TSA Reports Man Concealed Box Cutters In A Shampoo Bottle. It Turned Out To Be Pot.

The TSA took to social media to congratulate themselves for stopping a bad actor. Box cutters raise huge alarms because they were used to take control of aircraft on 9/11. Someone bringing those through a security checkpoint – concealed – raises huge flags. And TSA stopped the plot!

But wait a minute. Why would someone try to conceal box cutters inside a 24 ounce bottle of shampoo if they hoped to bring them through a checkpoint? If there’s one thing the TSA knows how to do, it’s confiscate liquids over 100 milliliters. That’s not a very smart terrorist. No, this was clearly found in checked luggage. And box cutters in checked bags would be just fine.

The TSA was forced to clarify that these weren’t box cutters after all, it was marijuana, and nobody tried to take it through a checkpoint since it was, in fact, found in a checked bag. And isn’t it just a little bit concerning that they don’t know the difference between a box cutter and pot?

You can’t transport marijuana across state lines, since federal law still prohibits it. But maybe TSA should spend a little more time with flashcards of box cutters and a little bit less time on the job doing arts and crafts?

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

More articles by Gary Leff »

Comments

  1. Things that should have been cut:
    – TSA

    Things that should not have been cut:
    – Pandemic response team

  2. The great Boston columnist an satirist Howie Carr pointed out that the 9/11 terrorsits didn’t pick just any airport to hijack multiple planes out of. They picked Boston Logan Airport Job Center for politicians relatives. Some things never change.

  3. It’s not a matter of TSA not knowing the difference. They did know the difference, because they opened the bottle, examined, handled and photographed the items BEFORE they posted to social media claiming they caught a bad guy. They KNEW it wasn’t true before they posted it. They were just lying to make themselves look good, but they’re too stupid to tell a good lie.

  4. SeanNY2,

    Satire is at its best when it’s the truth or otherwise very close to the truth.

    The truth about pre-9/11 BOS airport security screeners is that were about as far removed from being American politicians’ well-paid/overpaid relatives as could be possible at the time.

  5. The TSA is just a false sense of security. They only implement rules after someone has done something. They need to just rename it to the WPA since that is really what it is.

  6. @Jason:

    The Pandemic Response Team under Obama had become bloated with 400 members. It was simply restructured.

    The claim it was disbanded leaves out that its tasks moved to different agencies as part of the restructuring.

    But TDS remains regardless.

    usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/09/10/fact-check-white-house-didnt-fire-pandemic-response-2018/3437356001/

Comments are closed.