actually 'stopped' a terrorist. Have they? I know they've pissed off a lot of other people and have prevented people from flying... but have they stopped any real threats? I've always carried lighters on planes, I've flown with pocket knives, I've landed and discovered I had an allen wrench or screwdriver before in a bookbag or something... I seriously don't think they pay attention to a damn thing. I've read stories of people accidentally bringing guns on planes (Some woman did this a while back, and when she landed she reported she had accidentally brought it on... and was promptly arrested). I've flown with a foreign family who I was traveling with and the father of the group owned a resturaunt and brought on a quart sized container of some sauce he made. They didn't question it. A week or so later flying back from Miami the same fella brought on a bunch of Thai food in bags and containers, with his sauce, and no one batted an eye or looked at it.



I dislike the TSA, but maybe I'm just lucky, I've just found them to be extremely lazy. I've not had a gung-ho or excited encounter with a single TSA agent... ever. I've been asked to stand aside... ONCE for extra search, and then when they got to me they just told me to move along and didn't even search me further despite them specifically pulling me aside and asking me to stand elsewhere for a few minutes.

TSA is an expensive joke.

 

[IndyDave1776]

Since I don't travel like the Howells, when I got to the check point all my stuff was either in my carry-on bag or my pockets.

That's a good thing, otherwise you would be lost on an island somewhere and we wouldn't be graced with your awesomeness!

 

[JetGirl]

That's a good thing, otherwise you would be lost on an island somewhere and we wouldn't be graced with your awesomeness!

Seriously. I told the other members of the JetFam they should do likewise...but noooOOOoooo... they ARE the Howells.
They checked their tons o' crap and when we were walking through to the gate, the FIRST announcement we heard was that someone (arriving) had taken the wrong bag and would they please return it to the baggage claim...great.
When we were on the return end of the trip, if the Howells had taken just carry-on stuff, we could have walked out of the plane and immediately left...
but NoooOOOooo, we had to stick around another 45 minutes waiting on their stuff.