I flew Southwest out of LAX over the weekend. While standing in line to have my ID and boarding pass checked, I watched a teenage boy by himself, no luggage, walk up the the TSA screener and hand hold out a ticket jacket. The TSA agent responded by requesting the guy's boarding pass and ID. The kid opened the ticket jacket and took out a piece of paper advertising the Parking Spot offsite parking lot. The TSA agent said, "You need a boarding pass and ID." The kid just looked at him blankly, and wandered off.

If I were standing at the front of the line and discovered that a gate agent had forgotten to give me my boarding pass, I probably would have said something like, "Where'd my boarding pass go? I can't believe the agent forgot to give it to me! I'll be back in a minute." At the risk of generalizing, this kid had that bored-dumb-blank expression that's typical of a lot of older teenagers (particularly teenagers when they're dealing with adults). I couldn't figure out whether he was genuinely booked to fly, or if he was just some local kid, curious about what goes on at the airport, trying to get into the secure area.

The fact that he was

• apparently a teenager
• obviously alone (no parents standing nearby to make sure that he got through security)
• had no luggage
• had no boarding pass
• didn't say a word when the TSA turned him away

make me think he was just trying to get into the secure area, but was clueless about how to go about it.

Have any of you observed anything like this? Do our TSA friends who are on the board encounter this regularly?

The most amazing thing here to me is he made it to the ID checker. Most airports have immature contractors and/or TSA people running around, freakint out yelilng BOARDING PASS and I.D. IN YOUR HAND within 2 miles of the checkpoint. If you even look like you're about to go to the entrance and not ready, they will treat you like a child. This happens at PHL often. Something similar happened in CLE when carrying my wife's rollerboard down the few stairs towards checkpoint B before the checker and the bored ID checker looked at me and with a rude demeanor said "sir". To which i replied -I'm not flying today, OK...As such I get my stuff in hand when pulling into the airport to one up them.

As far as what he was up to, nothing. Just not really aware of what to do and thought that showing something may work, either because he was stupid or was aware of the tsa's oft stupidity...

Some kid talked his way on to two different WN flights without tickets out of SEA to run away from home. Could have been something similar, though unlikely.

LA? Possibly an actor rehearsing to audition for "High School Full of Dum*zz Jack*zz the Musical, Part XXIII", or whatever clone formula movie for talentless wannabes who work dirt cheap is casting this week. If you liked his performance, clap and loudly yell "Bravo" to show your appreciation of his street theatre.

Is it possible he didn't speak English? I'm no teenager, but even I get confused when in a novel situation with someone barking instructions to me in a language I don't speak. If he were just trying to get home to Seoul, or Buenos Aires or something and didn't understand the instructions, maybe he just decided to step out of line and get his bearings before trying to figure out what he was missing.
Just a guess.

I was thinking the same, especially in LA and at the airport. It is possible the kid needed some help or instructions and didn't understand English. Way to go, helpful TSA guy.

Either he does not speak English or he is deaf. you just never know.

Sounds like a typical teenage boy to me.

I am sure that there was no nefarious purpose here. He might have thought about stowing away, maybe he wanted to see planes up close, etc. But you can pretty much guarantee that he posed no security risk. The "bad guys", if they exist, would certainly be smart enough to have their fake ID's in order with their fully legitimate BP. ID has zero to do with security. Having a valid BP has nothing to do with security - it's the airlines' revenue issue.

This guy was decked out head to toe in Crips colors...I don't think he was a foreigner. And he immediately responded by opening the ticket jacket when the TSA agent asked him for his boarding pass and ID, so I think he understood the language.