Originally Posted by
sinanju
Now fully disgusted, he takes my pack to a sterile station and proceeds to spend thirty minutes (not an exaggeration) feigning amazement at the contents... minutely examining each article as if he had never seen an iPod or headphones before.
Either you got the same guy who did my haraSSSSment back in 2006 when I got a last-minute reroute from UA to AA, or they actually teach this behavior to screeners in their local training at that terminal. Mine didn't take 30 minutes, but he did make sure to swab every single item remotely related to electronics or shoes in my rollaboard and laptop bag. He also swabbed the soles of the shoes in my bag; I think he was hoping to trigger a false positive (shoes can easily have fertilizer on them if you walk through a lawn) so he could harass me more. He was upset at me because I made him keep my wallet in sight when he insisted on running it through the x-ray.
BOS terminal B may well be the most surly and haraSSSSing TSA station. I've heard more bad reports from there, and read more bad accounts on FT. Some have been pretty bad, including TSA confiscating/stealing expensive hand tools (that were not bladed and less than the length limit).