A Consumerist reader writes in with this chilling tale of TSA confiscation hijinx — crack anal-probers at the Sacramento airport stole the flyer’s pudding, but left him with his stabby stabby knife.
I was passing through Sacto airport security checkpoint. I sent my carry-on backpack through the Xray machine. The operator found something, and raised her hand for assistance. Another TSA person came over and pulled my bag out of the machine and commenced with a hand search. Inside he found a package of unopened Hunts Pudding Snacks in my lunch. He confiscated the pudding “it’s a liquid” and sent me on my way. Absurd, but forgettable. However later in the day I had a layover, and was going through my backpack looking for a pen and came across my Swiss Army Knife with a 4″ locking blade.
(Thanks, Meghann!)
Update: Patrick sez, “It happened to me in 2006. But it wasn’t pudding they got from me. They did two x-rays and two hand searches of my carry on and ended up confiscating a waiter’s wine-key because it, ‘had a foil cutter on it’. (If anyone is familiar with one of these items, the blade is about as sharp as a bowling ball.) However, they totally missed my huge stabby stab stab knife that was also in the bag (by mistake).”