I once went through and my bag flagged up. I had a battery bank I’d forgotten about in a side pocket i didnt use. Must have flagged up as a big block.
The security guy went off when I couldn’t immediately find it “WHAT DO YOU HAVE IN THE BAG? SHOW ME WHAT IT IS?” Right screaming.
Then went and (after I explained where the hidden pock was) found it and said “oh it’s just a battery charger I forgot I had in here.” It was like a flip switched and he was just cheery “oh ok. Move on”.
I was flying out of the US to join my fiancee. My bags were very strategically packed for weight limits. My carry-on got flagged. I had one of those Woodwick Boat candles. She really liked them. If you dont know what they are, they can look strange. They are football/boat shaped, and instead of a normal wick, there's a long chunk of wood to serve that purpose (which makes a pleasant crackling sound when lit)
TSA guy had no clue what it was and ttying to make sense of it.
"Its a candle."
He was not buying it. I ended uo having to go through a full patdown afterwards. I have no idea how having a candle in my bag requires that, but whatever.
I wasnt able to keep my mouth shut though and tried to joke with him, "You guys really take candles seriously, huh?"
Heard the same thing happen in an IceCreamSandwich video, where he was bringing a candle through TSA, but apparently people have hidden bombs or something in candles and that might be why
It's because wax is a dense organic material and x-ray machines show densities. A dense organic that airport security are reeeaaallly looking for? Explosives. Explosives are typically formed into easy shapes like football lumps or tubes. Turns out they're also the same shapes wax is formed into usually for the same reason, it's easy. Add a wick and put it in a bag where it doesn't make sense to have a big blob of something with a similar density to plastic explosives and yeah, they're gonna want to have a look at it.
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u/Narradisall 29d ago edited 29d ago
Airport security in the US can be intense.
I once went through and my bag flagged up. I had a battery bank I’d forgotten about in a side pocket i didnt use. Must have flagged up as a big block.
The security guy went off when I couldn’t immediately find it “WHAT DO YOU HAVE IN THE BAG? SHOW ME WHAT IT IS?” Right screaming.
Then went and (after I explained where the hidden pock was) found it and said “oh it’s just a battery charger I forgot I had in here.” It was like a flip switched and he was just cheery “oh ok. Move on”.
Weirdest thing ever.