FORT LAUDERDALE – Those employed by the Transportation Safety Administration at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport say you never know what’s in someone’s carry-on until it hits the X-ray machine.
“So here we have grenades. Some are replicas, some are actually real,” TSA Officer Ravyn Williams pointed out to CBS News Miami’s Ted Scouten.
“One of them was actually an older elderly lady,” she explained. “Her husband passed away. And she just was bringing his military memorabilia through. And she didn’t know what was in there.”
Williams said she and her co-workers see all kinds of weird things coming through. She then pointed to a display of self-defense items found at security checkpoints.
“Right here we have nunchucks. We have some throwing stars here. We have two batons, weapons, cat eyes,” she said listing off the items.
TSA officers have the huge responsibility of making sure these dangerous items don’t make it onboard a plane. There was also a display of several guns found at the checkpoints. Three were toys, but two were not.
“This is a 3D-printed gun right here. This is also a 3D-printed gun. These cannot go. They seem harmless, but they’re actually real,” said Williams.
At Miami International Airport, 62 guns have been found in carry-on bags in the first half of this year, that’s double from last year at the same time.
At Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International, TSA officers found 50 guns so far this year down from 70 last year. The airport is trying to get that number down even more.
“We’ve had an ongoing public education campaign called “Pack the Fun, Not the Gun” to educate travelers. The proper way to travel with a gun is through checked baggage and not through the security checkpoint,” said airport spokeswoman Arlene Satchel.
Also found at checkpoints, and equally not permissible, Samurai swords. One was confiscated from a woman who received it as a gift and was bringing it home.
“That’s insane. How would someone carry a Samurai sword on a plane? And a grenade?,” asked passenger Johan Borneo.
One of Williams’ strangest, but legal, finds?
“I recently had a passenger come through with a tub of butter with multiple cell phones stacked together duct taped, stuffed into the butter,” she recalled.
When Williams asked him why the phones were in the butter tub, he gave an interesting explanation.
“He’s like, ‘Oh, in my country, they do a lot of stealing. So it’s my way of hiding it from them when I get there’,” she said.
If you have questions about what you’re able to bring on board a plane or if you need details of how to transport a gun go to TSA.GOV or on social media @AskTSA.
