Originally Posted by Brighton Line

JFK T5 Pre, I pass thru metal detector fine, wife follows and it alarms. Told to remove light jacket but now has to go thru MMW but there is no female TSO at present at Precheck which is is the last station and empty ones between Pre and the rest of the active stations.

Bags are thru and I'm standing with them and her jacket while TSO at the metal detector is calling for a female TSO over and over.

My wife is told not to enter MMW, matter of fact it isn't even staffed.
So when a female TSO shows up wife alerts on the MMW at the right thigh (I'm looking st the display).

She goes thru the whole "Anything in your pocket" thing and the full pat down starts right in front of the machine. No offer of being taken to a private area or whatever. Front of hand of hand on the alerted area, waist band.

Nothing is found, not even a penny (had that happen alerted on a penny in my pocket). Her pockets all of them, jacket and pants were emptied into our carry on.

Question is the MMW wasn't staffed, it was roped off, does the thing have to be calibrated if not being used like a radar gun? What state do they leave the thing in when not being used?

I know this can just be another false positive, but was just wondering about it the entire theatrical performance of TSA.