Originally Posted by N639DL

I was the first passenger to go through the general security line at Terminal A at BOS on Monday morning. Someone was bringing newspapers in before I went through. I was directed to the circular backscatter.

I was wearing cargo pants at the time. I obviously emptied my pockets before going through, but I almost always keep things in my front pockets.

There was a female agent telling people when to go in, etc. and there was a male agent at the back. A few seconds after I exited the backscatter, he asked if I had anything in my pockets. I said that I didn't have anything in my pockets. Then the agent said "Ok, I'm just going to pat you down real quick," and then proceeded to briefly pat down the pocket area on my pants. He didn't pat down anything else.

I'm just curious as to whether this was necessary or not. The only other time I've been through a backscatter was 2 years ago and I had no problems with that.