A woman screams “I know my rights” as she shoved past a TSA checkpoint in Orlando. I know her rights too, that’s one that no court has recognized. But it’s also not where the story starts to get weird, or where it stops.
The 38 year old woman drove up to curbside at Orlando International airport departures on Wednesday at about 8:30 p.m. She went inside and demanded at the Southwest Airlines ticket counter “to be checked in for a flight and to have her truck parked.”
Southwest employees are friendly, but they aren’t valets, and they didn’t have a reservation for her. She told the agent to “have the [expletive] thing towed” and stormed off.
Next she found herself at the Known Crew Member entrance of the east security checkpoint. A TSA document checker asked for her credentials. That’s when she responded that she “knew her rights” — though she didn’t tell anyone exactly what those were. And she shoved past the TSA agent.
Police said surveillance video shows a silver knife either being thrown or falling out of her jacket.
With McNaughton in the secure area, the TSA officer radioed that there was a security breach.
Several nearby officers quickly caught up to her as walked closer to the passenger trains to the terminals. McNaughton swore at the officers pursuing her, police said.
An officer caught her. She dropped her purse and jacket. And what was her reaction to this? To yell at the police officer to pick up her things.
Not satisfied that she was in enough of a world of hurt, she “then struck that officer several times in the chest, grabbed his radio and threw it to the ground.”
She then resisted arrest, “refused to lie face down on the ground,” to the officer tased her. And that’s when she “started to scream and thrash about wildly.” She was found with a military ID and 12 grams of marijuana along with two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers… and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.
And, apparently, not any other drugs she had probably already taken.
Lol! Good writing, Gary.
She must have had too much Disney exposure.
“I picked the wrong week to give up sniffing glue.”
She preferred to fly Southwest Airlines because of their generous two bags of drugs fly free baggage allowance policy.
She preferred to fly Southwest Airlines because of their generous two bags of drugs fly free baggage allowance policy.
Love the blog but you need to credit Hunter Thompson:)
@Eric – the Hunter Thompson reference was meant to obvious in context, certainly no attempt to take away from his creativity!
Just trying to get a new generation to discover the good Doctor 🙂
Keep up the great work!
Did she make her flight
?
Having relatives with mental illness and substance abuse I have to say this isn’t one your kindest posts. We don’t have fun at others expense when they have heart attacks on the plane. The stigma will continue as long as we don’t treat this simply as an illness. Think of the suffering she and her family went through with this episode. Think of their continued suffering if they read this (no not a family member of mine). I have treated hundreds of people in this state as an ER doctor- no doubt you would not want me posting details of your relative’s ER visit in this condition. Sorry if I come off as a cranky old man but we have to do better as a society. Your stories are great- no need for one like this.
As any good news story goes, “A women in Florida”…
Really, if you don’t know Hunter Thompson, you need to
Great reference!
Also check out the two DC guys busted with Party drugs headed to all gay cruise – tipped off through the two guys’ Govt contractor computers. Stupid is as Stupid Does.
“Hey! I’m on the list,”
I wonder if Dirk would have as much compassion for a TSA person if the nut job woman had maimed him with “a silver knife”? I have a friend who lost an eye to a similarly deranged individual. My son is an agent with U.S. Customs & Border Protection at one of our busiest airports. Some tales of his encounters make me glad I never had a job where abuse from the public means you have to just suck it up and move on.
@Dirk Woods
mental Illness is a disability with proscribed rights.
On the other hand, Being high or otherwise under the influence of drugs gives you no special rights and should get you arrested. In my opinion we can include alcohol in the same category.
Sympathy for such a person only goes so far, had she assaulted a fellow passenger or struck them with her motor vehicle would your comment be the same?
By the way, I travelled with a developmentally delayed relative with behavior issues. I really appreciated the fellow passenger that told me” yes, your relative has the right to fly but his rights end at my face. If he touches me I will react.”
The woman obviously has mental health issues. I hope she gets help.
I’m pretty sure the Democrats will be courting her to run for president in 2020
The Fear and Loathing reference really completes this post. Nicely done.
A little surprised she still had some drugs left.
Dean
Are you predicting trump willchange parties? Again.
Brilliant, Gary
@Dean Why do you think the Democrats want to copy the Republican playbook?
@Dirk, This blog didn’t mention her name, therefore no embarrassment here. I hope the original source also left it out. Regardless, at a time when people want to claim that pot is not harmful, they at least need the chance to know about and explain a highly public story like this. Perhaps she was framed with the pot? Then we want to know that also, if that type of news surfaces.
@Dirk: I am a member in good in good standing of http://www.compassionfatigue.org. I suggest you join
Say you’re traveling for two weeks. Is it cheaper to have your car towed? Hmmmm……