Originally Posted by FatManInNYC

Certainly the DPS is not counting on criminals abandoning their plans, but it is something that happens with suprising frequency. Entire lectures in law school are dedicated to what charges are appropriate for an abandoned/repudiated criminal act or conspiracy.

It doesn't take too much imagination to see how a real criminal (not the OP) would turn in a knife he had planned to use under the ruse of having discovered it. Most criminals are not the calm, super cool intellectuals glamorized in the movies. Most crimes are solved because the crooks do something stupid or crack under the pressure of the act.

So, no, no one is counting on the crook getting cold feet, but when presented with a suspicious set of circumstances the TSA/DHS must investigate the incident fully and to such a degree as to clear those involved.