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Comment by richardlblair | Hacker News Reader

True Story:

A friend of mine was traveling through various airports in the states. He had accidentally left his pencil bag in his back pack which had a pair of scissors in it. The scissors were over the length allowed on a plaine (Something like 4" is considered safe.)

He went through 2 security checks in the states, and boarded planes with these scissors in his back pack. It wasn't until he went through a simple, small security check in a small Canadian air port that they were found and confiscated.

I find it funny that he made it through all this elaborate security in the States, and a simple security check in Canada with a Security guard who did his job well found the scissors.

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I accidentally carried a box of .45 ammunition through several checkpoints in D.C. one day, in the bottom of my backpack.

Gave me a start when I found it that evening on the train.

Now, I don't know how security in the capital compares to that found in airports - but you'd think it would be comparable.

Turns out all you need to do to foil security is jam a pair of socks down on top of bullets and you're set.

This happens ALL THE TIME. I accidentally boarded a plane (through SEATAC) in 2007 with this knife in my pocket: http://www.amazon.com/Gerber-45860-Ranger-Serrated-Knife/dp/...

With an item like that there is no real excuse for them to miss it. There is no mistaking that as something else. It is clearly a knife. It just proves the whole thing is "Security Theatre".

Some folks might say it's just proof they need to spend a tonne of your tax dollars on better, bigger, scanning machines.

I think this is as much ( more ) about harvesting tax dollars as anything else

It was in my pocket. I walked through a metal detector. It was just a matter of the detector not being calibrated correctly or not being set to an adequately high sensitivity setting. That such things are possible is a testament to the uselessness of the system, if they can't manage to promulgate standards and procedures sufficient for the proper operation of a metal detector what hope is there that any other equipment is being operated correctly?

I saw exactly the same thing happen on Grand Cayman. At the end of the summer, Cayman Islands security found a pair of scissors in a girl's backpack that she'd evidently been traveling with all summer.

It proves that technology doesn't solve these problems. Diligent employees who do their jobs solve these problems.

My buddy was told that there was a faint line on the xray machine and they wanted to check it out. He didn't even know he had those scissors.

At the same time, a couple of years ago they gave me a HUGE hassle over a fucking snow globe. Even going so far as telling me that I had to ship it because it was banned from checked luggage.

I wish I could remember the source where someone determined the most confiscated items by looking at the government auctions. The TSA likes to issue self-promoting press releases like, "we confiscated over 300,000 prohibited items last year," but it turns out they're primarily bottled water, snow globes, and Swiss Army knives.

Incidentally, states sell confiscated items at auction.

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