Pulled aside for "touching bag"
 

A new one for me.

Departing MDW on Saturday, after I put my bag on the belt I quickly checked to be sure the outside zipper compartment was closed.

As I passed through the screening station I was asked to step aside and I heard someone say "he touched his bag." They then checked my hands and the outside of the bag. Huh? I've probably checked that zipper a thousand times over the years with no issue.

I don't understand. You put your bag on the belt. And then checked the zipper BEFORE it went through the xray?

How is that a security threat?

Did it start going in and you pulled it out? (get your minds out of the gutter!)
Although it still seems silly.

They probably thought you were gaming the system and moving something from you to the bag or from the bag to you as you got close enough to see that one path was more theatrical (and less effective) than the other.

Of course, since both paths are theatrically leaky, playing Schrödinger's Swiss Army Knife is just mocking them, and they hate that.

When you say they checked your hands, you mean they visually inspected them? Or they swabbed them?

Either way, very odd.

The bag was still well back on the roller bars, and hadn't even hit the conveyor belt part yet. I was just double checking that the zipper was closed, something people must do all the time.

Yeah - they swabbed them with the little round "swabbie pads".

I would have asked for an MSDS for the liquid solution on the pad before I let it touch me.

The pads are dry.

This is still one of the oddest stories I've ever heard. Don't you *have* to touch your bag just to get it to roll into the xray machine? I've even been yelled at because the TSO thought I was going to walk through the WTMD before pushing my own bag through.

Did you hear any beeps as you walked through the metal detector? Could you have been randomly selected for additional screening and that might've been the reason you got the swab?

This is a prime example of when it'd be great to hear a TSO tell us what might've happened.

Nope - they were talking to each other and pointing to me just as I was approaching the detector - hadn't even gone through yet. I think it was just 6:00am at a very slow MDW and they decided to do a little training. Only thing I can come up with.

Once in ATL I had an issue where after I passed through the WTMD, I still had access to my bag before it went through the x-ray. Without thinking, I reached over to push my bag into the x-ray, and the TSO made me re-clear the WTMD. It was a bad set up, but I can understand the reasoning behind making me go through the WTMD again.

However, it sounds like the OP touched his bag before clearing the WTMD/NOS, so I don't really understand what the TSOs had a problem with in this situation.

remember who we are dealing with - the most incompetent agency in the entire federal government. Their existence depends on hyping the threat, so are you surprised that they see one everywhere?

It must be me - my run of bad luck has now become intercontinental.

Transferring at LHR T1 this morning (US-UK-GER) I got to the transfer security point when there was like one other person in line. They swabbed every inch of my carryon, inside and out. Maybe TSA tagged it!!

Hmm, interesting. If it had been MCO, I would have just suspected that they were upset that you had zipped up the bag since it made it harder to steal your items.

Mike