[Anonymous]

[Gin&Tonic]

Happy Friday all, let’s have one of our quirky Friday threads.

As I was in security at Man this week, patiently waiting while lots of the holiday travellers meticulously unpacked a menagerie of items from hand luggage my mind began to wonder as it does thinking what were the strangest items I had ever seen over the years in security. Two sprung to mind, there was a lady with an ornamental samurai sword. She was most insistent that the item had to go in the cabin with her and it couldn’t do any harm to anyone. That argument was continuing as I left the security area. The other was a stuffed (as in taxidermy) dog ( a Scottish terrier if I remember) that was in a sitting position merrily making its way down the belt to the x ray and no one seemed to think this odd !!
Have a good weekend all.

[ViajeroUK]

OK, it was a long time ago,1994/5?

On my return from Bogota to CDG, Avianca flight. Two French mountaineers (presumably) were a couple of places ahead of me at security, each had a rucksack with ice axes attached, they sailed straight through!

Fast forward to aircraft boarding, I was already seated when the aforesaid mountaineers walked along the aisle, rucksacks with attached ice axes on their backs, with a flight attendant in hot pursuit.

I could not hear the discussion that ensued when the attendant caught up with the pair, but after a few minutes they were relieved of their ice axes, much to the delight of fellow passengers I am sure. Cabin crew obviously took security on board more seriously than Bogota airport staff at that time. In those pre 9/11 days I always carried a Swiss Army knife in my pocket, amazing how useful it was on occasions, especially the corkscrew feature

[canucklad]

Ditto G&T…
EDI and 2 burly Dutch tourists debating whether a Claymore was a big sword or a tourist’s souvenir.

And I’ve always wondered what happens to all that Champagne that gets confiscated?

And the Irish woman at Belfast, passing the Perspex box with scissors et al, pronouncing to her husband… “ that must be part of the decommissioning scheme”….

[fatbear]

Not security but at passport control.

A Saturday morning at Schiphol during Euro 96 with thousands of Dutch fans travelling to England for their match against Scotland. Ahead of me in the queue at passport control are 4 Dutch fans, all wearing orange wigs, dark glasses and stick on side-burns. The first guy steps forward to the booth where the official informs him that he can’t verify that he is the person in the passport photo and he needs to take off his gear. He does so, the passport officer slowly looks him up and down and eventually lets him through. Smiling he then lets his 3 mates through without having to undress !

[travelworld2]

I was at security in Toronto some years ago when a lady put a largish box on the conveyor. She then walked through the scanner. I happened to watch the face of the guy looking at the X ray monitor- it changed to one of incredulity as he stopped the conveyor, sent it backwards and then opened the box to reveal….a cat…

The passenger was quite annoyed as she said that the cat was happily asleep in the box and now he’d been woken up. Heaven knows what effect the X ray had on the cat. He didn’t seem bothered.

[TominScotland]

Ah, those halcyon pre 9/11 days!! I was at a major conference in Taiwan and given a giant Chinese meat cleaver as a token of thanks for my contribution (please, don’t ask why!!) – very, very sharp and heavy!! Concerned at the weight of my checked bag, I took said cleaver in my hand luggage and sailed through security at Taipei, Bangkok and Amsterdam. It is still in regular use in our kitchen…….

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