Wednesday, March 23, 2011

jubilation 72....the great cupcake security threat

Remember how I laughed at Corey getting his pat down at the airport on our departing trip?  Karma had her way with me today on our returning flight.  Savanna has a thing for cupcakes.  When I found this lttle trinket box in a shop in Scottsdale, I was elated by the conviction that I had found the perfect souvenir for her.  Little did I know that it would almost raise the threat level by one hue.   We were passing through security and my bag was given an especially long screening.  Hating the thought of wasting a pricey bottle of sunscreen, I knowingly smuggled it, hoping they wouldn't notice.  I assumed that it was the sunscreen that they spotted, but it had passed through undetected.  It was an unidentified "dark" object.
      "Ma'am, could you please step away from the bag?"  the security officer demands as he puts on his gloves, takes out a long pole thingy and proceeds to caress the outside with the pole and then poke around the inside with the pole.   After several tense minutes, during which I almost confessed to the sunscreen, he was directed to the box containing the trinket.  He carefully opened the box, took out the cupcake with a look on his face that expressed genuine concern that the cupcake was going to explode momentarily.  Closed the box.  Opened the box again.  Opened the cupcake.  Closed the cupcake.  Caressed the cupcake.  Put it back in the box.
"What is this?"
"A cupcake."  Duh.
"Why is it so heavy?"
"I don't know." Duh.
He put it back in the bag and ran it slowly though the screening tunnel once again.  

"For some reason, this is appearing very dark on our screen."
He returned the bag.

Luckily, he also missed this concealed weapon.



Airport security is kind of a joke.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

TSA is totally without brains. Africa is interesting, when flying out of Johannesburg we don't have to take off shoes or jackets. When flying back to Joburg we have to take off shoes, jackets, watches, etc, etc. twice once when entering the airport and again before we can get to the gate. We're off to Kenya and Masai Mara for work and a short safari in
April. Time is passing too quickly, we're afraid we won't get to see everything we want to see.