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Things in checked luggage that look suspicious

Things in checked luggage that look suspicious

Old Dec 28, 2010, 11:27 am
  #76  
 
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Apparently a small cheese board causes issues. Either that or the thick book (unlikely as I've put think books through the x-rays before with no issues), or the battery charger and its cord (unlikely as we take that with us on every trip and its never been an issue) they also re-scanned was the problem. A piece of wood maybe 12" x 6" x 1/2" (if I'm being generous) can't be cleared on x-ray? That's not exactly a ringing endorsement for the system.

(We were given it as a Christmas gift while home for the holidays and it fit better in our carry-on than our checked bag, we don't normally travel with a cheese board )
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Old Dec 28, 2010, 11:37 am
  #77  
 
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divemistressofthedark - trust me I am well aware of the Bravo Sierra that TSA does when it comes to camera and dive gear. There are airports that absolutely dont get it despite the volume of divers/UW Photographers they get (EYW, RDU, MIA, SJU, and DFW to some extent).

If you think normal dive gear is bad, try traveling with more exotic/technical gear like a rebreather (ISC Megladon - always in a carry-on, minus the tanks that i rent at destination) and a scooter (Dive-xtras - cuda 650 -- cant travel with the LiIon pack for the 1150) - BTW a starter pistol goes in that case so TSA keeps is grimey hands off it.


BTW does anyone have the federal rules (CFR or USC) on "weapons transport" and not turning over the keys to anyone at anytime? I remember a thread coming up about someone getting a DY...T threat if they didnt turn over the keys, despite that not being kosher/legal.
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Old Dec 28, 2010, 11:40 am
  #78  
 
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According to TSA you should have made a special trip to UPS or similar and paid extra for them to pack and ship your cheese board, even though you had room in your carryon and it'd be an inconvenience for you to both spend more money and find a shipping location in an unfamiliar city, in order to transit something you have reason to believe is completely benign.

(Actually, let's add that you should actually pay to ship everything you had planned to carry with you, since the TSA is apparently utterly unable a goodly portion of the time to distinguish normal household items from explosives, despite having spent a billion dollars on technology. Of course, your household has unlimited funds to accomplish this, and new TSA procedures for package screenings - recently resulting in weeks-long delays for international shipments - are not a factor here.)

Your tax dollars at work, folks...

[xpost with Scubatooth]

I know, right?? Which was why I was surprised to read you'd had little trouble carrying gear when I've personally experienced towering amounts of hassle for carrying nothing that's very exotic (right off the shelf Scubapro BCD and reg, standard mask, wetsuit, Nikon SLR and lenses...)

Usually I put my reg and computer in my carryon. That stuff is life support equipment. I'm simply not going to hand it off to anyone who's not a registered Scubapro technician or who isn't otherwise prepared to accept legal liability for any potential malfunction. It doesn't EVER leave my possession outside those circumstances, and I carry it with me to ensure some handler doesn't throw it or dump it under 50 tons of crap in the cargo hold.

Gee, it'd make me feel MUCH better while experiencing a free-flowing regulator under 100 feet of water to know that I'd followed TSA suggested practices by letting some unknown shipper handle my breathing apparatus outside my direct supervision.

(Usually my issues have been with my carryon, but I've occasionally been made to exhume and assemble my underwater camera housing from my checked bags. It's really fun when I'm getting hassled for my reg, dive lights, batteries and housing all at the same time, since apparently it's a capital offense to decide to go scuba diving on vacation....

And no, I'm not renting scuba gear on location. It's risky, and having actually had a regulator malfunction at depth, I'm not eager to repeat the experience.)

Last edited by divemistressofthedark; Dec 28, 2010 at 12:15 pm Reason: Add scuba experience
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Old Jul 16, 2011, 1:03 pm
  #79  
 
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It really seems pretty random what you get stopped for. I dont take out my toiletries, but got stopped becasue they wanted to check my keys becasue it was the flip out type and they thought it was a knofe!
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Old May 15, 2016, 3:39 pm
  #80  
 
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I know this is a really old thread, but I have some great items to add that have stopped me, and even kept me from boarding once.

(For the record because of my name and its arabic spelling I always have a TSA love note in my bag, and now that I'm married my wife gets them too. I keep them in there to save their paper of putting a new one each time. And I was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin so I'm as true blue American as it gets. So go figure that one, but whatever, they're just doing what they're told and as long as a male patdown dude isn't grabbing my ..., I'm alright with them checking my cargo pants that seem to always set off the walk through detector.)
  • Clear braided usb cables. Yes, I kid you not that in Bangalore India the lady with the machine gun looked at me and said that you can't take that on the plane. That or the two external hard drives in Aluminum enclosures that the cables connected to. I had to re-pack everything and the flight was held up from departing because of me. True story.
  • Deep Woods Off aerosol. Yep, had these removed from my checked bag--just when I needed them in at my destination to keep the mosquitos away. The solution to this is to buy the non-aerosol version.
  • Lots of cables coiled together. I had the TSA inspector tell me that because all these cables were bundled together it was hard to tell exactly what was going on. Solution to this is that I just throw each cable into a plastic grocery bag and then toss them in the bag more randomly. Seems to help quite a bit.
My next trip will be interesting. I need bug spray, car wax, and clorox wipes at my destination country...

Last edited by SamirD; May 15, 2016 at 3:40 pm Reason: forgot list closing tag
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Old May 15, 2016, 6:57 pm
  #81  
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Originally Posted by SamirD
[*]Lots of cables coiled together. I had the TSA inspector tell me that because all these cables were bundled together it was hard to tell exactly what was going on. Solution to this is that I just throw each cable into a plastic grocery bag and then toss them in the bag more randomly. Seems to help quite a bit.[/list]My next trip will be interesting. I need bug spray, car wax, and clorox wipes at my destination country...
I hit that back before the TSA days. Family emergency, I threw what I needed in a bag and headed to the airport. Since it was a carry-on I wasn't careful about packing and things shifted--I ended up with every charger and device in a pile that drew a manual inspection and a bit of chiding from the agent. He understood when I explained why it happened, though.
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Old May 16, 2016, 9:11 am
  #82  
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Hadn't seen this thread before, my first instinct was the peanut butter (I now know that unopened jars of JIF are suspicious objects, and having 6-10 of them in your bag will cause interesting things to happen).

The one I haven't seen mentioned is leaded crystal. I usually keep this in my carry on bag (and pull out for separate screening), but I forgot on a trip last year and put a large piece in my checked bag (also forgot to pull out the piece that was in my carry on).
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Old May 18, 2016, 7:25 am
  #83  
 
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Originally Posted by wrp96
Hadn't seen this thread before, my first instinct was the peanut butter (I now know that unopened jars of JIF are suspicious objects, and having 6-10 of them in your bag will cause interesting things to happen).

The one I haven't seen mentioned is leaded crystal. I usually keep this in my carry on bag (and pull out for separate screening), but I forgot on a trip last year and put a large piece in my checked bag (also forgot to pull out the piece that was in my carry on).
Not surprised about leaded crystal. Lead being VERY radio-opaque would result in those objects entirely obscuring anything underneath.

I had my bags searched when traveling to meet my gfs family. Anyone with family in Asia knows that gifts are a huge part of the process. I ended up with 16 bottles of vitamins(they don't trust the vitamins in their home country), 8 bottles of SPF100+ sunscreen (the max they can get there is 50 and it is around 3-10x more expensive than here) and assorted other chocolates and stuff. Not at all surprised that my bag was searched.
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Old May 19, 2016, 10:04 am
  #84  
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Originally Posted by SamirD
[*]Deep Woods Off aerosol. Yep, had these removed from my checked bag--just when I needed them in at my destination to keep the mosquitos away. The solution to this is to buy the non-aerosol version.
That one makes sense. There's compressed gas there.
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Old May 19, 2016, 3:26 pm
  #85  
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Originally Posted by sethb
That one makes sense. There's compressed gas there.
I thought personal care items were permitted even if aerosol. I would class bugspray as a personal care item if you're going into bug territory.
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Old May 22, 2016, 4:59 pm
  #86  
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Roll of unopened quarters; caused a big fuss at BRS until I explained what they were and without even a second look I was on my way.

Family member heading home from a family vacation out of MCO to CWL just after 9/11 - in the late October. She had four snow globes in the carry on and it caused a lock down at the check point; she was taken aside with several military personnel heavily armed. That took a good 30min until everyone calmed down - not a shock given the general feeling at the time.
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Old May 25, 2016, 2:08 am
  #87  
 
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Found this old thread. How about a 16 pound chunk of tungsten capable of shielding 99+ percents of megavolt x-rays (diagnostic x-rays and TSA use kilovolt x-rays). This is about the size of a 12 ounce can of soup. Due to the density of it, most people think it weighs 40 pounds.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to fedex ahead of time. Knowing TSA would see the blackest image they have ever seen. I did include a note saying incorrect repacking of the case may result in serious injury with the international WARNING sign. TSA didn't repack it correctly. They are clearly illiterate (or don't care). When it fell out, it damaged luggage carousel #3 (IIRC) at SFO. The damage is still there. They are lucky they didn't severely injure/damage a TSA agent, luggage handler, luggage handling equipment or even the plane.
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Old May 25, 2016, 7:23 pm
  #88  
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Originally Posted by OrlandoSwan
Roll of unopened quarters;
Unopened quarters? How do you open a quarter anyway?
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Old May 30, 2016, 5:12 pm
  #89  
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Originally Posted by Loren Pechtel
Unopened quarters? How do you open a quarter anyway?
I wish i could say that had chocolate in them but....

I guess it was a simply a roll of quarters all wrapped up
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Old May 30, 2016, 7:46 pm
  #90  
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Originally Posted by OrlandoSwan
I wish i could say that had chocolate in them but....

I guess it was a simply a roll of quarters all wrapped up
But you didn't say an unopened roll of quarters, but rather a roll of unopened quarters.

So how do you open a quarter???
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