petaluma1

http://tsanewsblog.com/13114/news/mo...erfume-bottle/

I wish I could say "unbelievable" but that's no longer possible with the TSA.

Yikes, would appreciate someone correcting my spelling in the title of this thread.

FredAnderssen

Here's a picture of the offending bottle from your linked article:

WillCAD

My first thought was, "Does that bottle hold more than 3oz?"

But after looking it up on the net, I see that this is a 2oz bottle.

Which then leads me to ask, "How BIG is this glass bottle that only holds 2oz of liquid?"

It's hard to mistake a Hot Wheels car for a real car, because of the pesky issue of scale. So, I'm wondering if there is a scale issue between a 2oz perfume bottle and a hand grenade, which I believe is about the size of a baseball.

Oh, well... I could spend days finding ways in which TSA acts stupider than the stupidest person in the stupidest country on the stupidest planet in the stupidest galaxy of the Stupid universe, but that would be kind of a dumb way to spend a Sunday evening.

InkUnderNails

Quick calculations:

2 oz is a sphere of about 2". Figure 1/8" thick glass and you have 2.25", the diameter of a cue ball.

The little grenade I have on my desk is 2.5" diameter (not the pineapple type), so it is close.

But, mine is not glass, it is OD green, and it has a pin and detonator plus a release lever. So, same size approximately but not at all similar.

ScatterX

Then there is that whole transparency thing...

The Totally Stupid Agency strikes again.

goalie

The optimum word here is Phoenix

chollie

Yeah, that was exactly my thought.

This wasn't confiscated because it remotely resembled a grenade - it does not. It 'resembles' very expensive cut crystal (expensive because the faceted cuts are made through a layer of colored glass to expose the clear core glass. There are no 'protuberances'; it bears as much resemblance to real grenade as a small ('baby pine') pineapple does.

Much more likely it was confiscated because the screener recognized the 'Jimmy Choo' name and high price tag. I wonder what they would have said if she'd offered to pour the perfume into another 'non-grenade-like' container.

Someone should go through PHX with a bottle like this with a hidden tracker. It would be interesting to follow it's progress and verify where it actually ends up.

Certainly demonstrates how few TSOs, military experience notwithstanding, have actually ever handled a real grenade - or even gotten close to one.

N830MH

Yeah, what a shame! Why TSA doing it? They can't be touched her personal items. There is no reason to do it. I'm fed up with TSA!

chollie

Picture of artfully concealed weapon-bottle that shows actual size in someone's hands:

http://www.azfamily.com/news/TSA-con...&img=1&c=y&c=y

goalie

And The Secret Service tried on the perfume and then wrestled it to the ground....

WillCAD

Yet again, this sets a dangerous precedent.

TSA has confiscated an item because it "resembles" a prohibited item.

But the ONLY resemblence that the item, a spherical perfume bottle, bears to the prohibited item, a sperical grenade, is the overall shape.

Hence, any and all sperical objects may be confiscated because they "resemble" a grenade - at the discretion of the screeners, of course.

Tennis balls? Gone. Baseballs? Gone. Snow globes less than 3oz? Gone. Golf balls. Cheese balls. Feng shui balls. Decorative crystals. Holographic portraits. Just about anything round can be confiscated because it "resembles" a grenade.

They've already gone to the same ridiculous extremes with images of guns. Tiny replica in a Toy Story Woody doll's holster. Lightsaber cane. Teenage girl's purse with a raised image of a gun.

They've taken it to the same ridiculous extremes with LGA, as well. Cupcake in a jar - confiscated despite cakes and pastries being expressly permitted, because the icing is "gel-like" and "conforms to the sides of the container." Despite the fact that the same icing OUTSIDE of a container is permitted.

Every one of these cases that comes along demonstrates the abject stupidity of the TSA as an organization, and of EVERY one of its employees involved in the incident. EVERY TSO in this case, who saw the perfume bottle and didn't say, "No, that doesn't look anything like a grenade, it's perfectly permitted" is equally responsible for this incident, and is equally STUPID to the Nth degree.

If raw stupidity could only be harnessed as an energy source, TSA would take us to the stars.

chollie

Guess I better not take a cherimoya in my lunch next time I travel.

This isn't limited to TSA. I can envision a scenario where this woman reaches into her purse, pulls out her perfume, and gets shot because someone thinks she just pulled out a grenade - someone who has been conditioned to see threats everywhere.

WillCAD, you are absolutely correct. This (like tiny toy replica guns and medical nitro and light sabers) wasn't confiscated by a random rogue screener. These confiscations are sanctioned and supported all the way to the top, and every public statement of support further encourages even common-sense screeners to go over the top.

eyecue

Speculate at will... None of you know what that looked like on the x-ray.

petaluma1

Not necessary to even care what it looked liked on the x-ray - it's what they saw when they pulled it from her bag that should have been the clue that it wasn't a grenade.

eyecue

Think outside the box, the bottle caused a lot of delay at one checkpoint. If it was put back in the bag, it could have caused it again at a different airport.