[jorian]

Standing in the TSA screening line a couple of weeks ago. Flying Vancouver to Edmonton. I have all my stuff in the bin, shoes off, waiting to go through the scanner. Guy in front of me is asked if he has anything prohibited in his carry-on. Kinda vague but most people know what this likely means. Guy says no.

They open his backpack and pull out a pocketknife with a 4-5" blade. I'm thinking to myself, - Bummer, that's a pretty nice knife. I'm all for relaxing the rules for the occasional pair of tweezers but you could have butchered a cow with that thing.

TSA - "You can't take this into the cabin. Would you like to step out and put it in a locker?" Guy gets a little indignant and says, "I am a seasoned traveler and I have never had a problem like this before." They keep the knife.

TSA - "Do you have anything else prohibited?" Guy in sarcastic voice, "You tell me."
They open his briefcase and pull out a box cutter.
Guy now gets a little belligerent "Really, I can't keep that either? I use that in my business." They keep the cutter. Now I'm thinking what the hell type of business are you in and I hope we are on different flights.

At this point he loos back at me and says, "This is ridiculous." I agree but not for the reason he thinks.

Guy walked through the scanner with a hitch and got on some other flight.

Gotta hand it to the TSA woman, she kept her cool with this d-head and did her job.

Me, I would have loved to say "Sir you are either to dangerous or stupid to fly. I can't decide which so you'll have to make other arrangments."

The interesting thing is he flew into Vancouver from Atlanta. TSA let him on board down there.